All posts tagged "department of homeland security"

'Noem is a liar': Intense attack sees DHS head decried as 'embarrassment' on House floor

A lawmaker had a scathing opening statement about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a hearing where heads of immigration agencies were testifying ahead of a looming funding deadline for the Department of Homeland Security.

Ranking member Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) called out Noem and President Donald Trump directly, delivering his remarks before the testimony from DHS officials. He questioned Noem's leadership and the conduct of ICE and border patrol agents responsible for carrying out the Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies and tactics, including the killing of two citizens in Minnesota last month.

"Bystander videos from Minneapolis and cities around the country, show ICE and CPD personnel behaving like unprofessional goons, cursing at bystanders and mooning people from their hotel rooms," Thompson said. "News reports have a Border Patrol agent who was found passed out, drunk, and covered in vomit in a vehicle and an ICE personnel apparently stole a child's phone and sold it for cash.

"It's an embarrassment and DHS is so-called leadership should be ashamed — if only they had any shame."

He specifically addressed Noem, who had appeared briefly before the committee last year and then said she had to leave for another meeting — but that meeting never happened.

"Secretary Noem's Department of Homeland Security has the blood of American citizens on its hands, but she takes no responsibility for anything," Thompson said. "To the contrary, Secretary Noem was last seen in this committee room hiding behind her family in a desperate attempt to distract from her department's failures and abuses. Then she ran from our questions, leaving early under the guise of needing to attend a meeting that it turns out, didn't even exist."

Thompson described what he thinks Noem should do next.

'She's always been more concerned with photo ops and wardrobe changes than following the law and fulfilling the mission of her department. Since being sworn in, Secretary Noem has has enriched herself, abused the power of her office, obstructed congressional oversight and violated her oath to the Constitution.

"Donald Trump and Kristi Noem are doing real damage to this country and to the department that was stood up 25 years ago in the wake of 9/11 to protect American citizens from future attacks. Secretary Noem is a liar with no concern for Americans killed by the department she runs. She must go."

Republicans turn on MAGA-friendly CBS News boss for reporting on ICE backlash

Republicans turned on MAGA-friendly CBS News boss Bari Weiss after the network reported Monday on ICE arrests and what's happening within the agency, which was actually documented by the Trump administration's Department of Homeland Security.

CBS reported how a leaked DHS memo showed that less than 14% of the about 400,000 people arrested in 2025 were previously convicted or charged for violent criminal offenses — a major crux of the administration's argument for its aggressive immigration policies, according to The New Republic.

"Since the campaign trail, Donald Trump has pledged that he would utilize ICE to target the 'worst of the worst' and oust violent criminals from the country. But federal agents have resorted to arresting practically anybody—including U.S. citizens and children—in order to satisfy Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller’s quota of 3,000 or more arrests per day. They have also shot and killed U.S. citizens, and struck terror and fury into the souls of American communities, sparking nationwide protests and local economic blackouts," The New Republic reported.

But Republicans were apparently not convinced of this reality.

"None of that, however, has held water with conservatives, who have seemingly redirected the criticism warranted by America’s immigration agencies toward the newly reimagined MAGA-friendly news outlet, refusing to believe statistics published by Trump’s own administration," the outlet reported.

MAGA was apparently in disbelief over their own administration's reporting. Some even tried to dispute the information with unfounded facts.

“Wrong. About 70 percent of illegal aliens deported have pending criminal charges OR prior convictions,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) wrote in a post on X Monday, not providing any source to his statement. “Plus, drug trafficking, child pornography distribution, burglary, DUI, and human smuggling are categorized as ‘non-violent crimes.’ But when Obama does it, it’s okay. Right?”

ICE also attempted to dispute the facts from its own administration on its X account, and even the White House's "rapid response" account claimed CBS was “fake news" in a comment, despite its own administration's memo.

Dems must demand this key condition before funding Trump's terror troops

What should Democrats be demanding as a condition of releasing permanent funds for the Department of Homeland Security?

Over the last few weeks I’ve discussed several important conditions:

agents must not undertake warrantless searches
use racial profiling
pick up suspected undocumented people from schools, hospitals, courts, or places of worship
or carry lethal weapons.

Today I want to add an increasingly important condition:

Failure to obey any court order will immediately terminate all funding for ICE or the Border Patrol.

Who can be against this? It turns out, many Republicans in Congress.

Apparently Republicans don’t want to tie ICE or Border Patrol’s hands with the pesky responsibility of following court orders.

Last week, Judge Patrick J. Schiltz — a Reagan appointee and top federal judge in Minnesota — accused ICE of violating nearly a hundred court orders in January alone.

