ICE’s Violent Terror Campaign Is Worse Than You Thought…

ICE is not following any police procedures or laws. They are disregarding all civil right granted by law or the constitution. ICE white supremacist gang thugs believe they have no restraint or can be held accountable in any way. I see their criminal actions in almost every clip and the way they use their weapons is horribly wrong. I was trained in pepper spray and can tell you that we had to be sprayed to be certified. I can bet none of them did. Because they wouldn’t do it at point-blank range as then it is no longer nonlethal but very lethal. In this clip a woman describes being picked up by ICE and harmed, harassed, taunted, threatened, and she is a citizen. She said ICE had no qualms about detaining her nor harming her. Plus ICE is proudly damaging people’s cars and phones and there is no one to go to for repairment. So the citizen must pay the costs for the ICE thug’s temper tantrums. Land of the free much? Hugs

Update: BLOCKED by Cyberattack! – ICE unmasked? Report of a massive data breach of ICE personnel

OK I am fine with this. Look this is the only paramilitary force terrorizing the public claiming they have police authority and power allowed in the US. Why are they allowed to act like this? Because they are supporting and helping accomplish Stephen Miller’s goal of creating a white ethnostate. This is all because the US elected a man in severe mental decline who had racist ideas and surrounded himself with deeply racist people. Normal police are unmasked and follow laws and procedures, ICE thugs just use gang tactics to run rough shod over the public believing they have no laws or restrictions. Notice Russia is trying to protect ICE because they want the chaos and turmoil in the US, yet tRump is Putin’s asset in destroying the US. Hugs

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/1/13/2363226/-ICE-unmasked-Report-of-a-massive-data-breach-of-ICE-personnel?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

by xaxnar

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 2:09:04p EST

DHS response?

UPDATE: Wednesday, Jan 14, 2026 · 4:55:29 PM EST · xaxnar

BREAKING: A cyberattack on the ICE List website is blocking access to it.

A website dedicated to naming ICE and Border Patrol employees is coming under a “prolonged and sophisticated” cyber attack after the Daily Beast revealed it planned to make public 4,500 names of federal immigration staff.

The founder of ICE List said the website was overwhelmed by malicious web traffic originating in Russia after the Beast reported that a huge cache of personal IDs had been leaked to the site by an alleged Department of Homeland Security whistleblower.
more at the link

https://www.thedailybeast.com/personal-details-of-thousands-of-border-patrol-and-ice-goons-allegedly-leaked-in-huge-data-breach/

People were reporting in comments they were having trouble accessing the site. I saw the cyberattack news first from an Occupy Democrats post on Facebook. This is the first news report I could find.

The regular media seems slow to pick up on this whole story.

From the Daily Beast

Sensitive details of around 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees—including almost 2,000 agents working in frontline enforcement—have allegedly been released by a Department of Homeland Security whistleblower following last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.

The Jan. 7 killing of the mother by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked nationwide protests and worldwide outrage, including among some DHS employees.

The alleged leak to ICE List, a self-styled “accountability initiative,” is believed to be the largest ever breach of DHS staff data. It appears to include names, work emails, telephone numbers, roles, and some resumé data, including previous jobs of federal immigration staff.

There’s more at the link, including how ICE List plans to release the newly received information. It appears they are going to be judiciously selective.

Department of Homeland Security officials are not happy.

Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Daily Beast that its “law enforcement officers are on the frontlines arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists,” but that “thanks to the malicious rhetoric of sanctuary politicians, they are under constant threat from violent agitators.”

She added: “Publicizing their identities puts their lives and the lives of their families at serious risk.”

Given past behavior by the Trump regime, the reaction to this is likely going to be doubling and tripling down. That would be understandable — because resistance is starting to come together and it’s making them anxious.

The murder of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross and the regime’s actions to try to stonewall accountability has been something that is finally making clear to people how lawless they are.

If ICE thugs are now living in fear of violence, perhaps they should have considered that before destroying the rule of law. What goes around comes around.

