YO AMERIKA
Putting a Stop to Trump’s Gestapo Begins With YouLet’s be clear. The problem is not the protesters. It’s the armed thugs who are shooting and murdering them.
ICE agents confront an observer on January 13, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Trump administration has deployed over 2,400 Department of Homeland Security agents to the state of Minnesota in a push to apprehend undocumented immigrants.
(Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Robert Reich
Jan 16, 2026
Inequality Media
Since Renee Good’s death, clashes between ICE and the residents of Minneapolis have escalated. On Wednesday night, an ICE agent shot and wounded someone who, ICE claimed, was fleeing arrest. (Sure, just like Good supposedly was trying to run them over when she turned her car away from them and said, moments before an agent fired three bullets into her chest and head, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”)
I’ve always loved Minneapolis. Its people have midwestern common sense. They also have a deep sense of fairness and justice.
On Wednesday, Trump threatened that if Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota didn’t stop the protesters, whom he referred to as “insurrectionists,” he would “institute the INSURRECTION ACT… and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State.”
Let’s be clear. The problem is not the protesters. It’s the armed thugs who are shooting and murdering them. (Trump seems capable of seeing a similar dynamic playing out in Iran and vows to protect the protesters there, but not in America.)
A friend who knows a lot more than I do about America’s armed forces recently wrote:
There are four kinds of people who join the armed forces: those from a traditional military family, true patriots who want to serve their country, those with no other prospects who need a job, and psychotics who just want to kill people.
The armed services do a pretty decent job of screening out the fourth group, but that group is now the prime recruitment pool for ICE. Racists, haters, gun nuts, and cage fighting fans who want to shoot anyone the least bit different from them. They are becoming America’s Gestapo. That is no exaggeration. We’re slipping into Nazi Germany.
He’s exactly right.
ICE is reportedly investing $100 million in what it calls “wartime recruitment” of 10,000 new agents, in addition to the 20,000 already employed.
It has lowered its recruitment standards to meet the deportation targets set by Stephen Miller (Trump’s deputy chief of staff for promoting bigotry and nativism), thereby increasing the numbers of untrained and dangerous agents on the streets.
ICE’s recruitment is aimed at gun and military enthusiasts and people who listen to right-wing radio, have gone to Ultimate Fighting Championship fights or shopped for guns and tactical gear, live near military bases, and attend NASCAR races.
It’s seeking recruits who are willing to perform their “sacred duty” and “defend the homeland” by repelling “foreign invaders.”
If I had my way, ICE would be abolished and Border Patrol agents sent back to the border. But this isn’t going to happen under Trump and his Republican lapdogs in Congress. Too many Democrats are almost as spineless when it comes to abolishing ICE.
But Congress can still take action to rein in ICE. At the very least, it must disarm ICE.
The Trump regime is allowing ICE officers to use lethal force in self-defense. But we’ve seen how readily ICE and Border Patrol agents claim self-defense when they’re shooting our compatriots.
How do we disarm ICE?
Congress is now considering the appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, whose funding runs out at the end of January.
Please demand—call your members of Congress and tell them in no uncertain terms—that the DHS spending bill prohibit ICE and Border Patrol agents from carrying guns and that it unambiguously declare that agents do not have absolute immunity under the law if they harm civilians.
Do this as soon as you can.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee (and an old friend), said Tuesday that she’s seeking to put limits on ICE in the DHS spending bill. “I am looking for policy riders in the Homeland Security bill to [be] able to rein in ICE.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that Democrats will oppose the bill unless Republicans agree to new rules governing ICE officers. “ICE cannot conduct itself as if it’s above the law.”
There is no reason for ICE agents to be armed. If they are shot at—and there’s no record of this ever actually happening — they could readily summon state or local police to protect their safety.
ICE was designed to be mainly an investigative agency, not a militarized arm of the presidency. ICE agents are not adequately trained to use deadly force.
In addition, ICE agents prowling our streets in unmarked cars, wearing masks, clad in body armor and carrying long guns, are a clear provocation to violence—both by them and by otherwise law-abiding residents of our towns and cities who feel they must stop their brutality.