He wrote: “ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated,” adding that “ICE is not a law unto itself.”

Judge Schiltz issued an order on Jan. 14 that the government must give an immigrant a bond hearing or release him within seven days. Seven days passed without a hearing or release.

Judge Schiltz then took what he called the “extraordinary step” of ordering Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, to appear at a hearing on Jan. 23 to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for violating the Jan. 14 order.

“The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed.”

Judge Schiltz said he would cancel the Friday hearing if the government released the man by then. The government released him. Schiltz canceled the hearing.

But threatening the acting head of ICE with contempt of court is a cumbersome way to get ICE to follow court orders. A threatened loss of funding for ICE and Border Patrol is necessary.

Meanwhile, during an immigration hearing on Tuesday, a Department of Homeland Security attorney said it was like “pulling teeth” to get the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the Justice Department to follow court orders.

“The system sucks. This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep,” she said.

Democrats should inform congressional Republicans who are objecting to conditioning continued funding on obeying court orders that it’s part of the job (and constitutional responsibility) of every public official — whether an agent of ICE or Border Patrol, or a member of Congress.

While they’re at it, Democrats (and the rest of us) should make sure the public knows the extent to which ICE and Border Patrol agents have been violating court orders —and are still utterly lawless.

Robert Reich is an emeritus professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/. His new memoir, Coming Up Short, can be found wherever you buy books. You can also support local bookstores nationally by ordering the book at bookshop.org

Top Dem rejects calls to abolish ICE but insists party will secure reform and control

WASHINGTON — Some Americans digging out from ferocious winter storms are more concerned about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents abusing power than with their own plight, a senior member of Congress said.

“In my district, you know, we had a bad ice storm,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told Raw Story on the Capitol steps on a sunny if frigid Tuesday.

“As I talk to local officials about getting the utilities back on and making sure there's warming centers available and all that, in the midst of that, they talk about ICE. ‘What y'all gonna do about ICE?’”

In the wake of two deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis, many Democrats say ICE should be abolished.

As the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Thompson won’t go that far. But the 17-term congressman does say ICE needs a total overhaul.

‘Agency out of control’

Founded in 2002, in the aftermath of 9/11, the House Homeland Security Committee was intended to be temporary. But it was made permanent in 2005, with Thompson its first ranking member. When Democrats held the Hill, Thompson spent four years as chair.

The Department of Homeland Security oversees ICE and other immigration agencies involved in arrests, clashes and protests in Minneapolis over the last month.

Thompson, 78, tends to be more moderate than the new breed of progressive Democratic bomb-throwers, but after Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, were killed by federal agents in Minneapolis, the congressman said his constituents were keeping the pressure up for action.

“So what they see is not who they believe this country is about. And because of that, they just said, ‘What are y'all gonna do?’” Thompson told Raw Story.

“Democrats are at a real moment where we have an opportunity to show people that we want to do what's right, rather than just being perceived as inside-the-Beltway politicians.”

Polls reveal increasing public rejection of the Trump administration's hardline anti-migrant tactics, and many Democrats feel the wind in their sails.

In Congress, the killings have prompted heated negotiations on DHS reform.

Democrats first refused to rubber-stamp funding for the department, prompting a partial government shutdown.

On Tuesday, amid drama as the House voted to send a funding measure to President Donald Trump to be signed, Thompson told Raw Story issues requiring action included “the training component, you got the fact that [ICE] are breaking into schools, houses of worship, [the lack of] judicial warrants [for searches], masks.”

Democrats want agents to operate without covering their faces, to carry identification and to wear body cameras — the last a step Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said will happen in Minneapolis.

“I mean the excuse they use for masks doesn't hold water, because if it was law enforcement, that doesn't walk around with a mask,” Thompson said.

“I think this is a real moment for Congress to really rein in an agency that's out of control.”

He’s far from alone.

“This is a historic moment, folks,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) lectured a gaggle of reporters on the Capitol steps.

“Americans are being shot and killed. Journalists like you are being arrested. This is in violation of our First Amendment guarantees.

“They were put in there by the very first Congress of the United States because some were worried that … individuals didn't have enough protections within the Constitution.

“Are we going to walk away from the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights today? This Congress will be held to account. Republicans will be held to account as Americans are shot and killed on the street, as Little Liam [Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old from Minnesota] is taken [and later released].

“Children in this country are fearful they are going to be taken by authorities in America.

“We are at an incredibly historic moment. We either uphold this Constitution and call out the criminal, lawless behavior of this President and his administration or we could be doomed.”

