Walz Set for Capitol Hill Grilling on Sanctuary City Policies

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, and he’s sure to be grilled on “sanctuary city” policies in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. 

The Daily Signal spoke with Walz’s fellow Minnesotan, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., who spared few words in criticizing a governor he views as a “jet puff,” a “liar,” and a “challenged human being.”

Walz, who was the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate last year on the presidential ticket of former Vice President Kamala Harris, will testify alongside Democrat Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York.

Emmer says that Walz’s administration has heavily discouraged detaining illegal immigrants.

Walz “and his henchman, the attorney general, have literally threatened every law enforcement agency in the state, that if they try to do their jobs when they pick up an illegal alien—these criminals, the murderers, the terrorists, which we have in Minneapolis—that if you detain them, you’re going to get sued,” said Emmer.

Minnesota state Attorney General Keith Ellison issued an opinion in February stating that holding people in custody on Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers is “unconstitutional.”

“Minnesota law prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from holding someone based on an immigration detainer if the person would otherwise be released from custody,” Ellison’s opinion states.

Emmer says that that policy has placed a heavy burden on local law enforcement.

“They’ve really made it difficult for these guys to keep their communities safe and keep these bad guys out. Because Tim Walz actually thinks … he represents the murderers, rapists, terrorists, the illegals, at the expense of the citizens who are paying his salary.”

Walz will be in a difficult position on Thursday. On the one hand, he likely will want to project toughness, as he has recently called on Democrats to “bully the s— out of” President Donald Trump. 

On the other hand, he must be careful not to pick a fight that would lead to Minnesota losing federal funding—something the White House has threatened against sanctuary states.

Emmer scoffed at Walz’s talk of bullying Republicans.

“Now he’s saying he wants to be bullying people, he says he’s the whisperer to white men. This guy is challenged to say the least,” the Minnesota Republican congressman said.

“He is a challenged human being who has just completely gone off the rails … and, clearly, he continues to show us through the sanctuary state policy that he’s concerned more about illegals … than he is about Minnesota citizens.”

Emmer expects Walz to do his best to deflect throughout the hearing.

“I think he’s going to do the same thing he always does. He always tries to deflect. He tries to talk about hate and racism and ‘everyone’s welcome here.’ There is absolutely no substance to this jet puff,” said Emmer. Jet-Puffed is a brand of marshmallows.

“He is all sweetness on the outside and nothing on the inside, so I expect him to try to do that again. But hopefully, members of the committee will try to hold him to account for what he has caused and what he has done.”

The committee’s discussion of the sanctuary state issue likely will be further electrified by Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles to help control the rioting there against immigration-enforcement raids.

Emmer thinks that’s a winning issue for Republicans.

“I think Tim Walz and the guy from Illinois and the ‘excuse’ from New York are probably going to come in and try to suggest that Trump caused that. It’s not going to play with the American people. The American people are smarter than that. They showed you that last November,” he said.

Emmer clearly has a low opinion of his fellow Minnesotan. 

Asked whether he thought Walz might try to project an image of caring about border security as the Harris campaign did in 2024, Emmer spoke about what he views as a history of dishonesty from Walz.

“He’s pathological with his lying. You saw it on full display on national TV when he lied about something as dumb as when he was at Tiananmen Square,” said Emmer, referring to Walz’s past erroneous claims to have been in Hong Kong at the time of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

“His excuse was when he was caught in a bald-faced lie on national TV, ‘Well, I grew up in a small town and I’m a bit of a knucklehead.’ Hey, Tim, you’re a liar. That is not just not being truthful … . So, when Kamala was saying that [she cared about border security], and when he was saying it, they didn’t mean it … . This is why Donald Trump was elected.”

Representatives for Walz could not immediately be reached for comment.

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