What will happen to Emmer’s beloved Constitution when they carry out their mass deportation?

U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, speaks during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom.

About a decade ago, Minnesota’s own U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer made a fascinating appearance on the public radio program, “This American Life.” 

It was about the turn in St. Cloud against Somali immigrants. Some white people were calling for a “moratorium” on new Somali residents in St. Cloud, which — whether proponents acknowledge it or not — would require a menacing surveillance regime to control people’s movements. 

Emmer, then in his first term in Congress, came across as compassionate and nonjudgemental toward longtime neighbors and friends who wanted a Somali “moratorium,” but also firm in his constitutional, patriotic principle. To paraphrase Emmer: People here legally can live anywhere they damn well please.  

During a 2015 town hall meeting with constituents, Emmer said: 

If you’re asking me how I feel about immigrant populations who are in this country legally, and who are actually trying to find a better way for themselves and their families, I support it wholeheartedly. I mean, the Germans had the same problem when they came over. The Polish had the problem. The Chinese had the problem.

He called a ban on any more Somali people moving to St. Cloud “un-American” and attempts to enforce it unconstitutional. 

I remember hearing it at the time and respecting his willingness to push back against his own constituents, including people he’d known for years. 

In early 2021, he again referenced the U.S. Constitution — he promised during his 2010 run for governor to “practice the art of constitutional government” — in his explanation for why he would vote to certify the results of the 2020 election. Congress, he said, “does not have the authority to discard an individual slate of electors certified by a state’s legislature in accordance with their constitution.” Which is what Republicans sought to do with their fake elector scheme. 

Alas, the temptations of power are great. 

When Emmer’s name was briefly mentioned to be speaker of the U.S. House, former President Donald Trump is said to have called him a “globalist RINO,” but rather than tell Trump to shove it, Emmer went crawling back and endorsed his presidential run. 

“They always bend the knee,” Trump said privately of Emmer’s endorsement, the New York Times reported.

Last week, Emmer — who has since ascended to House majority whip, tasked with enforcing party priorities — was granted a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention, the blood and soil rally in Milwaukee. He made a hilarious claim: “Donald Trump stands with the people and the police — our men and women in blue — not with the criminals and the rioters.” 

Trump has spent two years relentlessly bashing federal law enforcement and proposed officers work without pay until charges against him are dropped. He’s a convicted felon facing serious charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election and putting national security at risk by secreting away classified government documents at his Florida club. 

Also, Trump most definitely stands with the criminals and rioters of Jan. 6, 2021, to whom he has promised pardons. So Emmer’s law-and-order bit seems like a stretch. 

For someone who claims to revere the U.S. Constitution, however, Emmer ought to be most concerned with a particularly monstrous RNC theme and platform plank, typified by abundant signs that read, “Mass deportation now!”

Although the logistical hurdles to this sinister plan would make it mostly impossible, we still ought to conjure images, informed by history, of what they would do if they could. Picture children hiding in attics and church basements, a constant thud of battering rams, and massive, open air-prisons. 

Consider some of the most shameful chapters in American history; they often involve the quasi-legal movement of people by force — from the Trail of Tears to Japanese-American internment to Mexican “repatriation” of the 1930s.

And what do you suppose happens to Emmer’s blessed U.S. Constitution when the government carries out a campaign of mass deportation? What in our history reassures him that such a campaign will be carried out by the letter and spirit of the Bill of Rights?   

Maybe the St. Cloud anti-Somali activists should try getting Emmer on board again. He’ll apparently capitulate to just about anything for a spot on the stage. 

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