‘ICE has a purpose’

Noem remains under pressure, after responding to both Minneapolis killings by accusing the victims of acting with criminal intent.

Those killings have led to calls to abolish ICE, which Thompson rejects.

“No, ICE has a purpose,” he told Raw Story. “But you got to fix it. Overall, it has to stand the same scrutiny of any other federal law enforcement agents. You know, nothing special.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) asks a question in a House hearing. REUTERS/Anna Rose Layden

Thompson’s losing any faith he might have retained in Noem, a former House colleague, given her responses to the killings of Good and Pretti.

“There was no substantive investigation that would have led her to believe that position in both killings,” Thompson said.

Protocol, Thompson said, would have been for the secretary to simply launch an independent investigation. It’s not that hard to do, Thompson said.

Animated, Thompson said Noem should’ve said: “It's still under investigation. The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave … and because it's us, we're gonna bring somebody else in to investigate.”

Noting the agents were not immediately placed on administrative leave, Thompson continued: “I've been a mayor. I've been a county commissioner, and every time there was one law enforcement agency involved in … an automobile accident, whatever, [we] pause[d] to give the public confidence that it will be looked at in a fair and impartial manner.

“You bring somebody else in. But [the Trump administration didn’t] even let anybody come.”

Like most Democrats, Thompson fears the President is setting up a two-tier legal system, one for liberal protesters, another for his MAGA base.

But, Thompson said, “You figure like this. You got 3,000 ICE agents in Minneapolis, right? You got 100,000 immigrants. You got 2 million-plus in Texas, and you don't have that many ICE, right? You got a million-plus [immigrants] in Florida. You don't have that many.

“So look at the waste of resources that you focus on, because you're making ICE out as a political targeting agency rather than an immigration enforcement agency. And people get that.”

House passes funding bill to end shutdown as showdown over ICE gets 2-week Band-Aid

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a funding bill to reopen the government and temporarily fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The move signals the end of a four-day partial government shutdown, as Americans have expressed their anger over the Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies, CNN reported. It has apparently created "another funding cliff" in two weeks for the Department of Homeland Security.

President Donald Trump was expected to sign the bill and end the stalemate quickly.

Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, and other GOP leaders urged Republican members to pass the bill despite their own misgivings about it, a move to prevent a shutdown similar to the 43-day shutdown in fall 2025 that stalled government funding and operations.

All these Trump lies about Alex Pretti point to one conclusion

I was born and raised in Minnesota. One of my childhood homes in south Minneapolis is less than a mile from the scene of last Saturday’s brutal Border Patrol killing. The victim was 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a US citizen born in Illinois and a registered ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital.

Pretti’s crime: He was “Minnesota nice.”

Before proceeding further, please watch this New York Times video.

But be warned, the footage is violent, graphic, and disturbing:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Similarly, a detailed CNN compilation of bystander videos confirms that Border Patrol officers took Pretti’s gun before shooting him an estimated 10 times:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

And USA Today also offered a second-by-second analysis:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Now contrast what you just observed with the Trump administration’s four-step playbook for avoiding accountability: Lie, double-down, deflect, and cover-up.

Step #1: Lie

Almost immediately, the Department of Homeland Security issued a false statement exonerating Border Patrol officers and blaming Pretti for his death:

“At 9:05 AM CT,… an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun….”

No. Pretti approached the officers with a cellphone as he filmed their encounter with two protesters. Then he tried to aid a protester whom officers had shoved to the ground.

“The officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect violently resisted.”

No. The officers didn’t even know that Pretti had a gun until seven of them had already swarmed, pepper-sprayed, and wrestled him to the ground. Then one of the officers exclaimed with surprise, “He has a gun!”

At that point, several officers were on top of Pretti. A gun matching the description of the one that DHS said Pretti owned (and for which he had a permit in the open-carry state of Minnesota) emerged from the group. After Pretti had been disarmed, an officer shot him in the back at close range. As the officer continued firing, another officer shot Pretti as he lay on the ground.

The agents fired a total of at least 10 shots.

Step #2: Double Down

During a six-minute press appearance, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino doubled-down on the lies. He said that an “individual approached Border Patrol agents with a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun.”

No. It was a cellphone.

“The agents attempted to disarm this individual, but he violently resisted.”

No. Pretti was on the ground when officers noticed his gun and took it.

“Fearing for his life and lives and safety of fellow officers, a Border Patrol agent fired defensive shots.”

No. Two agents fired a total of 10 shots as Pretti lay on the street with his hands over his head.

“The suspect also had two loaded magazines and no accessible ID.”

