A recent letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz amid the Trump administration’s now deadly immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities is also raising concerns about how far the Trump administration may be willing to go to use the federal operation to also target U.S. elections.
The letter, sent on Jan. 24, the day 37-year-old U.S. citizen Alex Pretti was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Bondi urged Gov. Walz to cooperate with federal officials by allowing the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to “access” the state’s voter rolls to “confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law as authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1960.”
The attorney general added, “Fulfilling this common-sense request will better guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law.”
In a social media post reacting to the letter, MS Now anchor Symone Sanders-Townsend pointed out that Bondi’s request signals a potentially more chilling agenda by the Trump administration.
“Pam Bondi wants the voter rolls from Minnesota. She said send us the voter rolls and ICE will leave. I thought this was about fraud. No, folks, it has always been about the election,” said Sanders-Townsend, a former Biden White House official.
As the TV host points out, the White House has said its massive immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota was about rooting out reported fraud committed by immigrants, primarily from the Somali-American community. While the fraud cases were condemned by Walz and other Minnesota officials, President Donald Trump and his administration have used them to more broadly disparage Somalis and immigrant communities.
The request for Minnesota’s voting rolls comes after the Trump administration sought voting data from states across the country last year, prompting the government to sue states, mostly led by Democrats, that denied the White House’s request. Those states include Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania and others.
“This has always been about the elections. This November, the Governor, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, every single member of the Minnesota State Legislature, State Senate, every single member of the Minnesota House of Representatives is up for re election,” said Sanders-Townsend.
She added, “Republicans want the governor’s mansion. They want those seats. You want to know why? Because it’s all about power. They want the power to enact their agenda by any means necessary. This is about the election. Pay attention.”
The warning from Sanders-Townsend comes amid concerns that Trump could use unrest or so-called fraud in American cities to postpone or cancel this year’s elections by declaring a national emergency — a theory that has been floated by former Trump advisor and attorney Cleta Mitchell.
Trump has been fixated on the 2026 midterm election, including warning Republicans that if his party loses the majority in the U.S. Congress, he will be impeached. Earlier this month, Trump even suggested, “We shouldn’t even have an election” because of the good job he believed he is doing as president. Trump also recently revived his 2020 idea to have the National Guard seize voting machines to prove his unproven conspiracy that the machines were used to rig the election.
Amber Sherman, a longtime policy expert and voting rights organizer, told theGrio she believes the Trump administration’s attempts to access voting data are to “pressure people around citizenship.”
“They want that data so that they can then either send out those kind of letters or challenge people who are registered voters and challenge their registration,” said Sherman.
