The American Gestapo by Geoff Carter

Illustration by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz created a major controversy when he compared ICE agents in Minneapolis to the Gestapo. In a commencement address to the University of Minnesota Law School in May 2025, he said, “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans and disappeared” (Fox9News). His remarks were immediately condemned as “dangerous” by sources in the White House and DHS.

Using Gestapo or Nazi-like tactics is an accusation commonly thrown at the Trump Administration. Go to any “No Kings” rally or other anti-Trump and you’re guaranteed to see more than a few signs with a picture of Trump next to Hitler or Trump sporting a Hitler mustached or Steven Miller dressed in an SS uniform. Governor Walz’s accusations in his speech were all verified occurrences and bear his comparison of ICE to the Gestapo—except for the fact members of the Gestapo never wore masks.

So how much like the Gestapo is ICE? Let’s take a look.

ICE agents under Trump’s second term started a campaign of terror during early 2025 on cities like Chicago and Minneapolis. People, some immigrants and some U.S. citizens were accosted, arrested, and in some cases beaten by armed and masked thugs. Their cars were rammed by the black SUVs that have become the signature vehicle of ICE agents. The agents themselves are masked, not uniformed, and do not openly display identification. Although the law requires it, many of their arrests are made without warrants or with warrants that are illegally signed. These ICR agents were armed and notoriously undertrained. All this rained down on the citizens of our country.

In one incident in Chicago, a group of agents stormed a residential apartment building in the middle of the night using helicopters and other military equipment. These agents were armed and notoriously undertrained and evacuated residents, making them stand outside in the freezing cold. All this rained down on the citizens of our country because of Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies. Innocent people had been arrested and jailed without due cause and even deported to prison gulags in other countries. Then people began to die.

Renee Good and Alex Pretti were citizens protesting excessively violent ICE tacticcs when they were shot down in the streets of Minneapolis by ICE agents. Renee Good was driving away from observing an ICE arrest when she was shot in the head. Alex Pretti was shot multiple times after trying to defend a woman being beaten by ICE agents. Video footage contradicted claims by ICE agents that their lives were in danger. Public outrage at these murders eventually resulted in the firing of Kristi Noem, head of HSI, the agency governing ICE. Things seemed to be calming down for a while, but not they’re back, arresting and deporting almost 2,000 people a day. And more innocent people are dying.

Nationwide protests have sprung up—again—after the latest rounds of ICE shootings: Johan Sebastian Duran, a 26-year-old American citizen of Colombian descent who had a social security number was here legally. He was murdered in front of his three-year-old daughter. And then there was Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the Mexican national in Houston who was working toward citizenship. He was murdered after ICE agents chased and accosted him. Both men were innocent. ICE had pulled over the wrong people and ended up shooting them. Not only do their stories not match up with those of eyewitnesses to the crime, but they fall back on the same lies told by the murderer of Renee Good.

Nationwide protests have once again sprung up after these killings. Signs like “No Nazis”, “Gestapo ICE out of Houston”, echoing the all-too-familiar comparison of ICE to the Nazi Party. This trope—while appropriate—is worn to the point where the word itself becomes almost meaningless, much as the word fascist—while even more appropriate to the Trump Administration—is even more threadbare.

So, was Governor Walz right? Is ICE a neo-Nazi version of the Gestapo? A review of what the Gestapo really was and how it operated in Nazi Germany and most of occupied Europe during World War II might be appropriate before attaching its label to Trump’s private army and to understand exactly what sort of paramilitary outfit it is that the president has created.

The Gestapo was not subject to normal laws and legal procedures, and, according to writer Brendon Beebe, they conducted searches, arrests, and even torture without any sort of oversight from the law. “No independent body could investigate a complaint against a Gestapo officer; they had carte blanche to arrest, detain, or kill in the name of state security.” (Beebe). While ICE agents technically work under the auspices of federal laws and our Constitution, they consistently arrested suspects without warrants and jailed them without arraigning and denied them access to attorneys—all rights guaranteed by the Constitution. When confronted with their transgressions, Trump and DHS officials claimed that ICE officers were “working under the protection of federal immunity” (The Guardian).

And, indeed, six months after the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE officials, no charges have been filed, and it was only last week that federal officials released evidence at the murder scene to Minnesota state authorities. The murderers of Alex Pretti have also not been charged.

The Gestapo had absolutely no limits on their use of force in their attacks on “enemies of the state”. Arrests, deportations to concentration camps, and even executions were sanctioned by the Nazi government. While ICE officers are bound by the law of the land, they have routinely ignored or disobeyed these laws. The use of pepper balls, tear gas, and the ramming of citizens’ cars with ice vehicles has become routine—as have beatings and criminal damage to property. The fact that the federal government refuses to prosecute or even investigate these crimes seems to signal a complicity with and acceptance of these sorts of tactics.

The biggest difference—so far—between Trump’s ICE and the Third Reich’s Gestapo is their size. The Gestapo was a relatively small organization that relied heavily on civilian informants and an atmosphere of terror to carry out its mission. While Trump’s ICE is huge by comparison, it is subject to public scrutiny and protest in a way the Gestapo never was. ICE has been subject to intense criticism and public pressure to tone down their tactics. Unlike Nazi Germany, twenty-first century Americans are standing up for their neighbors. Campaigns to monitor and videotape ICE activity and to assist their victims have mushroomed all over the country.

But thanks to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, ICE has expanded greatly over the past year, and so has the construction of dozens of new detention centers designed to house those arrested by this agency—whether or not they are guilty of any crimes, whether or not they are U.S. citizens, and whether or not they are who ICE thinks they are.

The recruitment campaign for new ICE agents bears a number of striking resemblances to Nazi propaganda. One social media ad read “One Homeland, One People, One Heritage”. A famous Nazi slogan read ““One People, One Realm, One Leader.” Trump’s affinity with white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys, who we invited to the January 6^th coup is well-documented. Himmler would be proud.

ICE is the American Gestapo. That’s frightening enough, but the worst of it is that they are growing. They have almost unlimited funding and are actively recruiting new agents. This is the face of American fascism and institutional racism.

The last two men murdered by ICE agents, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo of Houston and Johan Sebastian Duran of Maine, were not even the men the ICE agents were looking for—not that it matters to this new Gestapo. Apparently, they looked guilty.