It may be a bit late, but the news lately is starting to bring the words “turning point” to mind.

Fingers crossed.

You Are A Domestic Terrorist Now | Ken Klippenstein TMR

This is about the post Ali sent me the link to and I then posted. This is where I first heard it. I love when Sam shares the news. He says that being terrorism as anyone who holds anti-Christian, anti traditional family values (read LGBTQ+), anti capitalism, anti ICE, anti American exceptionalism sediments. If you have any of those ideas or feeling you are a terrorist according to Stephen Miller and Russell Vought. Hugs

“ICE IS OPERATING ON CHAOS”

Caller witnessed ICE arrest a US citizen. He also told a police officer and the cop did nothing. They stopped the guy because he looked Hispanic. Racial profiling which Kavanaugh originally said was OK but now says it is not when it is already too late. Racism on steroids. One guy handed them his wallet to prove his citizenship but the ICE gang thugs just threw it away. They make a bonus for each body so they don’t care if a person is a citizen or not. Hugs

Vermont Bill Would Create State Trust Fund For Private Trans Youth Care Clinics As Trump Threatens Hospital Funding

I love Erin’s posts and reporting. The attack on trans rights and health was planned and coordinated by religious conservatives who felt they lost the culture war on gay acceptance and same sex marriage so they decided to jump quickly on the trans issue with lots of money. Their first attempt failed because they went after the idea of trans people itself. So then they changed to the old “protect the children” play book with the entire focus on protecting little cis girls but they never mention the trans boys that cis boys need to be protected from. See how patristical it is? It is all about males needing to protect the little womans. They don’t care about trans kids, they don’t care about female sports. It is about not letting trans kids transition with puberty blockers and the correct hormones as then the kids will grow up as they are fitting the societal view of what men and women look like. That scares the straight cis male religious guys because they are terrified they will be attracted to a trans woman. Imagine the horror if trans people moved freely in society not raising any question of their gender because they conformed to how society sees each gender. That sounds like a grand thing to me, but it terrifies these fanatical religious grifters that want to control how everyone lives to please their god. They make up untrue and scary what ifs, what if a man uses the letting trans people use the bathroom of their gender ID to go into a girls … notice they phrase it girls not womans because that make people more protective from the start, and they harm a little girl, your little girl? Well nothing stops a man from doing that now! Predators don’t need permission and won’t wait for it. And that has happened where a straight cis male dragged a little girl into the male bathroom and raped her while his friend watched. There was a famous court case on it. Look it up if you want. Want to know what has not happened, a trans woman going into the female’s bathroom and assaulting a female. Sorry. The right has tried hard to make one happen, but each claim of a trans person in a locker room or bathroom acting inappropriate has been debunked and disproven. This is all a made up scandal and crisis by people who can not accept the society progressing beyond the old traditional binary they grew up with and they think their holy books claim must be as their god insists on it. Weird how it is always how their god insists on what they already believe or promote. Handy that. So many people can not move past the idea that if it dangles you MUST be a boy regardless of how you feel and if it is an inny you must be a girl regardless of anything else idea. They can not seem to grasp personal feelings, needs, or medial science. Hugs

https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/vermont-bill-would-create-state-trust?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3nse02&triedRedirect=true

The bill would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund, administered by the State Treasurer, to support clinics and providers outside the reach of federal funding threats.

Erin Reed

Jan 07, 2026

Vermont Bill Would Create State Trust Fund For Private Trans Youth Care Clinics As Trump Threatens Hospital Funding

The bill would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund, administered by the State Treasurer, to support clinics and providers outside the reach of federal funding threats.

