I have posted on this several times. Remember right now the man gets no help from the government for what an ICE thug illegally did to this young man. He won’t be able to charge the mask men who did this act against him under the tRump fanatic administration. After all ICE lied about what happened and there is video to show it. I hope he has a good lawyer who is collecting the evidence and the minute that democrats are back in power they sue. Hugs
The event was not an isolated episode. The Washington Post on Friday reported the January 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, while in ICE custody, citing a medical examiner who believes his death to be a homicide. A fellow detainee said he witnessed Luna Campos being choked by guards.
Such incidents have come to characterise what is now the most aggressive immigration enforcement surge the city – and perhaps the country – has seen in decades.
The day before Good was killed, Washington announced the deployment of roughly 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. In the days following her death, an additional 1,000 officers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were deployed to the city, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hailing its “largest immigration operation ever.”
Caught in the chaos of a raid, Minneapolis City Council president Elliott Payne said the presence of heavily armed agents in combat gear felt “like an occupying force”.
Rather than de-escalate, Trump has threatened to go further. On Thursday, he raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy troops in response to civil unrest.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT,” Trump wrote on social media, promising to “quickly put an end to the travesty”.
A minor pretext for a massive show of force
The starting point of the escalation was relatively innocuous. The Trump administration initially alleged financial irregularities involving Somali-run daycare centres in Minnesota as justification for the first raids. Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, estimated at around 84,000, most of whom are US citizens.
The decision to target the Somali community echoed Trump’s own rhetoric. In December, he said Somalis should not be welcome in the United States, comparing them to “garbage”. DHS reinforced the message in a post on X announcing the end of a temporary protected status: “Our message is clear. Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves.”
What followed bore little resemblance to a targeted investigation. Residents reported agents sweeping through residential neighbourhoods and the parking lots of big-box stores, stopping people seemingly at random to demand their immigration status. “Masked men” broke into a north Minneapolis home without a judicial warrant, arresting a 38-year-old Liberian man as his wife and 9-year-old stepdaughter were inside, local public radio outlet MPR News reported.
Operation “Metro Surge” has brought together a rarely seen patchwork of agencies far from the border: three-quarters are from ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, AP reported, working alongside agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).
This blending of uniforms, mandates and chains of command made it nearly impossible for civilians to know who was stopping them, under what authority, and what rights they retained.
A symbolically progressive city
The scale of coordination reflects a strategy first developed at the southern border. Shortly after returning to office in January 2025, Trump declared a national emergency at the border, triggering a significant mobilisation involving DHS, ICE, CBP, the National Guard and US Northern Command.
With the events in Minnesota, the same emergency logic and the same mix of civilian and quasi-military forces are now being applied hundreds of miles from the border.
Minneapolis is the most dramatic example so far, but not the only one. Federal immigration surges have already taken place or are planned in cities including Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, New York and Los Angeles.
Trump has shown little interest in calming tensions, using florid and almost biblical language to describe the continuing operation.
“FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA,” he wrote on Truth Social. “THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
Immigration attorney Scott Shuchart says Minnesota offered a perfect opportunity for the Trump administration, which was looking for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act as Trump has threatened to do.
“The administration has been trying to pick this fight, trying to find a place [resisting] enough to have an excuse to declare an insurrection and use more force,” Shuchart said. “Minneapolis was the next target. It’s ideal for them – it has a large Somali immigrant population, and there is [Minnesota Representative] Ilhan Omar, whom Trump hates. His people are very angry and, frankly, racist.”
Unlike law enforcement agents like police, who are trained in de-escalation tactics, ICE officers appear to relish doing the opposite.
“They are escalating rather than de-escalating,” Shuchart added. “They need this. They don’t want unity: disunity is good for them. Trump has never tried to be more popular or to appeal to the other side. By continuing to feel victimised, he empowers himself politically.”
Minneapolis represents both a symbolic and strategic target: it’s a Democratic stronghold, a “sanctuary city” where local authorities limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and a place still nationally associated with protests against police violence over the killing of George Floyd in 2020. Minnesota is also governed by Tim Walz, the Democrats’ 2024 vice-presidential nominee.
According to DHS, the surge is part of a nationwide push to fulfil Trump’s promise to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in American history. ICE has more than doubled its manpower in less than a year, from roughly 10,000 officers to more than 22,000, driven by an aggressive recruitment campaign.
To staff that expansion, barriers to entry have been lowered. Deportation officers must be US citizens, pass a background check and drug screening, and meet basic physical requirements. The job requires carrying a firearm and explicitly authorises the use of deadly force “when necessary”.
“New recruits often have minimal education and abbreviated preparation. The danger is that it attracts people who are more loyal to Trump than to professional law enforcement,” said Shuchart, citing far-right, pro-Trump militias such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
That broader lack of professionalism has fed into another flashpoint in the operation: the use of masks by immigration agents. Acting ICE director Todd Lyons said the practice is intended to prevent officers from being doxxed. But it actually “spurs dangerous impersonations, impedes accountability for officers who are engaged in misconduct, and undermines trust in law enforcement”, the Center for American Progress argued in a report released on August 2025, when hundreds of officers from nearly 20 federal agencies were deployed to the streets of Washington.
