Pam Bondi Demands That Minnesota Hand Over Voter Registration Records to the Administration in Exchange for Stopping the ICE Invasion

What is the purpose of the massive surge of ICE and Border Patrol agents into Minnesota? Partly, it is to terrorize immigrants and the non-white population of a state that is surprisingly diverse and has a long history of welcoming refugees. But it is also a bludgeon to clobber the state into ceding federal control of elections.

Democracy Docket conveys the claims made by state officials in a court hearing:

In the hearing, the state attorneys presented the letter Attorney General Pam Bondi sent to Gov. Tim Walz (D) over the weekend as evidence of the Trump administration’s extortion campaign against Minnesota.

In that letter, Bondi demanded that the state make multiple concessions, including forfeiting its voter registration records, to the federal government in order to “restore the rule of law.” Bondi sent the letter on the same day that federal Border Patrol agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis while he was acting as a legal observer of immigration operations. …

In its totality, the letter amounted to an assault on Minnesota’s sovereignty, demanding that it forfeit its ability to make and enforce its own laws and maintain its voter rolls without oversight from the executive branch, which does not have authority over elections.

Lindsey Middlecamp, another attorney arguing on behalf of the state Monday, described Bondi’s note as “a ransom note.”

“Their message is clear,” Middlecamp said. “Minnesota can change its laws and policies or suffer invasion of mass armed forces.”

One of the far-sighted provisions of the Constitution is that the states are responsible for running elections, including federal elections, with the possibility of legislative oversight by Congress—but no constitutional role for the executive branch. This prevents a strongman from seizing control of the process that could allow a rival to unseat him.

Donald Trump has been trying to assert that control, anyway, and now it seems that ICE and Border Patrol are the goons he has sent to bring state governments into line.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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