Leftist anti-ICE protesters are using some of the most brain-dead arguments when discussing President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement actions in the Minneapolis area.
Jamie Schwesnedl, co-owner of Moon Palace Books, made an appearance on CNN in which he compared ICE’s actions in the city to Nazi Germany’s treatment of the Jewish people.
While discussing the matter with anchor Jake Tapper, Schwesnedl said, “I understand that they take people to Fort Snelling here, which literally was built as a concentration camp, and Alligator Alcatraz, which I think we can all agree is a concentration camp.”
As if suddenly recognizing the stupidity of what he was implying, Schwesnedl added, “Not saying they're Dachau. I'm not saying they're putting people in ovens yet, but these are concentration camps. Okay. I don't need to argue with you.”
CNN guest says ICE is going to start putting people in ovens: pic.twitter.com/vN7X80Mwfh
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) January 26, 2026
Tapper, of course, didn’t bother to push back on the Holocaust reference, a fact that Townhall’s Amy Curtis noticed.
It’s gonna be a challenge, let’s see if you can spot the difference between the way Jake Tapper responds to this guy claiming we are putting people in concentration camps and ovens, versus how he treated Lara Trump during the election. https://t.co/5fO2Owz4G3 pic.twitter.com/mHPeUOprwe
— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) January 26, 2026
Schwesnedl and his wife built a successful bookstore in 2012 and created a 3,300 square foot community hub that hosts events such as the Twin Cities 30+ Queer Book Club and a nonbinary book club.
Before opening the bookstore, he worked in community organizing. He later received a million-dollar inheritance, which he used to start the bookstore and create the Beyond Prisons Fund, which supports alternatives to incarceration.
The bookstore owner and activist became a vocal opponent of ICE’s operations in Minneapolis after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by ICE agents. He was one of several leftists who used the Signal messaging app to track ICE activity in the city. He told Democracy Now! That community members “run out and videotape, do constitutional observing, blow whistles, let neighbors know that ICE is on the block.”
He was also involved in the 2020 George Floyd protests. He prohibited local police from using his bookstore’s parking lot as a staging area and displayed an “Abolish the Police” sign in the window. His café made pizzas for protesters and even told people not to risk their lives protecting his store from rioters. He wrote, “things that may be lost or damaged in our building are just things, but your life is priceless.”
Yet, none of the rioters touched his store because they recognized that he was an ally.
For some reason, leftists love to use atrocities like the Holocaust and Jim Crow in their messaging. They seem to think most Americans are gullible enough to believe that ICE is on the verge of carrying out a Nazi style purge of illegal immigrants.
It’s one thing to disagree with the White House’s immigration policies. It’s quite another to diminish the evils that were done during the Holocaust by pretending illegal immigrants face a similar fate to Jews and others who lost their lives in concentration camps like Dachau and Auschwitz.
In the end, the left’s willingness to exploit the Holocaust to advance their agenda shows how little they regard the evils that happened during World War II.