To belabor the Tim Walz U-M law school graduation speech, the descriptions and headlines of his rant don’t do it justice. Here’s what he said to the graduates,
Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets, they are in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even the chance to kiss a loved-one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared. To be clear, there’s no way for us to know whether they were actually criminals or not, because they refuse to give them a trial. We’re just supposed to take their word for it.
To begin, Walz is unable to pronounce the word “Gestapo,” so he is unlikely to have any idea of what the word means.
What Walz is describing is the process by which U.S. ICE deports illegal aliens subject to a Final Order of Removal. They already had a trial, they lost. By the time the “masked men” in those “unmarked vans” roll around, the alien in question is a fugitive.
We do not give fugitives prior warning. The prior wanting was the removal order. And yes, we know they are “criminals” because the Final Removal Order declared them so.
They do not get to start from zero with a release and a new trial. That’s not “due process,” that’s endless process.
To the extent that Walz has an argument (which he doesn’t) is that there should never be a deportation. Or deportation should be reserved for the worst of the worst of the worst, after a long series of courtroom trials and appeals, ending with a final final deportation ruling issued by the U.S. Supreme Court that would then be appealed to a world court.
That’s not our system. If Walz wanted that to be our system, he should have passed that law during his decades as a congressman.
A round up of the media coverage.
Alpha News was first. Gov. Walz tells U of M law grads Trump is a ‘tyrant,’ calls ICE agents ‘modern-day Gestapo’
AP: Walz calls Trump a “tyrant” who abuses power and violates rule of law
Times of India: ‘President finds new ways to trample rights’: Tim Walz urges law grads to defend rule of law against ‘tyrant’ Donald Trump