Trump, Vance, and Miller want to provoke violent confrontations so they can justify even more oppression — including invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to call in the regular military. “I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said in October, referring to the act, “and the courts wouldn’t get involved, nobody would get involved, and I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, I can send anybody I wanted.”
Please: tell your members of Congress not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it stipulates that ICE be disarmed.
Also tell them that the bill must restrict ICE and Border Patrol’s ability to conduct dragnet arrest operations and target people based on their race, language or accent. And the bill must clarify that ICE agents are liable under civil and criminal law if they harm civilians.
The Trump regime is telling agents they have “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits if they kill or maim or otherwise hurt civilians. “That guy is protected by absolute immunity,” JD Vance said of the ICE agent who killed Renee Good. “He was doing his job.”
DHS went so far as to post a clip of Stephen Miller saying, “You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one — no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist—can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.”
Rubbish. There’s no such absolute immunity under the law. Regardless of what the FBI concludes, I hope and expect the state of Minnesota will open a criminal investigation of the agent who murdered Renee Good and, on the basis of the evidence uncovered, prosecute him for murder under state law.
It would be useful for Congress to make it crystal clear in the DHS spending bill now under consideration that ICE agents do not enjoy absolute legal immunity.
Please call your representative and senators today and tell them not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it (1) disarms ICE agents, (2) prevents them from targeting people based on their race, language, or accent, and (3) stipulates that agents who harm civilians are liable under criminal and civil laws.
To reach your representative or senator, call the US Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell them the state and city where you live. They will connect you to any member’s office.
© 2025 Robert Reich
Robert Reich
Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Coming Up Short."
Full Bio >
Since Renee Good’s death, clashes between ICE and the residents of Minneapolis have escalated. On Wednesday night, an ICE agent shot and wounded someone who, ICE claimed, was fleeing arrest. (Sure, just like Good supposedly was trying to run them over when she turned her car away from them and said, moments before an agent fired three bullets into her chest and head, “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”)
I’ve always loved Minneapolis. Its people have midwestern common sense. They also have a deep sense of fairness and justice.
On Wednesday, Trump threatened that if Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota didn’t stop the protesters, whom he referred to as “insurrectionists,” he would “institute the INSURRECTION ACT… and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State.”
Let’s be clear. The problem is not the protesters. It’s the armed thugs who are shooting and murdering them. (Trump seems capable of seeing a similar dynamic playing out in Iran and vows to protect the protesters there, but not in America.)
A friend who knows a lot more than I do about America’s armed forces recently wrote:
There are four kinds of people who join the armed forces: those from a traditional military family, true patriots who want to serve their country, those with no other prospects who need a job, and psychotics who just want to kill people.
The armed services do a pretty decent job of screening out the fourth group, but that group is now the prime recruitment pool for ICE. Racists, haters, gun nuts, and cage fighting fans who want to shoot anyone the least bit different from them. They are becoming America’s Gestapo. That is no exaggeration. We’re slipping into Nazi Germany.
He’s exactly right.
ICE is reportedly investing $100 million in what it calls “wartime recruitment” of 10,000 new agents, in addition to the 20,000 already employed.
It has lowered its recruitment standards to meet the deportation targets set by Stephen Miller (Trump’s deputy chief of staff for promoting bigotry and nativism), thereby increasing the numbers of untrained and dangerous agents on the streets.
ICE’s recruitment is aimed at gun and military enthusiasts and people who listen to right-wing radio, have gone to Ultimate Fighting Championship fights or shopped for guns and tactical gear, live near military bases, and attend NASCAR races.
It’s seeking recruits who are willing to perform their “sacred duty” and “defend the homeland” by repelling “foreign invaders.”
If I had my way, ICE would be abolished and Border Patrol agents sent back to the border. But this isn’t going to happen under Trump and his Republican lapdogs in Congress. Too many Democrats are almost as spineless when it comes to abolishing ICE.
But Congress can still take action to rein in ICE. At the very least, it must disarm ICE.
