In an administration that sometimes seems to lack a well-defined institutional role for JD Vance, he appears to be taking on a new function: putting a softer, more reasonable face on Stephen Miller’s authoritarian police state.

The vice president journeyed to Minneapolis on Thursday, where he urged officials to “tone down the temperature” amid the searing civil conflict unleashed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s crackdown. That’s driving much coverage, with some accounts claiming he’s softened the administration’s posture.

Newsflash: Vance softened matters in no appreciable way that has actual real-world significance. If anything, in concrete policy terms, Vance revealed that the administration’s positions on key matters related to the Minneapolis standoff are more reprehensible than it first appeared.

Vance’s big moment concerned a 5-year-old child detained by ICE in a case that instantly went viral. The child, Liam Kanejo Ramos, was wearing a Spiderman backpack when he and his father were picked up under disputed circumstances: The Department of Homeland Security says his father fled. Locals say others in their home begged to take the child, but he and his father have been shipped to detention in Texas.

In Minneapolis, Vance sought to appear empathetic toward the child. He declared that he too has a 5-year-old, and said he’d been moved by the story. However, he said he’d done “follow-up research” and discovered that the father was an “illegal alien.”

“Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?” asked Vance, speaking of ICE. He then scoffed: “If the argument is that you can’t arrest people who have violated our laws because they have children, then every single parent is going to be completely given immunity.” Watch:

Q: A local school district is alleging ICE agents detained a 5 year........

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