ICE, Minneapolis, and Facism
It was just over two weeks ago that Renee Good, an American citizen, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in her car outside of her Minneapolis home after witnessing an ICE detainment. This week, ICE agents detained a five-year-old boy on his way home from school. Both he and his father are now being held at an ICE detention centre in Dilley, Texas. And yesterday, a protester was fatally shot by federal agents in the streets of Minneapolis. Widespread demonstrations have sparked across the US, and especially in Minneapolis, where federal agents continue to escalate violence with the use of firearms and chemical weapons on protestors.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have called for the removal of ICE, despite extreme pushback from the federal government.
Vice President JD Vance has defended ICE actions in Minneapolis, claiming that local officials and “far-left agitators” are inciting “chaos” by refusing to cooperate with the federal agents’ actions. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also continues to back ICE, affirming that agents were countering an “act of domestic terrorism” in the killing of Good.
When Trump officially took office last January, he scheduled large-scale ICE raids to take place immediately, in an effort to crack down on “the worst of the worst criminals" and “illegal immigration”. So began the influx of deportations and detainments, where legal immigrants were imprisoned and others sent to El Salvador’s mega-prisons. Conditions in these detention centres have been chronically dire, with photos and stories of overcrowding and abuses landing on the front page of Human Rights Watch and CNN for years.
Not only are the conditions in detention centres prison-like, but ICE agents' tactics have also been compared to those of the “gestapo”.
The Supreme Court, which holds a 6-3 conservative majority, ruled in September of 2025 that ICE agents could racially profile individuals on the street. A new ICE mandate from earlier this week also permits ICE agents to enter homes without a warrant signed by a judge, a phenomenon that was not previously permitted. These decisions have come under fire, as this could lead to deadly consequences for people of colour who could be legally targeted on the streets or in their homes.
As tensions continue to rise, people across the country are on edge. The federal government is allowing rampant violence, federal agents imposing racial hierarchies; this is the new face of fascism.