The Trump regime is allowing ICE officers to use lethal force in self-defense. But we’ve seen how readily ICE and Border Patrol agents claim self-defense when they’re shooting our compatriots.
How do we disarm ICE?
Congress is now considering the appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, whose funding runs out at the end of January.
Please demand—call your members of Congress and tell them in no uncertain terms—that the DHS spending bill prohibit ICE and Border Patrol agents from carrying guns and that it unambiguously declare that agents do not have absolute immunity under the law if they harm civilians.
Do this as soon as you can.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee (and an old friend), said Tuesday that she’s seeking to put limits on ICE in the DHS spending bill. “I am looking for policy riders in the Homeland Security bill to [be] able to rein in ICE.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that Democrats will oppose the bill unless Republicans agree to new rules governing ICE officers. “ICE cannot conduct itself as if it’s above the law.”
There is no reason for ICE agents to be armed. If they are shot at—and there’s no record of this ever actually happening — they could readily summon state or local police to protect their safety.
ICE was designed to be mainly an investigative agency, not a militarized arm of the presidency. ICE agents are not adequately trained to use deadly force.
In addition, ICE agents prowling our streets in unmarked cars, wearing masks, clad in body armor and carrying long guns, are a clear provocation to violence—both by them and by otherwise law-abiding residents of our towns and cities who feel they must stop their brutality.
Trump, Vance, and Miller want to provoke violent confrontations so they can justify even more oppression — including invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to call in the regular military. “I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said in October, referring to the act, “and the courts wouldn’t get involved, nobody would get involved, and I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, I can send anybody I wanted.”
Please: tell your members of Congress not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it stipulates that ICE be disarmed.
Also tell them that the bill must restrict ICE and Border Patrol’s ability to conduct dragnet arrest operations and target people based on their race, language or accent. And the bill must clarify that ICE agents are liable under civil and criminal law if they harm civilians.
The Trump regime is telling agents they have “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits if they kill or maim or otherwise hurt civilians. “That guy is protected by absolute immunity,” JD Vance said of the ICE agent who killed Renee Good. “He was doing his job.”
DHS went so far as to post a clip of Stephen Miller saying, “You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one — no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist—can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties.”
Rubbish. There’s no such absolute immunity under the law. Regardless of what the FBI concludes, I hope and expect the state of Minnesota will open a criminal investigation of the agent who murdered Renee Good and, on the basis of the evidence uncovered, prosecute him for murder under state law.
It would be useful for Congress to make it crystal clear in the DHS spending bill now under consideration that ICE agents do not enjoy absolute legal immunity.
Please call your representative and senators today and tell them not to vote for the DHS spending bill unless it (1) disarms ICE agents, (2) prevents them from targeting people based on their race, language, or accent, and (3) stipulates that agents who harm civilians are liable under criminal and civil laws.
To reach your representative or senator, call the US Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell them the state and city where you live. They will connect you to any member’s office.
© 2025 Robert Reich
Robert Reich
Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Coming Up Short."
Full Bio >
Mussolini Had His Blackshirts, Hitler Has the SS, and Trump Has ICE
The existence of this profoundly unaccountable, overtly fascist military apparatus poses a structural danger to our democracy. This is why “Abolish ICE” is an extremely moderate position.
ICE and other federal officers remove a woman from her vehicle near an area where ICE was operating in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 13, 2026.
(Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images)
Aaron Regunberg
Jan 16, 2026
The existence of this profoundly unaccountable, overtly fascist military apparatus poses a structural danger to our democracy. This is why “Abolish ICE” is an extremely moderate position.
ICE and other federal officers remove a woman from her vehicle near an area where ICE was operating in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 13, 2026.
(Photo by Octavio JONES / AFP via Getty Images)
Aaron Regunberg
Jan 16, 2026
Common Dreams
On Tuesday of this week, The Economist and YouGov released a poll finding, for the first time, that more Americans want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) than don’t.
According to the poll, 46 percent of people support getting rid of ICE, compared to 43 percent who oppose its abolition. This represents a major shift in public opinion—this same polling outfit found only 27 percent support for abolishing ICE as recently as July. Today’s survey also found that most Americans believe ICE is making them less, not more safe, by a margin of 47 percent to 34 percent.
