By Matt Rooney
This is serious, Save Jerseyans. Not “politics as usual.”
The Governor of Minnesota stood in front of the cameras on Wednesday and declared his state is “at war” with the federal government following the death of a woman who allegedly tried to mow down an ICE agent with her vehicle. Tim Walz also announced that the Minnesota National Guard is being put on alert to, in his own words, possibly defend Minnesota neighborhoods against “rogue” ICE agents.
I’m not trying to scare anyone. I swear. Honestly, the situation is scary enough. No embellishment is necessary. This is arguably our 250-year-old Union’s most dangerous moment since… 1859? Or at least 1963, when George Wallace attempted to stop the desegregation of the University of Alabama’s Tuscaloosa campus.
Father Abraham said it better than I ever could: “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Do the leaders of America’s Left really want to be “friends”? Do their natures have better angels? I wonder. 24 hours before the Minneapolis shooting and after announcing an end to his reelection bid, Walz told reporters that his state is “under attack” by the federal government. “I don’t think any governor in history has had to fight a war against the federal government every single day,” the disgraced ex-vice presidential nominee declared.
Minneapolis’s mayor and council have since echoed the same reckless “attack” language. Is rounding up, detaining and deporting illegal aliens a species of “attack”? Or simply the federal government exercising its clear constitutional role in enforcing immigration law?
It’s against this backdrop that New Jersey is advancing not one but three bills intended to codify Sanctuary Statehood into law. Up until this point, Sanctuary Statehood has been a function of a 2018 Attorney General directive. Barring local law enforcement from cooperating with federal agents is terrible policy for a host of well-discussed reasons, but putting these bills up for a floor vote would send a dangerous signal at a time when our national unity is clearly fraying. Unfortunately, it looks like the State Senate will take up all three bills on Thursday.
They won’t listen. They’re nuts, radically self-interested or in many cases both. But Trenton Democrats should take the unusual step of putting their country ahead of their ideology and shelve these sanctuary bills instead of pouring more keosene on a growing fire. It’d be the right thing to do, something that’s rarer than a double rainbow in state government.
🚨 Tim Walz just said that Minnesota is “at war with our federal government.” pic.twitter.com/GlRR7p4ABr
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 7, 2026
Holy shit…
Governor Walz just said he is deploying the Minnesota National Guard to protect Minnesotans from “rogue federal agents”, meaning ICE.
This is EXTREMELY dangerous stuff.
I’m talking Civil War Fort Sumter.
INVOKE THE INSURRECTION ACT! pic.twitter.com/tGfX6a4fiN
— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) January 7, 2026
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MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com’s founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of ‘The Matt Rooney Show’ on 1210 WPHT every Saturday evening from 7-9 PM EST