I don’t know what an “accessible ID” is, but Minnesota is an open-carry state and Pretti had a permit to own the gun.

“This looked like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

There is no evidence supporting that claim.

“The officer was highly trained and had been serving as a Border Patrol agent for eight years. The officer has extensive training as a range safety officer and less lethal officer…”

Two officers fired a total of 10 shots at a man who had been disarmed. What about the second shooter? And what training recommends firing 10 shots at a defenseless US citizen lying on the ground?

Bovino then took questions but refused to answer them:

Q: “When did agents learn that he had a gun, and did he ever brandish that weapon at them?

Bovino: “This situation again is evolving. This situation is under investigation. Those facts will come to light. This particular incident is being investigated, just like we investigate other similar incidents like we’ve done over the past several years. It’s in the hands of professionals as facts will come to light.”

The videos show that Pretti never brandished a weapon at anyone. As for an investigation, the federal government had refused to allow Minnesota officials to participate after an officer killed Renee Nicole Good two weeks earlier. But this time, Minnesota officials took two extraordinary steps: the state obtained a warrant to search the public street where the officers had killed Pretti; and a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring federal officials from altering or destroying evidence.

Q: “Did he have an additional gun, or was the gun removed from the scene?... From the video, it doesn’t seem like he pulled a gun on anyone…. When did the gun come out?”

Bovino: “Again, this situation is evolving. This is under investigation. Those facts will come to light…”

The gun never “came out” until Border Patrol officers discovered and removed it after forcing Pretti to the ground.

Step #3: Deflect – Blame the Victim … and Anyone Else

Trump’s deputy chief of staff and the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, Stephen Miller, tripled down on the lies. Others quickly followed.

Miller said Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.”

Trump blamed Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) for “inciting insurrection.” He posted that they were leading a “subversive effort” against law enforcement “the likes of which we have not seen, probably, since the Civil War.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi offered Walz a deal. One of her demands revealed the true motive behind Trump’s aggressive immigration surge in Minnesota: leverage. Trump is looking ahead at the November midterm elections, doesn’t like what he sees, and is preparing to upend them. That’s why Bondi told Walz to turn over the state’s voter rolls and maybe it “will help bring back law and order to Minnesota.” (A few days earlier, Trump’s Justice Department had already subpoenaed numerous Minnesota officials, including Walz, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristia Noem parroted Bovino’s lies that Pretti “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” She said that her assertion of “domestic terrorism” was just “the facts.”

Vice President JD Vance posted that the events in Minneapolis were “engineered chaos” caused by “far left agitators, working with local authorities.”

On Fox News, FBI Director Kash Patel characterized Pretti as a violent actor.

Step #4: Repeat – and Cover-Up as Needed

Trump’s minions had falsely smeared Renee Nicole Good as a “domestic terrorist” too. Then the Justice Department announced that the civil rights division would not even investigate whether her killer had used excessive force — as it typically has done in such situations. Instead, the Department would investigate the victim and her partner. Days later, six senior career federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned over the issue.

Noem announced that DHS would lead the Pretti investigation — with assistance from the FBI.

Bovino’s “Choices”

In a press conference on Sunday, Jan. 25, Bovino lectured Minnesotans on “choices,” suggesting that Pretti’s choices led to his death. But Pretti chose only to exercise his First and Second Amendment rights. For that, Trump’s newly expanded paramilitary organization chose to execute him in broad daylight. Bovino, Trump, and Trump’s sycophants chose to lie about it.

In the aftermath of Pretti’s killing, thousands of Minnesotans also made a choice: In sub-zero temperatures, they protested the federal government’s aggressive occupation of Minneapolis that had led to yet another death. They know that the whole world is watching. And if I know anything about Minnesotans, they will prevail.

Steven J. Harper is an attorney, adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School, and author of several books, including Crossing Hoffa -- A Teamster's Story and The Lawyer Bubble -- A Profession in Crisis. He has been a regular columnist for Moyers on Democracy, Dan Rather's News and Guts, and The American Lawyer. Follow him at https://thelawyerbubble.com

This was the moment the tide finally turned on Trump

It feels different this time.

You can sense the Trump administration knows it has finally stepped in it, with its baseless, soulless response to the ICE murder of Alex Pretti, a peaceful protester and legal observer, in Minneapolis last weekend. The administration served up a transparent lie — one so obvious it couldn’t be effectively spun.

Yet they still tried to spin it, assuring us Pretti wasn’t the victim of an execution, that he was a “would-be assassin” (Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s words) who went to a protest to “massacre” law enforcement agents.

