Maribel Hastings
Posted Jan. 22, 2026
In response to the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent, Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem will send 1,000 additional agents to Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is yet another example of the Trump administration’s strategy of escalating violence to create chaos and show that even the death of a U.S. citizen will not stop them, as they have already blamed her for what happened.
Noem told Fox News recently that the idea is “so that our ICE and Border Patrol agents working in Minneapolis can do so safely.”
The 1,000 agents are in addition to the 2,000 already sent to Minneapolis because it is not a matter of reconsidering the strategy after a tragedy, but of imposing a plan that has nothing to do with security and everything to do with the cheap and dangerous politicking that frames Trump’s immigration policy.
For Noem, it is the agents who must be protected, not the public, who, as was demonstrated recently, can even lose their lives in an interaction with ICE or Border Patrol agents who abuse their authority with total impunity.
Trump’s strategy is not merely to detain and deport undocumented “criminals,” but to instill terror in the entire population by militarizing cities to exercise total control.
Because Trump’s strategy is not merely to detain and deport undocumented “criminals,” but to instill terror in the entire population by militarizing cities to exercise total control. This is why citizens are being indiscriminately detained, even if they show their documents. This is why there are abuses against pregnant women, children, the elderly, the disabled, veterans, and religious people. The message is that no one is safe from the anti-immigrant crusade that disguises his autocratic experiment.
But these intimidation efforts are met with resistance. Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul sued DHS and ICE to remove the agents and end what they called a “federal invasion.”
In addition, recently thousands participated in more than 1,200 demonstrations in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in repudiation of Good’s murder and the violence that masked federal agents have been unleashing since they were sent, unsolicited, to cities led by Democrats, where they seem to be competing to show their audience, President Trump, who is the toughest. Protesters called for those responsible for the violence to be held accountable.
And the fact is, that violence has been escalating. From smashing car windows to terrorize drivers, they have fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and in Good’s case, the agent shot a 37-year-old unarmed woman in the head, who, according to videos, posed no threat to the agents.
ICE violence occurs at all levels. There are numerous reports of deplorable conditions in detention centers, physical and sexual abuse, deaths due to negligence, and lack of access to medical care and medications to control chronic conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes. This is another form of violence.
The Guardian reported that last year there were 32 deaths in ICE custody, the highest number in two decades. “They died of seizure and heart failure, stroke, respiratory failure, tuberculosis or suicide…In some cases, their families and lawyers have alleged, they died of neglect, after repeatedly trying and failing to get medical care,” the publication wrote.
And according to the Associated Press, Good’s death is the fifth amid Trump’s repressive immigration operations. In Chicago, on September 12, 2025, ICE shot 38-year-old Silverio Villegas González during a traffic stop. In July 2025, in Camarillo, California, 57-year-old farmworker Jaime Alanís died after falling from the roof of a greenhouse during an operation. In August, in Monrovia, California, a man who was fleeing a raid was struck and killed on a highway adjacent to a Home Depot. And in Virginia, in October 2025, 24-year-old Josué Castro Rivera died after being struck by a vehicle while fleeing a traffic stop by ICE agents.
Communities are not safe either because Trump has diverted some 25,000 officials and employees from various federal agencies such as the FBI, ATF, DEA, IRS, and others from their traditional duties to carry out immigration work, neglecting areas such as drug trafficking, terrorism, tax evasion, fraud, and child exploitation. This affects our national security and that of our communities.
The increasing violence of ICE and CBP has serious and, in some cases, fatal consequences.
Maribel Hastings is a Senior Advisor to América’s Voice.
- After a Devastating Year, What’s Next? - January 29, 2026
- ICE and CBP: Violence and Impunity with Serious Consequences - January 22, 2026
- The Chaotic and Cynical “Doctrine” in Venezuela - January 18, 2026
