Members of right-wing nationalist parties in France and Germany are defending the actions of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), amid questions about the response to protests in the state of Minnesota, and claim that Europe needs anti-illegal immigration agencies on the same model as the American one.
“We must be ruthless with both illegal and legal immigration,” said Éric Zemmour, president of the French Reconquista party, in an interview with broadcaster BFM TV on Sunday (25).
Asked in the interview whether it was necessary to implement an agency like ICE in the European country, Zemmour replied yes and that “it would have to be adapted to France and its structures”.
MEP Marion Maréchal, from the right-wing nationalist Identity-Freedoms party, told France Inter radio that she continues to defend the actions of American President Donald Trump.
“I believe that today I share several causes in common with him. This seems obvious to me in the fight against immigration, insecurity related to drug trafficking and the rise of ‘wokism’, among other things, and I have not changed my position on this”, said the parliamentarian, who is the niece of Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Regroupment (RN) party.
When asked about the deaths in ICE actions, Maréchal said they were “regrettable accidents” caused by “far-left activists interfering in police action”. “I’m not here to supervise the American police,” he said.
According to the broadcaster Euronews, the representation of the right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD, its acronym in German) party in Bavaria is considering creating a local agency along the lines of the ICE if it wins the 2028 state elections.
Such an agency would be called the Asylum, Tracking and Deportation Group (AFA), according to internal party documents, Euronews reported.
On Saturday (24), nurse Alex Pretti, 37, was killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis during a protest against an anti-illegal immigration operation in the city; On the 7th, fellow protester Renée Good had been shot and killed by another agent. Both cases are being investigated.
The Trump administration called Pretti and Good “domestic terrorists” and stated that in both cases the agents fired in self-defense, claiming that the nurse had a gun and that the woman tried to run them over.
Defenders of the protesters stated that Pretti had a cell phone in his hands and did not pull out the gun he was carrying and that Good just tried to leave the place, and that the agents were excessive in their actions.
