Garrett M. Graff writes:

America has never seen a moment in modern history like the federal occupation of Minneapolis. Thousands of masked federal officers with uncertain authority are rampaging through the region, assaulting protesters and innocent people, abusing constitutional safeguards, staking out daycares and schools, snatching people off the streets in unmarked vans based on the color of their skin or their accent, and recklessly, relentlessly provoking violent confrontations with civilians—all against the loud, repeatedly expressed wishes of local and state officials.

Saturday morning, federal agents—apparently from the Border Patrol—shot and killed a 37-year-old nurse, Alex Pretti, amid a chaotic scuffle in front of a well-known Minneapolis donut store after agents began hassling and shoving him in the street. It was the second time this month that federal agents resorted to deadly force within mere seconds after initiating an encounter with a Minneapolis civilian who never posed a threat to agents.

All of this unnecessary violence raises the question: Why can’t elected officials do more to stop this? Apart from the courts, doesn’t Minnesota’s government have cards it can play in the battle against the Trump-led occupation, like calling out the National Guard for a showdown with federal agents?

The answer, in its shortest form, is mostly no, due to the basic foundations of American federalism. Over and over, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota governor Tim Walz have asked President Donald Trump to call back his operation. On Saturday, they again told the public that they had pleaded with the federal government to reconsider and withdraw the upwards of 3,000 immigration officers, who together nearly outnumber the region’s 10 largest state and local police departments combined.

But Walz and Frey haven’t taken overt actions to use state and local governments to actively resist because a key part of federalism in the United States is that a state can’t really resist federal authority or kick out federal law enforcement officials. That principle primarily exists because the federal government is meant to be the “protector” of last resort if local and state officials fail to uphold the rights of ordinary citizens. What’s remarkable, and worrisome, is that Trump today is using that arrangement to punish political opponents based on his own whims, as un-American an action as any president has ever undertaken and one that threatens the very union of the United States. [Continue reading…]