That narrative evaporated the moment video of the incident went public. No matter which angle you looked at, the truth was clear: Pretti was pepper-sprayed, manhandled, beaten, disarmed, and then — prone, helpless — had 10 bullets pumped into him.

He was holding a cellphone. Not a gun. They don’t look that much alike.

We soon found out his name, that he was 37, that he was a resident of Minneapolis, a law-abiding citizen of the United States, and an intensive care nurse for the Veterans Administration.

Central casting couldn’t have created a more honorable human being.

Didn’t matter.

As Pretti lay on a cold slab in a Minnesota morgue — as when Renee Nicole Good ended up in the same place, after ICE murdered her earlier this month — the smear machine went into overdrive.

Pretti was brandishing a firearm, we were told. He was determined to inflict maximum damage, the regime lied. The “suspect” reacted violently to the officers, apparatchiks jeered. Those officers feared for their lives and fired defensive shots.

Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie.

Once it was apparent that angle wouldn’t fly, reprehensible Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino and sociopathic Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem resorted to Plan B. No one carries a semi-automatic handgun to a protest, they claimed, unless they have evil intent, and thus deserve to be blown away.

Forget the fact Pretti’s gun was tucked into his waistband, that he never touched it before it was removed from his person, and that he was carrying it in full accordance with Minnesota law.

Therein lay the ultimate hypocrisy. Pretti had a license to possess a handgun in a state that allows concealed carry. This is everything Republicans crow about. They perpetually insist their beloved Second Amendment is at the heart of our rights as Americans.

Even the NRA pushed back at the Trump regime. So did gun activists. Elsewhere, the name Kyle Rittenhouse was trotted out as an example of an outrageous double standard.

Rittenhouse, you may recall, was all of 17 years old and armed with an assault rifle when in August 2020 he arrived at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and proceeded to shoot three men. Two died but Rittenhouse became a hero of the right, before and after his acquittal for homicide in 2021.

Somehow, among the Trumpists, what was good for Kyle Rittenhouse didn’t apply to Alex Pretti. That helped spark a GOP split. By Monday, it had exploded into a crisis.

Trump’s murderous madness had reached a tipping point. It seemed even the president himself and his propaganda mistress, Karoline Leavitt, were open to some form of investigation of the execution of Pretti — even civil discussions with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey — rather than continuing to back the attempted evidence destruction and coverup.

Administration figures, Republican governors, representatives, and senators were pushing back, saying things may have gone too far. That was code for wanting Noem’s head on a platter, and the carnage to stop. It was at least an admission that the optics were less than stellar.

News came: a reassignment (read: firing) for Bovino; White House border czar Tom Homan called in to clean up the mess.

You know we’ve crossed a surreal divide when the solution to a crisis is a dude forced to unconvincingly deny accepting a bribe from undercover FBI agents — $50,000 cash in a paper bag, no less.

On Tuesday, Trump told reporters he was looking for an “honorable and honest,” impartial investigation.

But then, on Tuesday afternoon, word filtered out that the “Justice” Department had decided there would be no federal investigation (sham or otherwise) into the violation of Pretti’s civil rights by those who fired the fatal shots — only a probe from Customs and Border Protection on whether its officers followed “agency policy” in killing Pretti, and another from DHS centering on Pretti himself and if he broke any laws while being shot dead.

In other words, much of what Trump and Leavitt were spouting was just lip service, and the coverup remained in progress.

When you get right down to it, the real issue is that a group of monsters has been trained to stay on message about how it isn’t the administration breaking down democracy, and that it’s our eyes that are deceiving us.

Now they’re finally being called out.

Lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty are finally being condemned. Not a moment too soon. It took Trump just a year to destroy the government, alienate our allies, upend the world order, terrify the populace and tear to shreds every ideal we hold dear.

For Trump and the GOP, getting slaughtered in November’s midterms should be the least of their concerns. First should be rescuing the republic from the brink.

If the murder of Alex Pretti is the wake-up call it appears it could well be, his slaying will not have been completely in vain.

First on the list of things to be fixed — ended — is the relentless assault on innocent Americans by malevolent, untrained, unyielding, anarchic secret police. This experiment in state-sponsored horror has only fostered fear and hatred. Defund ICE now.

Thankfully, among Republicans, it seems a few sleeping dogs are stirring. Unfortunately, nothing will bring back Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They’re gone. True justice will never be served.

We owe it to them to cleanse their character. Good and Pretti were not murdered because they were “domestic terrorists.” They were said to be lovely, engaged people, not heroes, but far from the demons they are disgracefully said to have been — by the real domestic terrorists.

Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.