Erin Reed

Jan 07, 2026

Vermont Statehouse, Adam Fagen, Creative Commons

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Across the United States, gender-affirming care has come under sustained attack in Republican-led states and from the Trump administration. For transgender youth, those attacks have been especially severe, with roughly half of U.S. states now banning such care outright. At the federal level, the administration has waged an intense pressure campaign against hospitals, threatening funding and prompting many systems to drop their care programs altogether. That campaign has now escalated further, with the federal government moving to threaten hospitals’ entire Medicaid and Medicare funding if they continue providing transgender youth care. In response, some states and cities are beginning to fight back by establishing their own funding mechanisms for trans healthcare. The latest example comes from Vermont, where lawmakers have introduced a bill to create a trust fund for gender-affirming care designed to be entirely insulated from federal funding threats.

H.576, introduced by Representatives Daisy Berbeco, Tiffany Bluemle, and Troy Headrick, would establish the Affirming Health Care Trust Fund. Administered by the State Treasurer, the fund would provide direct monetary support to healthcare providers and nonprofits offering gender-affirming care in Vermont. It would cover costs for patients who would otherwise go without treatment, fund the establishment of Vermont-based clinics, and pay for malpractice and liability insurance for clinicians who continue offering care. The bill is part of an increasing movement towards private clinics as a mechanism to survive federal threats.

The bill also includes provisions designed to protect patient information from both federal pressure and out-of-state threats, going further than the recent “refuge” or “shield” laws passed in several blue states to protect transgender youth care. It explicitly bars the board and other state actors from disclosing patient-identifiable data, the identities of providers, or the identities of award recipients to the federal government. This is a significant protection given the wave of abusive legislation and attempts to subpoena transgender healthcare records nationwide. While federal preemption may ultimately be litigated, these provisions give clinics a stronger legal footing to resist such demands—particularly as similar subpoenas have been repeatedly quashed in recent court cases.

The bill comes as families scramble to locate alternatives to hospital systems that are abandoning them. With more than 20 hospitals closing their doors to transgender youth care out of fear and preemptive compliance with the Trump administration, many families have been forced to seek alternatives. Just this week, major hospital systems across Colorado, for example, have stopped providing care. Groups like the Trans Youth Emergency Project say they have the capacity to refer displaced patients to private clinics, and in many places those clinics do exist and are absorbing demand. But as hospital-based programs continue to shut down and demand rises, those private providers will need sustained support—and more clinics will need to be created. Bills like this are a targeted way to do exactly that.

If this bill passes, Vermont would be the latest state to protect care in this way—but it would not be the only one. Massachusetts passed a similar measure last year, allocating $1 million toward transgender youth care clinics, though that funding has already come under criticism as insufficient to meet statewide need in the wake of major clinic closures. In New York City, newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani has pledged $65 million for transgender healthcare. If that funding is realized, it would position New York City as a major hub for private clinics capable of absorbing demand created by hospital closures across the country. This strategy could prove to be a critical backstop for private providers that are already emerging—and that are likely to come under increasing strain in the years ahead.

The bill allows funding from state appropriations, private donations, grants, and—importantly—federal funds under a future administration that is protective of transgender healthcare. It would take effect immediately upon passage, with the board required to convene by August 1, 2026. There are still hurdles ahead: the bill must advance through committee, pass both chambers, and ultimately receive meaningful funding to function as intended. But its introduction alone signals something important. At a moment when hospitals are retreating and families are being forced into crisis planning, Vermont lawmakers are putting forward a concrete framework to protect access to care rather than surrender it. For Vermonters who want to see their state take a clear stand, residents can find and contact their legislators through the Vermont General Assembly website to make clear where they stand on protecting transgender healthcare.

Erin In The Morning is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber.

Immigration agents deploy tear gas, pepper spray in Minneapolis as confrontations with protesters grow

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/immigration-agents-deploy-tear-gas-pepper-spray-minneapolis-confrontat-rcna253782

Many of the clashes between agents and protesters are taking place just blocks from where an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good last week.

Jan. 13, 2026, 5:43 PM EST

By Shaquille Brewster, Natasha Korecki and Nicole Acevedo

MINNEAPOLIS — From high school students to elected officials, residents in Minnesota are pushing back against the growing deployment of federal immigration officers in their neighborhoods, leading to days of confrontations and protests.

