By Selwyn Duke

“There is now a rebellion on the part of certain states against the federal government,” announced commentator Bill O’Reilly Thursday. And front and center is Minnesota, where the governor and Minneapolis mayor are inciting people to violence, O’Reilly further expressed.

The pundit was, of course, referencing these and other Democratic politicians’ opposition to federal immigration enforcement. Yet the reality is that much of this is performative. Certain demagogues are, in fact, fomenting opposition to and violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for political gain. After all, it’s a good way to distract people from the Somali fraud scandal.

And for this reason, say many observers, the blood of the woman recently shot by ICE is on agitators’ hands.

As to O’Reilly’s comments, he said yesterday on his show No Spin News that we have a rebellion

over the sanctuary city situation. It is really sanctuary states: California, Oregon, Washington State, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and many others. It is in varying degrees, but Minnesota is in open rebellion against the federal government. Governor [Tim] Walz and the mayor of the largest city, Jacob Frey, are basically saying, “Blank you, federal government — we are not going to obey immigration law in Minnesota. Even though the law is on the books — a 1952 law, very clear that you are not to come into the United States without proper documentation — we in Minnesota are not going to obey the law, and we don’t care whether you like it or not.” That is open rebellion. Not only are they not going to obey immigration law, they are going to protect illegal migrants who commit crimes in Minnesota. They do not turn them over to ICE, even when there is a court order to do so.

Law for Thee, Citizen, Si! But Not for Me

This raises a question, too: Is this apparent special dispensation from law only offered to interloping illegal aliens? After all, there are plenty of laws citizens may rather not follow. (Tax requirements leap to mind.)

Then, as I posted to X earlier today:

The Minneapolis Police aren’t helping ICE. So what if good citizens take to the streets to forcibly stop the violent activists from interfering with ICE enforcement? Will the Minnie cops maintain the same hands-off policy? Hmm….

But this pro-illegal, anti-citizen selective law enforcement is more than just enraging; it’s also perilous. Just consider the number of hardcore illegal-alien criminals ICE apprehended in Minneapolis in just one day. Their trespasses include murder, rape, armed robbery, child molestation, assault, larceny, and kidnapping.

And why were these miscreants circulating among good Americans? Because politicians such as Walz and Frey refuse to do their duty. They then turn around and complain when ICE does the job they won’t do.

Land of 10,000 Fakes?

Their demagoguery is thick, too. Just consider a sound bite O’Reilly played featuring Walz saying:

This is what happens when your own federal government wages war against you. This is what happens when they target communities for their own benefit. This is what happens when they scapegoat. And this is what happens when they no longer hide the idea of white supremacy. When you hear the vice president of the United States talk about [how] now white people won’t have to apologize for being white.

But Walz loves the blame-whitey card. When the Somali-fraud scandal broke, he deflected by talking about unspecified crimes allegedly committed by unnamed “white men.”

Walz has nothing, however, on fellow Democrat Frey. As he said in another O’Reilly clip:

This happened because the way that ICE is conducting themselves is not constitutional. This happened because you got people that are coming into our city, tearing apart communities, really hurting a whole lot of small and local businesses, dragging pregnant women through the street, and then detaining people simply because they look Somali or look Latino.

That this is incitement, as O’Reilly notes, is clear. But many observers say it’s also something else: phony. As a YouTube commenter under O’Reilly’s video put it, referencing the Somali-fraud scandal:

[T]hey are doing their best to create smoke/havoc to avoid explaining the billions stolen!

For sure, much of this is performative. Why, Minneapolis just closed all its government schools “out of an abundance of caution” over the ICE operations. This is the same city that had 76 murders last year, an increase over 2023’s number. (Meanwhile, the homicide rate fell nationwide.) It’s the same city that allowed the aforementioned illegal-alien killers, rapists, and child molesters to roam the streets unfettered. And they’re worried about ICE?

A Dangerous Game

What’s even worse, O’Reilly adds, is that the national Democratic Party endorses this lawlessness. Just consider one more soundbite the commentator played, featuring Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) saying:

We should not have ICE agents patrolling our streets. They’re not needed. They create chaos, and they even create deaths. The mayor of Minneapolis didn’t want them. So many other cities didn’t. This is sort of Trump strutting around, but they don’t belong in our cities, plain and simple.

Of course, Schumer is “performing,” too. He’s up for reelection in 2028 and is currently the underdog in a hypothetical match-up against socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. So he’s apparently trying to shore up hard-left-wing support.

Whatever the particulars, though, being played is a dangerous and un-American game. That is, the most Machiavellian of these politicians are deceitfully portraying ICE, not the illegals, as the illegitimate, illegal entities. They’re literally saying ICE agents don’t belong in American cities, that they’re interlopers. They know this will catalyze public opposition to ICE.

These politicians also know this will inspire certain activists to violently resist ICE. They know that, on occasion, ICE agents will then be forced to defend themselves with deadly force. And they know they can then use the incident for propaganda purposes, pointing to it as yet another reason why ICE is supposedly illegitimate — along with President Donald Trump.

It’s a dangerous game that selfishly puts political fortunes first and America and her people last — and, sometimes, dead last.

For those interested, the referenced O’Reilly video segment is below.

This article was originally published at The New American.