The Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building houses the Fort Snelling Immigration Court, where Nathan Hansen was recently appointed as a judge. (Photo by Glen Stubbe/Minnesota Reformer)

Nathan Hansen, a right-wing attorney and influential X user who has amplified racist conspiracies and fringe legal theories, will make decisions on which immigrants will be deported in his new job as an immigration judge at Fort Snelling.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review, the division of the U.S. Department of Justice that hires and oversees immigration judges, announced Wednesday that Hansen was appointed after a “competitive application process” and would begin hearing immigrants’ cases this month.

Hansen’s appointment comes as the Trump administration purges immigration judges who aren’t carrying out their mass deportation agenda, according to reporting from the New York Times. In their place, the DOJ is appointing judges with backgrounds that suggest they will approve deportations more often. The strategy is working — a record-low percentage of asylum claims have been approved since Trump took office.

Hansen’s extensive social media history contains posts endorsing popular but widely-debunked right-wing conspiracies including Pizzagate and Obama birtherism, to which President Donald Trump also subscribes. In 2024, he amplified posts about the “Haitian invasion of Ohio,” a racist conspiracy pushed by Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance that accused Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating family pets.

He has also posted fringe ideas about state and federal laws — including that “all property taxes are illegal under the Minnesota Constitution,” which he posted on Facebook in 2010. “The government owes us a lot of money for theft,” he said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he took up anti-mask activism, calling for the prosecution of people wearing masks in public.

More recently, he has spoken publicly in support of the federal immigration crackdown here, which led to three shootings in Minneapolis, and the improper detentions of hundreds of immigrants. A federal judge appointed by Trump found “compelling and troubling” evidence of racial profiling during Operation Metro Surge. Lawsuits have also alleged abuse and retaliation against observers and protesters, and targeting of sensitive locations like schools.

“Is there anything we can do to help ICE if we want to?” Hansen commented on Dec. 17, in response to a City of Stillwater Facebook post reminding residents of the distinct responsibilities of local police and  federal immigration enforcement.

In response to Democratic-Farmer-Labor state Rep. Brad Tabke’s posts about the locations of ICE operations, Hansen said “[Tabke] needs to be charged by US Attorney Dan Rosen immediately. He should be taken off the streets and held in custody until after trial.” (Filming and posting about law enforcement operations is not a crime.)

Reached by phone for comment, Hansen hung up after the reporter identified herself as a journalist with the Reformer. A spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review said Thursday the agency declines to comment on personnel matters.

Nothing in Hansen’s publicly-available biographical information suggests he has experience in immigration law.

He has been a solo practitioner of law since he graduated from the University of North Dakota School of Law in 2003. According to his now-defunct website, he “handled criminal and civil jury and bench trials and appeals.” He was the Republican-endorsed district judge candidate in 2024 but lost to the incumbent.

Before running for office, he deleted roughly 100,000 posts. His X account has been private for months, but portions of his extensive social media presence remain publicly available.

On a late January Washington County Facebook post, he commented, simply: “I want more ICE.”

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.

This article, “One of Minnesota’s most unhinged right-wing posters is the state’s newest immigration judge,” has been republished from the Minnesota Reformer under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.