Resident Neph Sudduth stopped to choke back tears as she witnessed immigration officers roaming around her neighborhood, just a few blocks from the site where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good last week, and clashing with protesters.

“They will hurt you for real! They will hurt you for real!” she shouted at anti-ICE demonstrators, urging them to move away from the officers’ vehicles. Just then, an immigration officer rolled down his window, extended his arm and sprayed a protester point-blank in the face with a chemical agent.

“How dare they come back to this neighborhood,” Sudduth told NBC News. “How forgone you have to be morally to come back here and stand up and do that with your faces covered?”

ICE agents detain a woman after pulling her from a car Tuesday in Minneapolis.Stephen Maturen / Getty Images

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that she planned to send more agents to Minnesota this week to quell protesters and continue to enforce immigration policies. President Donald Trump defended the Minnesota operation Tuesday, saying, “We have taken out killers, rapists and drug dealers, people from mental institutions that came in illegally.” ICE has posted on social media about the arrests of people accused of sex crimes and who they allege are in the country illegally.

Cary Wang, a medic who is part of 50/51, a nonpartisan grassroots group, provided medical help Tuesday to several people who were affected by chemical agents deployed by immigration officers.

“I think it’s part of their strategy to intimidate and show that they’re immune to any type of repercussions,” Wang said. “The fact that they’re ramping up their enforcement officers — that they’re bringing more here when they already know it’s a volatile situation — it just doesn’t seem that they’re looking for things to cool down. It looks like they’re actually trying to escalate things.”

The highly charged confrontations between protesters and immigration enforcement have been captured in various clips on social media, including posts showing agents asking people at an electric vehicle charging station if they are citizens and another in which protesters curse and scream as an agent appears to kneel on a man’s neck as officers arrest him.

The videos and images contribute to a picture of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations as they fan out across the country, triggering pushback from residents in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina.

In Minneapolis on Tuesday, resistance to the presence of federal agents was represented by the smell of tear gas, which lingered in the air of a neighborhood following a clash between community members and immigration officers who said they were conducting an operation in the area.

Residents and witnesses told NBC News they came out with whistles to alert others about the operation and act as observers while others began protesting. That’s when, they say, officers began deploying pepper spray and throwing tear gas canisters, which were still on the ground Tuesday afternoon.

ICE agents detain an observer Tuesday after they arrested two people from a residence in Minneapolis.Stephen Maturen / Getty Images

Sam Luhmann, who saw the incident, said he spotted a large number of armed immigration officers in the area “pounding on doors” and arresting a few people.

Then, “they started tackling protesters” and deployed what he believed to be tear gas and pepper balls, Luhmann told NBC News. “It seemed like a war.”

Luhmann, 16, of Chicago, drove to Minneapolis with his older brother after Good was fatally shot. He said they wanted to help community members monitor immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis the same way they did when immigration officers were deployed to Chicago last year under “Operation Midway Blitz.”

Many of the clashes are taking place just blocks from where Good was killed.

Community observers and protesters gathered after immigration officers rear-ended his car, said Christian Molina, 40. Molina told NBC News officers were asking him whether he was in the country legally.

“Luckily, they didn’t hurt me or shoot at me. But what if they did?” said Molina, a U.S. citizen and father of four. He added that he wasn’t doing anything wrong when officers went after him.

“There’s no reason for them to just look at you and try to just chase you.”

DHS did not comment on the incident involving Molina.

The crowd that gathered around Molina was later hit with tear gas and pepper spray.

South of Minneapolis, in Richfield, Border Patrol agents stopped at a Target store Thursday and arrested two U.S. citizens, Democratic state Rep. Michael Howard said.

“Yesterday in Richfield, federal agents, including Greg Bovino, senior commander of US Border Patrol, entered Target without a warrant, physically assaulted, and arrested two Target employees, both who are U.S. citizens. Madness,” Howard wrote in a news release Friday.