‘Part of a Larger War’: Whistleblower Exposes ICE Effort to Spy on Immigrants—and Americans
In perfect form, this morning the centrist advocacy group Third Way released a memo warning Democrats not to call for dismantling ICE, arguing that “politically, it is lethal.” Their evidence includes a focus group they conducted in October, which…is dumb. ICE’s execution of Renee Nicole Good has broken through—69 percent of Americans report having seen video of the shooting. This has clearly impacted public opinion in a way that makes information from months ago significantly irrelevant.
We cannot let the Third Ways of the world—the centrist establishment muckety mucks whose version of the Democratic Party already lost to Trump, twice—win this debate. It’s simply too important.
There are lots of reasons to dismantle ICE. There’s a functional argument: We do not need ICE to enforce immigration laws; the U.S. handled this just fine for 227 years prior to the creation of this specific agency. There’s a fiscal argument: ICE is now larger than every other federal law enforcement agency combined. It’s larger than the militaries of all but 15 countries in the world! It’s annual budget, $37.5 billion, could pay for the health insurance of every needy child in the country!
But the core reason for abolishing ICE is that it poses a structural threat to American democracy. This is an unaccountable agency, by design. ICE is not subject to the rules governing local or state police departments; there are no laws barring ICE agents from wearing masks, driving in unmarked cars, and operating in plainclothes. ICE was designed after 9/11 to support the FBI’s domestic terrorism efforts, with almost nothing in the way of transparency or guardrails. So what happens when domestic terrorism gets defined as expressing “opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity,” and “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality,” as Trump’s NSPM-7 directive and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s recent memo to the FBI do?
Well, what happens is everything that we are seeing from ICE today—a federal agency operating quite explicitly as Trump’s personal militia. Mussolini had his Blackshirts, Hitler had his SS, and Trump has ICE—an army of ideologically motivated MAGA loyalist chuds whose new members owe their employment not to the state (being largely unqualified for positions in legitimate law enforcement agencies) but rather to Trump’s personal patronage.
The existence of this profoundly unaccountable, overtly fascist military apparatus poses a structural danger to our democracy. Structural dangers like this can’t be reformed—they need to be dismantled. “We shouldn’t have a Gestapo in this country” isn’t a radical position. It’s actually the only non-radical position you can take on the question. That’s long been true morally. And today’s polling shows it’s true politically, as well. In every way, abolishing ICE is now the moderate position.
So email your Democratic elected officials, call their offices, speak up at their town halls. Tell our Democratic representatives and senators that they need to use every tool at their disposal—including, in the near term, the Congressional appropriations process—to stand up to this rogue militia. And help our Democratic leaders understand—if we are so lucky, come 2028, to get a second chance at resetting our democracy—that getting rid of Trump’s SS is nonnegotiable.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Aaron Regunberg
Aaron Regunberg (he/him) is director of Public Citizen’s Climate Accountability Project, where he leads Public Citizen’s efforts to hold Big Oil companies legally accountable for their climate crimes.
Full Bio >
On Tuesday of this week, The Economist and YouGov released a poll finding, for the first time, that more Americans want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) than don’t.
According to the poll, 46 percent of people support getting rid of ICE, compared to 43 percent who oppose its abolition. This represents a major shift in public opinion—this same polling outfit found only 27 percent support for abolishing ICE as recently as July. Today’s survey also found that most Americans believe ICE is making them less, not more safe, by a margin of 47 percent to 34 percent.
‘Part of a Larger War’: Whistleblower Exposes ICE Effort to Spy on Immigrants—and Americans
In perfect form, this morning the centrist advocacy group Third Way released a memo warning Democrats not to call for dismantling ICE, arguing that “politically, it is lethal.” Their evidence includes a focus group they conducted in October, which…is dumb. ICE’s execution of Renee Nicole Good has broken through—69 percent of Americans report having seen video of the shooting. This has clearly impacted public opinion in a way that makes information from months ago significantly irrelevant.
