Democrats on Sunday roundly denounced U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, calling the demands laid out by the Trump administration following a fatal shooting by a Border Patrol agent “blackmail, pure and simple.”
Bondi’s letter suggests that Walz could alleviate the chaos surrounding a massive deployment of federal immigration officers by meeting a few of the Trump administration’s demands, including the sharing of Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program data with the federal government, giving the Department of Justice access to the state’s voter rolls and repealing its sanctuary policies.
A number of prominent Democrats have interpreted Bondi’s letter to mean that the Trump administration would draw down the federal presence in Minnesota if the state meets the three conditions outlined in the letter, which does not make any explicit promises. It’s unclear whether Bondi has the power to call off the federal officers currently in the state, which fall under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security.