DHS Condemning Gestapo Comparisons Spurs Onslaught of Gestapo Comparisons: 'Maybe Stop Snatching People'

In a recent statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) condemned comparisons of its agents to the Gestapo, the secret police of Nazi Germany. This denunciation, however, only ignited further comparisons on social media.

"Trump's modern day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets," Minnesota Governor and former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz told the graduating law school class at University of Minnesota. "They're in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons."

DHS fired back online. "It is absolutely sickening to compare ICE law enforcement agents to the Gestapo," they wrote on X. "Attacks and demonization of ICE and our partners is wrong."

However, users in the comments echoed Walz's phrasing, with many urging DHS to address the underlying actions prompting such analogies.

"Maybe stop acting like the Gestapo then. Have you thought about that?" one user suggested in response to the DHS complaint, with another recommending, "Maybe you should stop snatching people up like you do."

Another reply quoted the DHS's warning to migrants who illegally enter the United States: "'We will arrest you, deport you and you will never return.' Eh...sounds pretty similar to the Gestapo."

The same line was quoted by an account that described the tone as "eerily reminiscent of the Gestapo's tactics during WWII."

Someone else simply asked, "Where did he lie?"

"The way so-called agents act is sickening and un-American. THAT'S why you're getting these reactions," wrote another.

"You know you're winning when you post 'We are NOT the Gestapo!'" a snarky Bluesky post read.

Still, some defended ICE and DHS in the replies as well, accusing Walz of exaggeration, "fear mongering," and even "inciting violence" against DHS officers with the comparison.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, individuals have been detained by agents in unmarked vehicles without clear identification as part of coordinated efforts to deport illegal immigrants. The administration has revoked green cards and detained students for participating in protests against the war in Gaza, and deported hundreds of immigrants to a high-security prison in El Salvador without due process, despite court orders prohibiting the action.

Among critics, the aggressive anti-immigration policy has inspired comparisons to tactics employed by authoritarian regimes. The DHS's attempt to distance itself from these comparisons has, paradoxically, only amplified the discourse.