We cannot let the Third Ways of the world—the centrist establishment muckety mucks whose version of the Democratic Party already lost to Trump, twice—win this debate. It’s simply too important.
There are lots of reasons to dismantle ICE. There’s a functional argument: We do not need ICE to enforce immigration laws; the U.S. handled this just fine for 227 years prior to the creation of this specific agency. There’s a fiscal argument: ICE is now larger than every other federal law enforcement agency combined. It’s larger than the militaries of all but 15 countries in the world! It’s annual budget, $37.5 billion, could pay for the health insurance of every needy child in the country!
But the core reason for abolishing ICE is that it poses a structural threat to American democracy. This is an unaccountable agency, by design. ICE is not subject to the rules governing local or state police departments; there are no laws barring ICE agents from wearing masks, driving in unmarked cars, and operating in plainclothes. ICE was designed after 9/11 to support the FBI’s domestic terrorism efforts, with almost nothing in the way of transparency or guardrails. So what happens when domestic terrorism gets defined as expressing “opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity,” and “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality,” as Trump’s NSPM-7 directive and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s recent memo to the FBI do?
Well, what happens is everything that we are seeing from ICE today—a federal agency operating quite explicitly as Trump’s personal militia. Mussolini had his Blackshirts, Hitler had his SS, and Trump has ICE—an army of ideologically motivated MAGA loyalist chuds whose new members owe their employment not to the state (being largely unqualified for positions in legitimate law enforcement agencies) but rather to Trump’s personal patronage.
The existence of this profoundly unaccountable, overtly fascist military apparatus poses a structural danger to our democracy. Structural dangers like this can’t be reformed—they need to be dismantled. “We shouldn’t have a Gestapo in this country” isn’t a radical position. It’s actually the only non-radical position you can take on the question. That’s long been true morally. And today’s polling shows it’s true politically, as well. In every way, abolishing ICE is now the moderate position.
So email your Democratic elected officials, call their offices, speak up at their town halls. Tell our Democratic representatives and senators that they need to use every tool at their disposal—including, in the near term, the Congressional appropriations process—to stand up to this rogue militia. And help our Democratic leaders understand—if we are so lucky, come 2028, to get a second chance at resetting our democracy—that getting rid of Trump’s SS is nonnegotiable.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Aaron Regunberg
Aaron Regunberg (he/him) is director of Public Citizen’s Climate Accountability Project, where he leads Public Citizen’s efforts to hold Big Oil companies legally accountable for their climate crimes.
Full Bio >
‘No,’ Says Bernie Sanders, ‘The American People Do Not Want Trump’s Domestic Army’
Sanders’ likening of ICE to a “domestic army” comes as more footage out of Minneapolis shows federal immigration agents violently assaulting protesters and legal observers.
Federal agents keep protesters away from the area where an immigration enforcement agent shot and wounded a man in north Minneapolis on January 14, 2026.
(Photo by Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Brad Reed
Jan 15, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday called attention to the massive amount of money that Republicans have been shoveling toward federal immigration enforcement during a time when many US citizens are facing eye-popping increases in health insurance premiums and struggling to afford groceries.
In a social media post, Sanders (I-Vt.) noted that the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year gave US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a $28 billion annual budget, which he said is “larger than the annual budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons COMBINED.”
Amid Fears of ‘Imminent’ Strike on Iran, Poll Shows US Public Opposes Trump Military Interventions
“No,” Sanders added. “The American people do not want Trump’s domestic army.”
Sanders’ likening of ICE to a “domestic army” comes as shocking footage out of Minneapolis shows ICE and US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agents violently assaulting protesters and legal observers.
The Minnesota Star-Tribune on Thursday posted a video compilation of federal immigration agents threatening, shoving, and pepper spraying Minneapolis residents.
The video also featured testimonies from locals who had gotten into confrontations with ICE.
Ryan Ecklund, a real estate agent from the suburb of Woodbury, Minnesota, said that he was slammed to the ground by federal officers after they spotted him filming them from his car.
“Five ICE officers approached my vehicle, boxed me in with their vehicles, and all five of them forcibly removed me from my car,” he said. “They threw me to the ground, which is where I got some of the road rash on my face, and I was detained at the Whipple Detention Center for approximately 10 hours.”
