Yesterday on X I made the simple observation that Minnesota would be better off if the Star Tribune did not exist. Many concurred with, liked, or retweeted my observation. A few fans of the Star Tribune disputed it.
I made the observation in response to 2022 Republican Attorney General candidate Jim Schultz’s statement: “The Minnesota media needs to look in the mirror. With some exceptions, it has for a long time rooted for the left. But over the past few years, it has become a mouthpiece for the Walz administration and all things liberal. The @StarTribune is the worst offender.”
Fact-check: True.
I’ve written a lot about the Star Tribune over the years. My antipathy toward the paper has more or less kept me going since John cranked up Power Line over Memorial Day weekend 2002. It was the the first of the four illuminations I detailed in my remarks at Susan Vass’s Power Line Commenter Conference this past August.
One reason for my antipathy is the Star Tribune’s support for illegal immigration. It editorially opposed Operation Metro Surge in vituperative terms: “The occupation of Minnesota by ICE cannot stand.” The editorial simply omitted any mention of the harms of Minneapolis’s sanctuary city policy and of illegal immigration. The Star Tribune hasn’t bothered to make an argument in support of illegal immigration outright, but it is the gist of all the numerous stories and columns it has run touching on the subject.
When the facts don’t fit, you must omit (“you,” in this case being the Star Tribune). Take, for example, my close encounter with Star Tribune reporter Paul Walsh in connection with the story Walsh reported on May 5, 2025. Walsh is described as a breaking news reporter who, according to Walsh himself, “writes what’s interesting and important, with interesting being his preference.” In his May 5 story Walsh noted the filing of felony charges against one German Adriano Llangari Inga.
Walsh reported that, according to the charges, in August 2024 Llangari Inga (“of Minneapolis”) was driving drunk, unlicensed, and uninsured when he caused a head-on crash that killed the other driver. It was his second crash of the evening. This one killed Victoria Eileen Harwell, who was traveling with her sister and her 14-year-old daughter.
I emailed Walsh a question regarding Llangari Inga shortly after the Star Tribune posted his story online:
Dear Mr. Walsh: Can you ascertain whether this man was a legal resident of the United States?
Scott Johnson
Walsh promptly responded:
Officials have yet to say. Why do you ask?
Okay. I had some idea where Walsh was headed. I was feeling a little defensive. I shouldn’t have dragged my wife into this. I’m not proud of it! I have apologized to her:
I think it’s a natural question to ask when Minneapolis and St Paul have so many illegal Hispanic residents and the charged defendant has what appears to be an exotic Hispanic name. My wife, by the way, is a naturalized citizen from Lima, Peru.
If this guy is illegal, some of us (not you or the Star Tribune, but others who read you) might observe that the mother might still be alive if the law were enforced.
I appreciate your response to my message.
All best,
Scott Johnson
Walsh homed in on me for the kill:
Oh, so you’re based on ethnic surname, not any actual fact pointing to illegal status. Got it.
Hey, I was just asking:
Dear Mr Walsh: It’s a question. Is there something wrong with asking? I didn’t know. In fact, I thought that’s the business you’re in. My mistake!
Scott Johnson
Providing the URL to another of his stories — “Charges: Driver purposely hit 4 in Minneapolis crosswalks, with one dragged and killed” — Walsh tacitly instructed me that American citizens also commit vehicular homicide:
Quite all right. and if you wanna the legal status [sic] of Sophia Sullivan, that’s fair game to ask as well.
https://www.startribune.com/charges-driver-purposely-hits-4-people-in-minneapolis-crosswalks-one-not-expected-to-survive/601344938
In the words of the Beatles song, “I should have known better…” He never did tell me why it’s wrong to ask the question and I don’t follow his “logic,” such as it is.
When I wrote this up last year, Llangari Inga had yet to be taken into custody. I added that Minneapolis has been “a sanctuary city” since 2017 and the state of Minnesota now affords illegal aliens free college tuition under the Minnesota Dream Act.
I received this statement from an ICE spokesman after the close of business on May 5: “U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on German Llangari Inga, 35, of Ecuador, with the Hennepin County Jail, Minnesota, Aug. 4, 2024, after he was arrested for criminal vehicular homicide. The Hennepin County Jail did not honor the detainer and released Llangari without notification to ICE Aug. 6, 2024, and he remains at large. Llangari initially entered the United States in June 2016, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, issued an order of expedited removal and placed into removal proceedings.”
He was subsquently deported to Ecuador. The lead paragraph of Walsh’s July 2 story reads: “An undocumented immigrant [sic] charged with killing a woman while driving drunk in Minneapolis last year has been deported to his native country before his fate could be determined in a Minnesota courtroom.” Walsh to the contrary notwithstanding, his fate had already been determined in a Minnesota immigration courtroom.
In the eighth paragraph of the story Walsh added: “At the time of the crash, Llangari Inga, who was living in Minneapolis, was the subject of a 2016 ICE order for expedited removal from the United States. An agency spokesperson said the Sheriff’s Office failed to honor the detainer and released Llangari Inga on Aug. 6, 2024, without alerting ICE.”
When immigration authorities took Llangari Inga into custody, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the arrest occurred “despite Hennepin County refusing to honor this criminal illegal alien’s detainer twice…. Remember, sanctuary politicians are fighting for criminal illegal aliens.”
Fact-check: True. And so is the Star Tribune.