In a confidential bulletin circulated to law enforcement agencies last month, the FBI even warned that criminals across several states have been posing as ICE officers to commit robberies, kidnappings and sexual assaults.
A deliberate media blur
The confusion has been amplified online. High-profile right-wing influencers were granted privileged access to operations, blurring the line between the administration, law enforcement agents and partisan media.
Figures with large followings, including “Dr Phil” McGraw and Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, were repeatedly invited on ride-alongs and allowed to interview senior officials, producing content that framed enforcement actions as necessary and heroic. ICE’s own social media accounts actively promoted the operation, which the Washington Post has described as a broader “media machine” designed to project strength and deter resistance.
Pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson went even further, wearing a Border Patrol tactical vest to observe a raid at a Walmart in the Chicago area alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem. In a video posted on X, he praised the operation as “amazing”, highlighting what he called “wild scenes”.
I know many of the viewers on my site also go to Mock Paper Scissors. But for the few who may not this is a grand site full of news and entertainment. In the above postTG points out more lying about what ICE gang thugs faced when they illegally shot someone. The gaslighting of the DHS is so over the top nothing they say can ever be believed. In this case the gang thugs shot through a closed door in anger not caring who they might hit. These white supremacist militia gang thugs seem to have real anger issues and love that they can disregard every precept of civil treatment of others as they prowl in gangs looking for prey. Like all bullies one on one or more they are not so brave, but they travel in packs like hyenas. Hugs
The video below shows another shooting where the ICE thug fired into a car striking a person when he shifted his weapon to his other hand. The car was not moving and full of pepper spray. The man was not trying to drive. Yet ICE told a judge the man had weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over ICE thugs. The judge dismissed the case because ICE refused to hand over the body cam footage that showed what the ICE thug did and that DHS was lying. Again. Hugs
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
I am sorry but ICE and DHS / FBI are on a mission to ethnically cleanse the US of non-white people. They feel it is OK to do anything to accomplish that. They are like religious fanatics in that way. Anything for their deity or god, and in this case their god is white supremacy. Nothing may be allowed to come between their goal of a white only US. Just as fanatical Christian hate groups want to cleanse the US of the LGBTQ+ and other religious groups so only their religion is the one people see or can use, the ICE white supremacist only want white people in the US and they want those white people to be obedient to authority, especially the white woman. At this point they will do anything including murder people to get what they desire. If we do not stop them now we will be stuck fighting them in every city and blue state in the US. Notice the claim by the government … does it sound familiar? Hugs
… the federal agency had claimed that two men were inside a van that officials said tried to ram ICE vehicles and run over agents during a Dec. 24 operation in Glen Burnie.
Department of Homeland Security officials have changed their account of last month’s shooting involving ICE agents in Glen Burnie. (U.S. Department of Homeland Security via X)
Department of Homeland Security officials changed their account of last month’s shooting involving ICE agents in Glen Burnie, a day after Anne Arundel County police disagreed with the federal government’s original version of events, according to a Baltimore Banner report.
Until Friday, the federal agency had claimed that two men were inside a van that officials said tried to ram ICE vehicles and run over agents during a Dec. 24 operation in Glen Burnie. Agents opened fire on the van and wounded its driver, identified as Tiago Alexandre Sousa-Martins, an immigrant from Portugal whose U.S. visa expired in 2009. The second man, Salomon Antonio Serrano-Esquivel of El Salvador, was also injured.
However, on Thursday, Anne Arundel County police said Serrano-Esquivel was not in the van during the incident. According to police, he was already in custody in an ICE vehicle.
Following the release of the new details by police, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin walked back the agency’s claims that Serrano-Esquivel was in the passenger’s seat of Sousa-Martin’s van, according to a statement obtained by the Banner.
Find out what’s happening in Glen Burniefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
On Friday, McLaughlin also said that Serrano-Esquivel was in ICE custody and was injured when Sousa-Martins rammed the ICE vehicle he was in.
According to federal authorities, ICE officers were conducting a targeted operation in Glen Burnie on Christmas Eve when they approached the van driven by Sousa-Martins. Federal officials claimed Sousa-Martins was told to turn off the engine; however, officials said he refused and tried to flee, ramming his van into several federal vehicles and attempting to run officers over.
The officers fired their weapons and hit Sousa-Martins, who crashed the van, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s statement.
The new version of events provided by both federal and local authorities echoed an account given to The Banner shortly after the shooting by an attorney who visited Serrano-Esquivel at the hospital.
Alex Major told the Banner that Serrano-Esquivel, a landscape worker, was pulled over by federal agents along with a family member in Southern Maryland and taken into custody Wednesday morning, hours before he was accused of riding in the van that rammed ICE officers.
A bystander’s video reviewed by The Banner also showed a white van following a crash. Agents removed one man from the vehicle and took him away on a stretcher. In the video, there was no sign of a second man inside the van.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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