Trump just handed Dems a weapon that will finish him

After what happened in Minneapolis last weekend, the American people are angry, afraid, and feel powerless to stop a president and a Department of Homeland Security drunk on power and violence. They are crying out for someone — anyone — to show a way forward, to counter this administration and defend a fragile democracy.

This is the moment Democrats must step forward together.

Poll after poll shows Donald Trump and congressional Republicans in deep trouble. Voters are furious about affordability, exhausted by chaos, alarmed by the open lawlessness defining this administration.

Democrats have rightly centered accountability, calling out a GOP Congress that sits idle while Trump tramples the Constitution, the rule of law, and basic human decency.

The second fatal shooting of an innocent, law-abiding American by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis sickened anyone with a functioning conscience. This was not an accident. It was the predictable result of an unrestrained DHS operating a paramilitary force, emboldened by Trump and protected by Republican silence.

Republicans, according to reporting, are afraid to confront Trump over ICE’s brutality. In the absence of Republican courage, Democrats must act.

They have real leverage.

Last week, the House passed a funding package that included more than $64 billion for DHS, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection. It passed despite Democratic demands for guardrails to rein in ICE’s violent, lawless behavior and the rogue leadership of DHS Secretary Kristin Noem.

That DHS funding was bundled with several other appropriations bills needed to keep the government funded through the end of the fiscal year.

In normal times, such a package would sail through Congress. These are not normal times. Any faith that business could proceed as usual has been shattered by the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both shot in broad daylight by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.

The bill now sits in the Senate, where Democrats have the power to stop it.

Senate Democrats vowed not to provide the votes needed to advance DHS funding unless the department is fundamentally reined in. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called what happened in Minnesota “appalling and unacceptable,” and called the bill “woefully inadequate” to curb ICE abuses.

That stance upends what House negotiators — read Republicans — thought was a near-done deal. Because DHS funding is tied to five other spending bills, removing it would require renegotiation and new House approval, unlikely before funding expires at the end of the week.

The result is a very real threat of a partial government shutdown if Democrats hold firm and Republicans refuse to separate DHS from the broader package.

This is why the stakes are so high, and why Democrats must stay united until they get real action on behalf of the American people.

They have been here before. Last year, Democrats forced a shutdown over expiring Obamacare tax credits. They showed unity, then accepted a familiar Republican “promise” that the issue would be taken up later.

It wasn’t, of course. Why would anyone in their right mind take Republicans in Congress at their word? The credits expired. Premiums spiked. Millions lost coverage. Democrats sent a message, but messages don’t pay bills. Outcomes do, and the outcome was failure because Democrats caved.

Now the test is far more dire.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned the killing of Pretti, calling Trump and DHS “completely and totally out of control.” He labeled the killing of a VA nurse a “horrific, preventable tragedy” and demanded an independent investigation free from DHS interference.

But words are not enough. If the Senate blocks DHS funding and the bill returns to the House, Jeffries must keep his caucus united to stop it.

This is not the moment for half-measures or false promises of reform later. Or to trust Republicans to do the right thing. Senate Democrats must refuse to fund DHS — fully, publicly, to the end.

Not for symbolism. Not for a press release. Not in exchange for another empty Republican assurance.

This is a defining test for Schumer. The New York senator built his career battling in the trenches. Yet that fighter feels absent now, replaced by a leader strong on floor speeches but weak against Trump’s, and the GOP’s, relentless bad faith.

Schumer has a chance to remind the country who he once was. He can hold his caucus together, vote down DHS funding, and force a reckoning over the brutality and illegality that has now claimed American lives.

Public opinion is already there. Democrats, independents, and even some Republicans are horrified by what is happening in Minneapolis. There are not two legitimate sides to this story. Americans can see the truth for themselves. There is only one.

Trump’s response has been escalation. He sent border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, a move roughly equivalent to sending a Tsavo lion into a chicken coop. Homan, like his boss, offers intimidation instead of accountability.

Democrats must be visible. They must go to Minnesota, stand where Americans were killed, and make clear they are willing to confront this administration head-on. They must stay united and refuse to be conned yet again by Republicans.

This is not politics as usual. It is about protecting American lives.

The country is watching. If Democrats fail, this will not stop in Minnesota. These tactics will spread to blue cities and blue states, putting more American lives at risk.

This really is a matter of life and death.

Democrats must either prove they are willing to fight, or once again signal that they will blink. If they break now, the consequences will be measured in blood, making polls and headlines meaningless.

John Casey was most recently Senior Editor, The Advocate, and is a freelance opinion and feature story writer. Previously, he was a Capitol Hill press secretary, and spent 25 years in media and public relations in NYC. He is the co-author of LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025), named by Oprah in her "Best 25 of 2025.”

