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<\/a><\/p>\nFederal agents shoot pepper balls at protestors outside an ICE facility during a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Jan. 11, 2026. (Mostafa Bassim\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
State lawmakers across the country are pushing legislation to curb the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation campaign, which led to shootings in Minnesota and Oregon last week. The proposals in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Tennessee, California and elsewhere include measures to restrict local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities, block the collection of immigration data and prevent ICE agents from entering schools and churches.<\/p>\n
Some of these bills were already in motion before an ICE agent killed a woman in Minneapolis and Border Patrol agents shot and wounded two people in Portland last week. But the mounting urgency expressed by lawmakers has been increasingly bolstered with comparisons to Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the federal government is directing ICE to carry out is wrong,\u201d New Jersey state Sen. Britnee Timberlake said to reporters last week. Timberlake sponsored a package of three bills aimed at limiting local resources from assisting federal immigration authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe, and look for a day in the future where history will speak for itself, and that those who are carrying out these illegal acts will find themselves in the same position as those who carried out the illegal acts in Nazi Germany through the Nuremberg trials,\u201d Timberlake added.<\/p>\n
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, called Timberlake\u2019s language \u201cgross\u201d in comments to Politico.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the vilification of ICE must stop,\u201d McLaughlin said.<\/p>\n
Timberlake responded, \u201cIf they want to stop parallels to the Gestapo and Nazi Germany, then they should stop behaving that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holocaust comparisons in politics were long treated as taboo by American Jews. But the Trump era has shifted that paradigm, with a growing number of historians, activists, politicians and journalists \u2014 especially but not exclusively liberals \u2014 arguing that Trump and his administration have deployed rhetoric and broken norms in a manner similar to the Nazis during their rise to power.<\/p>\n
Congressional Democrats have also seized on Nazi Germany parallels amid ICE\u2019s crackdown. Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern said on X, \u201cTrump is using ICE like a secret police force. They\u2019ve used Gestapo-like tactics to terrorize communities for nearly a year, and now they\u2019re literally killing people. This can\u2019t be America.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGovern said he was \u201cthe first member of Congress to call for abolishing ICE.\u201d Demands to defund or abolish ICE have until recently been considered fringe to the Democratic Party\u2019s mainstream, but now, some in Congress are considering a fight over ICE funding that could trigger a government shutdown.<\/p>\n
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said on X, \u201cMasked federal agents terrorizing our communities at the behest of an authoritarian strongman has a name: fascism.\u201d The senator has pushed for a bill to make federal law enforcement display clear identification.<\/p>\n
These statements come as tens of thousands of people protested against federal immigration policies over the weekend, with some holding signs that read, \u201cStop Trump\u2019s Gestapo.\u201d The word \u201cGestapo\u201d was trending on X on Monday as a volley of posts referenced the \u201cICE Gestapo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the summer, after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called ICE \u201cDonald Trump\u2019s modern-day Gestapo,\u201d Daniel H. Magilow, a professor of German at the University of Tennessee, noted that the Gestapo\u2019s initial role was to investigate political crimes and opposition activity and \u201cenforce racial laws in Germany and across occupied Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
After analyzing the similarities and the differences between the two, Magilow suggested that the historical record may be beside the point. \u201cSince World War II and the fall of the Nazi regime, the term Gestapo has become shorthand in the United States to describe police repression,\u201d he wrote. \u201c[C]omparing ICE to the Gestapo is less a historical judgment than a reflection of modern anxiety \u2014 a fear that the U.S. is veering toward authoritarianism reminiscent of 1930s Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has staunchly defended its immigration enforcement. On Friday, the White House marked National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day with a listicle of \u201c57 times Democrats have recklessly, deliberately stoked hatred and division\u201d against ICE and other law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnhinged Radical Left Democrats have escalated their torrent of vicious, inflammatory attacks on these very heroes \u2014 branding them as Nazis, terrorists, and Gestapo thugs while inciting their delusional supporters to unleash violence,\u201d said the White House press release.<\/p>\n
Timberlake\u2019s and Merkley\u2019s statements were included in the list.<\/p>\n