Trump administration ties demands for Minnesota voter, welfare data to ICE surge

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi made a series of demands to Minnesota officials this weekend, including cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and access to welfare and voter data, something state officials called an attempt at coercion.

The Saturday letter to Gov. Tim Walz came the same day as the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis, escalating the conflict between Minnesota and the federal government.

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Bondi asked the state for greater cooperation with the federal government’s recent immigration crackdown and said moves, including providing “voter rolls” to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, were “simple steps” that would “help bring back law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans.”

“Minnesota can and should be a partner with this administration,” wrote Bondi, who blamed local political resistance to heightened enforcement for “chaos” in the Twin Cities, including protesters disrupting service last Sunday at a Church in St. Paul over the pastor’s leadership role with ICE.

“Do not obstruct federal immigration enforcement; do not allow rioters to take over the streets and houses of worship; do not hinder federal officials from investigating financial fraud and violations of election laws,” she continued.

In a Sunday statement, Secretary of State Steve Simon, the state’s top election official, said he wouldn’t cooperate with President Donald Trump’s attorney general, calling the letter an “outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. Citizens in violation of state and federal law.”

“It is deeply disturbing that the U.S. Attorney General would make this unlawful request a part of an apparent ransom to pay for our state’s peace and security,” said Simon, a Democrat. “More broadly, the federal government must end the unprecedented and deadly occupation of our state immediately.”

The Trump Administration had already asked Minnesota for access to voter and welfare information last year. Minnesota has resisted the federal push for voter data, and Simon noted that the matter is subject to ongoing litigation.

Bondi also demanded that Maine release its voter data, prompting a similar reaction from that state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, also a Democrat. The Trump administration sued Arizona and Connecticut for voter data earlier this month.

Bondi also asked Minnesota for all Minnesota records on Medicaid and food stamps, and the repeal of sanctuary polices blocking local officials from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

“The lawlessness in the streets is matched by the unprecedented financial fraud occurring on your watch,” the attorney general wrote. “It is a tragedy that Americans have lost faith in Minnesota’s ability to keep its taxpayers’ funds secure and its citizens safe.”

The arrival of thousands of federal immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota came after widespread government fraud in Minnesota caught the attention of the Republican administration late last year.

The office of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz didn’t say whether it would consider any of Bondi’s demands. In a statement, it said the surge of federal immigration enforcement over the past month had “brought chaos and destruction” to Minnesota and questioned the motivation of requests from President Donald Trump’s attorney general.

“We repeat our request to the administration to engage in a serious conversation about ending this federal occupation,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “This is not common sense, lawful immigration enforcement. That is not what this occupation is about. And it’s not what the attorney general’s letter is about.”

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, who led Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party until last year, called the Bondi letter an attempt to “extort” the state.

“Last night, following the heinous murder of US citizen Alex Pretti at the hands of a federal immigration agent, Pam Bondi drafted and sent a threatening letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz attempting to extort the state into handing over its voter rolls as part of an ongoing campaign to undermine local elections and build a national database for Trump’s political revenge and retribution,” Martin said in a statement.