'It's terror at this point': Explosive warning as Trump weighs nuclear option in Minnesota

WASHINGTON – As Vice President JD Vance prepared to visit Minneapolis on Thursday, a prominent Democratic congresswoman, herself a top target of Donald Trump’s racially tinged attacks, railed against federal immigration agents deploying “horrifying” and “terrifying” tactics in her home city.

“It’s occupation … it’s terror at this point,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) told Raw Story.

Omar was speaking at the Capitol on a day of drama around the passage of new funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Agents of ICE and other DHS bodies have been running amok in Minneapolis and other parts of Minnesota as the Trump administration implements its brutal immigration agenda.

On Jan. 7, in Minneapolis, an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three who was observing federal operations.

Trump, Vance, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and other senior officials immediately attacked Good and praised the agent who killed her, Jonathan Ross.

Federal agencies refused co-operation with state and local investigators as fears spread that Good’s killing would be covered up, her killer not brought to justice.

Amid rising protests in Minneapolis, there has been another shooting, wounding a man in the leg, and multiple instances of protesters met with violence by federal agents.

The Trump administration has launched investigations into local Democratic leaders, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

Trump has also floated invoking the Insurrection Act, a rarely used measure that allows the president to deploy regular army troops to deal with civil unrest.

Vance was due to speak in Minnesota on Thursday evening. The administration said he would “reinforce the White House’s unwavering support for federal immigration officials,” hold a roundtable discussion with community leaders, and stage a news conference.

Raw Story asked Omar if she was worried that Vance’s visit risked “tossing gasoline on an already burning fire?”

“Minnesotans have been very level-headed in their approach,” Omar said. “They understand the stakes, and they are not taking the bait in escalating this in any kind of way that would jeopardize the safety of their neighbors.”

In another high-profile incident in Minneapolis, federal agents recently took into custody a 5-year-old boy, seeking to gain access to family members.

“It's one of the most horrifying stories to come out of Minnesota,” Omar told Raw Story. “I mean, to have this child be used in a way to coerce others to come out is really terrifying. And you know, we've heard that they took him and his father to San Antonio [in Texas] before they took them to a more permanent place.”

“Does that show that they are escalating tactics?” Raw Story asked.

“They are,” Omar said. "It's an occupation, I think is a light word to use. It's terror at this point. I think they have a desperate need to show that they are able to do something there.”

Omar was born in Somalia and emigrated to the U.S. — making her a prime target for frequent racist attacks from the right, including from Vance and Trump.

Trump has said Omar should be jailed or deported.

Right-wing invective about Somali Americans and cases of childcare benefit fraud in Minnesota have added fuel to Trump’s attacks.

Omar said: “Obviously, the Somalis are not in the crossfire of [the ICE raids] because, you know, nearly 60 percent of Somalis in Minnesota are US-born. Almost 99 percent of us are citizens. So when they couldn't find Somalis, I think they're taking their anger out on the Latino and Asian community, and it is, like I said, pure terror.”

On Thursday, the House was considering a new funding measure for the Department of Homeland Security. If it does not pass, the House will risk another government shutdown, just two months after the end of the longest such funding pause in history.

Omar said: “The alternative is finding a way to pass legislation that reins in the terror that ICE and Border Patrol is causing in our communities. They have no business being in American cities. Their mission has been to occupy, to terrorize and to intimidate communities.”

Speaking of her Minneapolis constituency, she said, “I have businesses that are reporting severe losses. It is unjustifiable to shoot an American citizen in the face, to have masked men jumping out of unmarked cars, asking American citizens for their papers.

“And this is not just happening in Minneapolis, it's happening across Minnesota, and we cannot normalize this terror that our communities are feeling, and we have to take a stand.”

Omar called the DHS funding bill “a joke” and said, “Real accountability means that they follow what the laws of this country are, and they are moving the goal post every single minute.

“They have authorized for ICE agents to go into people's homes, violating the Fourth Amendment without a judicial warrant. You can now live with federal agents that are deputized by our government constantly violating the Constitution.”

Nonetheless, most observers said the DHS funding measure would pass, with swing-state Democrats likely to support Republicans in voting for the bill.

Trumpist lies about this ICE outrage demand a fierce response — including murder charges

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed another person, the 14th ICE shooting under Trump to date.

Flexing Gestapo power in broad daylight, the agent shot a woman at close range as she was driving away from him — not toward him, as officials claim — as confirmed by analysis of footage from three camera angles.

