Minnesota officials are rebuffing a series of demands from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, as the state continues its clash with the Trump administration over the surge of federal immigration enforcement in the North Star state.
In a letter to Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Bondi wrote: "You and your office must restore the rule of law, support ICE officers, and bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota."
The letter — which NPR has not obtained but which has been published by other media outlets — was dated Saturday. That's the same day Alex Pretti, a nurse and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by immigration officers — the second fatal shooting by federal agents this month.
Bondi urged Walz to embrace what she called "common sense solutions," including repealing what the Trump administration terms "sanctuary policies" and cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Minnesota state officials say the Trump administration is making false claims about its cooperation with ICE.
Walz, who's called on the Trump administration to end its operation in Minnesota, dismissed the letter in a news conference Sunday.
The letter also calls on the state to "share all of Minnesota's records" relating to Medicaid and food assistance programs, including SNAP, with the federal government.
The Trump administration has cited allegations of fraud, especially relating to immigrants of Somali descent, in its immigration crackdown.
Minnesota is one of more than 20 states that has so far refused to comply with a demand from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to turn over personal information about people who have applied for or received SNAP benefits over the last six years. The states have argued the demand is unlawful and a federal judge in California issued a preliminary ruling indicating they were likely to prevail in that claim.
Minnesota was also one of 22 states that sued to block the Department of Health and Human Services from sharing sensitive Medicaid data with the Department of Homeland Security to aid in immigration enforcement efforts. In December, a different federal judge in California ruled that limited data sharing, including addresses and immigration status, could go forward.
Bondi makes new demand for voter data
Bondi also made a seemingly unrelated request: for Minnesota's voter data.
It's not the first time the Department of Justice has sought the state's voter information — and it's an ask that's not isolated to Minnesota.
Instead, it's the latest escalation in the Trump administration's nationwide attempt to consolidate data and execute unprecedented oversight into the country's voting systems.
The DOJ is currently suing Minnesota and roughly two dozen other states — all states Trump lost in the 2020 election — trying to compel them to share unredacted versions of their voter lists with the federal government. The DOJ has claimed it needs the data to enforce federal election law.
Those suits have yet to be successful anywhere, though.
A federal judge in California recently dismissed a suit there, writing that the request was "unprecedented and illegal," and another judge in Oregon signaled that he planned to do the same. A third judge in Georgia dismissed the suit in that state based on a jurisdictional issue.
Minnesota's chief voting official, Democrat Steve Simon, alluded to those outcomes in a statement declining Bondi's request.
"The law does not give the federal government the authority to obtain this private data," Simon said. "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."
Election law expert Rick Hasen, of UCLA School of Law, echoed those concerns in a strongly worded blog post over the weekend.
"This is outrageous and reprehensible," Hasen wrote. "It shows ICE is not in Minneapolis for law enforcement or immigration purposes. They are there to stir up s*** in blue states and try to extort them …"
The federal government has not been clear on exactly how it plans to use or securely store the data, but it's become clear that part of their plans include running voting lists through a revamped system at the Department of Homeland Security meant to search for noncitizens.
NPR was the first news outlet to report on the details of the system, known as SAVE, but tens of millions of records have now been run through it, and no evidence of the sort of widespread voter fraud Trump has long talked about has come to light.
It's also unclear how accurate the system is. In one county in Texas, a state that voluntarily agreed to run its list through the system, at least 15 of the 84 voters the system flagged as noncitizens there were false positives.
NPR's Jude Joffe-Block contributed reporting.
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