Angela Oberfoell, who witnessed the arrests of her co-workers at Target, told NBC News the experience was “traumatic.”

Oberfoell also provided NBC News with a video she recorded of the incident. It shows workers in disbelief and customers confronting Bovino and other Border Patrol agents.

Another video of the second employee arrested showed the moment Border Patrol agents followed the employee as he recorded the agents and yelled “f— you” before the agent tackled the employee to the ground at the store’s entrance.

DHS said of the arrest captured in that video, “This individual was arrested for assaulting federal law enforcement officers under 18 U.S.C 111, assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers.”

Howard said that both of the Target workers have been released but that they “sustained injuries and untold trauma while their rights were trampled for no reason whatsoever.”

“We continue to call on ICE to GET OUT of Minnesota,” he added.

Officials in Minnesota sued the federal government Monday to stop the deployment of thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota.

Shaquille Brewster and Natasha Korecki reported from Minneapolis and Nicole Acevedo from New York.

Shaquille Brewster

Shaquille Brewster is a political reporter for NBC News and MSNBC.

Natasha Korecki

Natasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Nicole Acevedo

Nicole Acevedo is a news reporter for NBC News.

Maggie Vespa, Colin Sheeley and Jean Lee contributed.

Some Democrats push for a fight over DHS funds after ICE shooting in Minneapolis

The democrats have to stand on this issue. Why have a budget if all the constitutional rights and laws of our country can just be ignored by the current administration? Hugs

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-push-fight-dhs-funds-ice-shooting-minneapolis-rcna253799

They want guardrails on immigration agents. The issue has risen to the fore ahead of a key Jan. 30 deadline after an ICE officer shot and killed an American woman in Minneapolis.

ICE officers question a man’s status on Lake Street near Karmel Mall in Minneapolis in 2025.Christopher Juhn / Anadolu via Getty Images file

Jan. 13, 2026, 4:48 PM EST

By Sahil Kapur, Kyle Stewart and Melanie Zanona

WASHINGTON — Democrats are wrestling with whether to use a key Jan. 30 deadline to demand constraints on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed an American woman in Minneapolis.

Progressives in the House and Senate are calling on their party to hold firm in opposition to a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security unless it comes with conditions — such as requiring agents to wear identification, limiting Customs and Border Protection agents to the border and requiring judicial warrants to arrest suspects in immigration cases.

They say Trump is using autocratic tactics by deploying masked agents in cities to intimidate Americans who don’t support him.

“Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn’t restrain the growing lawlessness of this agency,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing DHS, wrote on X after the Minneapolis shooting.

Minnesota sues Trump administration over immigration enforcement operations

04:50

The Congressional Progressive Caucus announced Tuesday that its members have formally voted to oppose any bill to fund DHS “unless there are meaningful and significant reforms to immigration enforcement practices.”

The blowback from Democrats to the Minnesota ICE shooting, which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the White House have defended, may pose a problem for Republicans in Congress who will need at least some Democratic votes to fund the government — including DHS — before Jan. 31 or risk a shutdown.

Democratic opposition has already frozen a DHS measure that was slated to be added to an appropriations package getting a Senate vote this week. Republicans control Congress and have largely stood by Trump on ICE deployments across the country, but such a bill requires 60 votes to pass the Senate.

Congress may have to fall back on a stopgap bill to prevent a funding lapse for DHS. That’s where things get trickier for Democrats. If House Republicans pass a continuing resolution on their own, which would keep DHS running on autopilot, Senate Democrats would again have to choose between accepting it and forcing a partial shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wouldn’t say whether he’s open to guardrails on immigration enforcement when asked Tuesday by NBC News.

But he called on Democrats not to allow another shutdown.

“I think government shutdowns are stupid. I don’t think anybody wins. I hope the Democrats share that view,” he said, while acknowledging that DHS funding is “the hardest one, and it’s possible that if we can’t get agreement, there could be some sort of a CR that funds some of these bills into next year.”