Minneapolis resident Zoë Cantu described being shot with rubber bullets by federal agents.
“I came across an ICE agent, they were turning onto a major highway, and as they were turning, I had a walk signal and started crossing the street,” she said. “And when I wasn’t moving as quickly as they would like, both the driver and the passenger jumped out of the car and they pulled weapons on us—while they were driving, I might add, not even pulled over—and fired rubber bullets.”
A man name Shawn Jackson told local news station Fox 9 on Thursday that three of his children had to be hospitalized after ICE agents detonated a flash-bang grenade while he was driving with them in North Minneapolis.
“Officers threw flash bangs and tear gas in my car,” he explained. “My 6-month-old can’t even breathe... My car filled with tear gas, I’m trying to pull my kids from the car.”
Jackson’s wife, Destiny Jackson, told Fox 9 that she had to perform CPR on their six-month-old child, who was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment along with two other children.
The Jacksons also said that they weren’t even in the area to protest against ICE, but were instead trying to get out of the area to keep their children safe.
“My kids were innocent, I was innocent, my husband was innocent, this shouldn’t have happened,” Destiny Jackson said. “We were just trying to go home.”
Sanders’ likening of ICE to a “domestic army” comes as more footage out of Minneapolis shows federal immigration agents violently assaulting protesters and legal observers.
Federal agents keep protesters away from the area where an immigration enforcement agent shot and wounded a man in north Minneapolis on January 14, 2026.
(Photo by Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Brad Reed
Jan 15, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday called attention to the massive amount of money that Republicans have been shoveling toward federal immigration enforcement during a time when many US citizens are facing eye-popping increases in health insurance premiums and struggling to afford groceries.
In a social media post, Sanders (I-Vt.) noted that the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year gave US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a $28 billion annual budget, which he said is “larger than the annual budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons COMBINED.”
Amid Fears of ‘Imminent’ Strike on Iran, Poll Shows US Public Opposes Trump Military Interventions
“No,” Sanders added. “The American people do not want Trump’s domestic army.”
Sanders’ likening of ICE to a “domestic army” comes as shocking footage out of Minneapolis shows ICE and US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agents violently assaulting protesters and legal observers.
The Minnesota Star-Tribune on Thursday posted a video compilation of federal immigration agents threatening, shoving, and pepper spraying Minneapolis residents.
The video also featured testimonies from locals who had gotten into confrontations with ICE.
Ryan Ecklund, a real estate agent from the suburb of Woodbury, Minnesota, said that he was slammed to the ground by federal officers after they spotted him filming them from his car.
“Five ICE officers approached my vehicle, boxed me in with their vehicles, and all five of them forcibly removed me from my car,” he said. “They threw me to the ground, which is where I got some of the road rash on my face, and I was detained at the Whipple Detention Center for approximately 10 hours.”
Minneapolis resident Zoë Cantu described being shot with rubber bullets by federal agents.
“I came across an ICE agent, they were turning onto a major highway, and as they were turning, I had a walk signal and started crossing the street,” she said. “And when I wasn’t moving as quickly as they would like, both the driver and the passenger jumped out of the car and they pulled weapons on us—while they were driving, I might add, not even pulled over—and fired rubber bullets.”
A man name Shawn Jackson told local news station Fox 9 on Thursday that three of his children had to be hospitalized after ICE agents detonated a flash-bang grenade while he was driving with them in North Minneapolis.
“Officers threw flash bangs and tear gas in my car,” he explained. “My 6-month-old can’t even breathe... My car filled with tear gas, I’m trying to pull my kids from the car.”
Jackson’s wife, Destiny Jackson, told Fox 9 that she had to perform CPR on their six-month-old child, who was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment along with two other children.
The Jacksons also said that they weren’t even in the area to protest against ICE, but were instead trying to get out of the area to keep their children safe.
“My kids were innocent, I was innocent, my husband was innocent, this shouldn’t have happened,” Destiny Jackson said. “We were just trying to go home.”
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