The agent should be arrested for murder under state law and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should be prosecuted as an accessory to murder, as her articles of impeachment are pending. And every American, including those who watch Fox News, OAN, and other Trump propaganda channels, should watch the video of the shooting and see for themselves how Trump and Noem are lying to them.

What happened

Wednesday was a cold day in Minneapolis. Renee Nicole Good’s car was parked sideways on the street, blocking some but not all lanes of traffic. It isn’t clear whether she parked like that intentionally or slid due sideways due to icy conditions.

Several bystanders captured what came next. A team of ICE agents got out of a truck about 20 feet from where Good was parked and rushed to her car as one yelled, “Get out of the fucking car.”

Other officers made other inaudible statements to Good, presumably directions for what she should do about her car.

One witness has said Good signaled another vehicle to pass her and was preparing to merge into traffic herself when the officers approached. When an ICE agent ran up on Good’s car and grabbed at the door handle, Good put her car in reverse. Then, the officers still shouting, she put it in drive, with the wheels turned away from the officers, and slowly tried to move her car.

As she slowly pulled away, an officer fired three shots at her head at close range. Her car lurched forward, and she died.

Noem and Trump immediately lied

Despite the clarity of multiple videos showing this sequence of events exactly as described here, President Donald Trump and Kristi Noem immediately went on a lying spree about what transpired. It was vomitous.

Noem officially claimed that Good trying to drive away was “an act of domestic terrorism carried out against ICE agents.”

Noem also claimed during a press conference that Good was blocking officers with her vehicle. Videos show an open lane the agents could easily have used.

Noem claimed that Good “weaponized her vehicle and attempted to run a law enforcement officer over” before she was shot. Claiming Good had “attempted to kill or cause bodily harm to an agent,” Noem later embellished her story to say Good actually “hit” the officer before he shot her.

The video makes this lie obvious.

Noem added for good measure that Good had been “harassing ICE agents throughout the day,” but admitted that the shooting happened in the morning at 10:25 a.m., which makes that claim impossible.

Trump has never met a lie he couldn’t top. He took it up a notch.

Within hours of the shooting, before any investigation was completed, Trump posted on Truth Social that Good “viciously ran over” an ICE officer “before he shot her in self-defense.”

He further characterized Good as “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting,” and praised the shooting officer.

Trump said it was “hard to believe” the officer was still alive, suggesting he’d been mauled, and blamed the whole incident on “radical left violence and hate.”

As horrific as Good’s murder was, Trump and Noem engaging in state brutality and lying about it in an apparent cover-up is even more ominous.

ICE broke federal law

At least 30 people died in ICE custody in 2025, the highest number in decades. Their families and loved ones should sue Noem and DHS. States need to prosecute DHS agents for murder.

In 1989, the Supreme Court articulated the standard for using lethal force in Graham v Connor. An officer’s decision to use force requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the “severity of the crime at issue,” and whether the suspect poses an “immediate threat to the safety of the officer or others.”

Here, there was no crime whatsoever except a car parked sideways on an icy street.

Noem claims that the officer who shot Good as she tried to drive away did “exactly” what he was supposed to do, claiming, “Our officer followed his training, did exactly what he’s been taught to do in that situation.”

Apparently Noem has never read the DOJ policy manual, which begs to differ.

DOJ policy on deadly force

The Department of Justice policy manual prohibits shooting people as they flee. The manual states that, “Deadly force may not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect.” The chapter on the Use of Force, at Title 1-16.000, makes clear that officers cannot shoot people as they’re driving away:

Deadly force may not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect.
Firearms may not be discharged solely to disable moving vehicles. Specifically, firearms may not be discharged at a moving vehicle unless: (1) a person in the vehicle is threatening the officer or another person with deadly force by means other than the vehicle; or (2) the vehicle is operated in a manner that threatens to cause death or serious physical injury to the officer or others, and no other objectively reasonable means of defense appear to exist, which includes moving out of the path of the vehicle.

Christopher Armitage, who wrote Soft Secession vs. Soft Fascism: We Have Options, urges blue states to start prosecuting Trump officials under state law. He is spot on. State prosecutors in Minnesota, and in all states where ICE goons are tackling and brutalizing people on the streets and in their homes, need to prosecute Trump agents for murder and attempted murder. Federal law does not preempt state criminal codes.

As Trump trashes the Constitution and dispenses with the rule of law, blue states are the final bulwark against anarchy. Prosecuting Trump officials is the best remaining tool for protecting democracy and preventing further barbarity.

In the meantime, as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey put it so elequantly, ICE needs to “Get the f--- out of Minneapolis.”

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.