The record-long shutdown last fall, triggered over a health care dispute, yielded no concessions for Democrats. And unlike the Affordable Care Act, a winning issue for Democrats, some in the party are more leery of a standoff over immigration. The center-left group Third Way is encouraging Democrats to steer clear of reviving the “abolish ICE” discourse.

And some Democrats note that the $170 billion infusion of funding for immigration enforcement was approved by Republicans on a party-line basis in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last summer. That wouldn’t be affected even if DHS funding through the normal appropriations process expires.

One Democratic aide, discussing the sensitive topic on condition of anonymity, noted that a stopgap funding bill for DHS would provide fewer guardrails and more flexibility for Noem to move money around as she sees fit.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sidestepped questions about whether he favors withholding DHS funding to slap restrictions on ICE, calling it “one of the major issues that appropriators are confronting right now.”

“The appropriators are working on that right now with the four corners and trying to come up with an agreement,” he said.

House Democrats’ strategy on ICE was a major topic of conversation during a closed-door party meeting Tuesday, according to attendees. But the conversation focused more on finding ways to hold the Trump administration accountable, other than withholding money for the agency.

One example of how they plan to do that: Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will hold a field hearing in the Minneapolis area on Friday, where they plan to highlight the impact of ICE in the community.

“That was a big bulk of what we talked about,” said Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., who plans to attend the hearing. “The plea was to the caucus was that we have to hold people accountable. We have to do oversight when our colleagues won’t do it.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the ranking member of the House Judiciary subcommittee overseeing immigration and former Progressive Caucus chair, said that if Democrats wait until next year, “a lot of people are going to die between now and then, because this is now a federalized military force that’s being unleashed.”

“Obviously, the Senate has more leverage than the House, but I do think it’s also critically important for us to be on the record against this amount of funding, number one, and funding without any accountability or guardrails,” she said. “So we have a list of guardrails that we have been working with our leadership and the Senate.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., slammed ICE and Noem as “totally out of control” and in need of “commonsense” restraints that reflect law enforcement conduct.

“What’s in front of us right now is a spending bill that will go either one of two ways,” he told reporters. “Either Republicans will continue their ‘my way or the highway’ approach as it relates to the Homeland Security bill, and if that happens, then it’s going to be on them to figure out a path forward.”

Before the Minneapolis shooting, a national poll by The Associated Press found last month that just 38% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 60% disapprove.

A YouGov/Economist poll taken Jan. 9-12, after the Minneapolis shooting, found that 69% of American adults said they saw video of it, while another 22% said they had heard about it. Seventy-three percent said ICE agents should wear uniforms during arrests, and 56% said they shouldn’t be allowed to wear masks while arresting people. A plurality said ICE was making the U.S. “less safe.” And respondents said 46%-43% they support “abolishing ICE,” within the survey’s margin of error.

Sahil Kapur

Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Kyle Stewart

Kyle Stewart is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the House.

Melanie Zanona

Melanie Zanona is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News.

Natasha Korecki contributed.

MS Now ICE attacks and abuse of people clips

The video below has horrific clips of ICE assaulting bystanders and protestors. One clip showed the ICE gang thugs breaking down a door and entering a home like they think they are a special forcer unit in Fallujah Iraq. They seem to be acting like street gangs or drug cartel members as they just attack anyone that displeases them. They are not police nor professional but they act as though only they have rights. Hugs

Immigration Agents Terrified of ICE Backlash After Shooting

I want to thank Ali for sending me this link. I really hope this causes some real soul searching with in some of these people as they sure need to. I saw these documents show on The Majority Report but I was not sure how correct it was because then I saw horrific actions, beatings, and gang thug behavior from ICE. Hugs

https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/immigration-agents-terrified-by-ice

Leaked documents show Border Patrol needs volunteers for Minneapolis surge

Ken Klippenstein

Jan 12, 2026

Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino

For more leaked documents (and to help me continue reporting on them), PLEASE become a paid subscriber!

