Ellison on Cooperating with Feds for Drawdowns: 'This Was Never About What Minnesota Was Doing'

On Thursday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) responded to Border Czar Tom Homan saying that drawdowns of agents in Minnesota depend on cooperation from state and local officials by stating that “this was never about what Minnesota was doing. It was never about sanctuary cities or fraud or immigration.” And “we’re following the law. I think even the word cooperation is a little misleading, because what we’re doing is following what the law requires and has always required.”

Co-host Leila Fadel asked, “Now, the White House Border Czar, Tom Homan, continues to put the onus of responsibility on state and local officials, saying continued drawdowns [depend] on state and local official cooperation. What do you say to that?”

Ellison answered, “I say that they started from the very beginning with Operation Metro Surge to — they sent 3,000 armed men with masks here to intimidate and bully and eventually kill Minnesotans. And now they know that this is deeply, deeply, deeply unpopular. And, I don’t know, I guess they do want to draw down, but they don’t want to just admit that they were absolutely wrong from the beginning. And so, I don’t know, he’s — look, I will give Homan this, Noem never wanted to talk to us. Bovino didn’t want to talk to us. He’s — Homan’s talking to us, and he’s talking about leaving. And so, we’re happy to have that conversation. But this was never about what Minnesota was doing. It was never about sanctuary cities or fraud or immigration. It was about what Trump said it was, punishing our state, retribution, as he said. That’s what it is. And that’s what he wants to do other places.”

He added, “[T]he idea that we’re giving up something, no, we’re following the law. I think even the word cooperation is a little misleading, because what we’re doing is following what the law requires and has always required. And so we’re clarifying that, we’re pointing out concerns we have, and we’re having an exchange of views. That’s what’s going on.”

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