In the wake of an ICE officer’s killing of Renee Good, the Department of Homeland Security is rolling out “Operation Metro Surge,” flooding Minneapolis with hundreds of additional federal agents — only to realize it doesn’t actually have the confidence to match the bravado.

While homeland secretary Kristi Noem and others in the administration preen about justifying last week’s shooting and trumpet their war on “domestic terrorism,” DHS is privately divided and hesitant about the latest deployments. According to documents leaked to me, not only is the Department seeking “volunteers” for the apparently unpopular mission, it is urging its agents to maintain a low profile and comply with the use of force policies.

Border Patrol memo leaked to me

On Friday, DHS sought volunteers to deploy to Minneapolis, in part due to opposition within the ranks, according to border patrol agents and other homeland security workers who have reached out to me.

“Please begin canvassing your personnel for volunteers,” a memo sent by the Border Patrol’s Acting Assistant Chief Joshua Andrew Post on Friday.

The memo outlines a request for 300 additional personnel — 200 Border Patrol Agents (BPAs) and 100 Processing Coordinators (BPPCs) — to be funneled into “Operation Metro Surge” by Sunday, January 11.

Leaked Border Patrol memo

A Border Patrol agent familiar with the discussions said the volunteer push reflects real unease in the ranks about the Good shooting in Minneapolis and the related surge.

“We do have personnel but some just don’t want to go,” the agent told me.

Asked about the hunt for volunteers, DHS and Customs and Border Protection did not respond to my request for comment.

“There might be some immature knuckleheads who think they are out there trying to capture Nicolas Maduro, but most field officers see a clear need for deescalation,” a high level career official at Homeland Security headquarters in Washington also told me. “There is genuine fear that indeed ICE’s heavy handedness and the rhetoric from Washington is more creating a condition where the officers’ lives are in danger rather than the other way around.”

Within hours of the shooting, Noem held a press conference declaring Renee Good had carried out “an act of domestic terrorism” when she “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over,” as Noem put it.

“There is a video and she just lied,” the Border Patrol agent said of Noem’s characterization of the incident.

The senior DHS official adds that an increasing number of homeland security workers are concerned about the public backlash. “The claim is that recruiting is up, but there is also dread that the gung-ho types that ICE and the Border Patrol are bringing in have a propensity towards confrontation and even violence.”

Today, Border Patrol Tactical Commander Greg Bovino circulated a “legal refresher” for agents in the field including on the use of force — not a move that screams certainty about their conduct. And the Department has sent memos to volunteers for Minneapolis warning about their “operational security,” covering everything from removing any signs of law enforcement affiliation when they are around their hotels to turning off location settings on their phones so that they can’t be tracked.

The guidance also reminds agents that things like profanity, insults and rude gestures directed at them are not illegal (though “incitement” is).

Legal refresher

Legal refresher

Legal refresher

Legal refresher

Legal refresher

“It sounds like they’re entering a war zone,” says senior intelligence official, who has been involved in discussions about calming the waters around ICE deployments. “Telling a bunch of 20-somethings to be prepared for war — and terrorism — creates the very condition officials are cautioning about.”

The Border Patrol agent said that while a significant minority of his colleagues agree with him, they are not comfortable speaking out given the political climate.

The agent also warned that the voluntary deployments, despite being symptomatic of splits within the agency, could further inflame the situation in Minneapolis.

“Key word is it’s on a ‘voluntary’ basis,” the Border Patrol said. “If no experienced senior agents step up, they send the new guys straight out of the academy. Not a good idea.”

He continued: “In a nutshell, it’s ‘Us versus them’ on steroids and I think some Border Patrol agents are more willing to use force and not feel restrained when you got DHS leadership lying to cover for them. For example, Kristi Noem lying her ass off on what happened is like saying to the federal agents on the ground: ‘Go ahead and do whatever you have to do. We got your back. We will find a way to justify it.’”

Help me cover the largest federal crackdown on immigration ever by becoming a paid subscriber — there’s A LOT more to this story