Democrats need to shut down Trump's terrorist government
Funding the war on their own constituents would be a grave betrayal.
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Last week in Minneapolis, a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, an unarmed 37-year-old mother, in her car. This was not merely a tragic outcome of bad policy. It’s an escalation of Donald Trump’s open assault on Democratic-run cities and states.
The New York Times reports that in the past four months, ICE agents have fired on at least nine people in their vehicles. One person was previously killed in Chicago and the latest casualty is an American citizen who’d just dropped off her now orphaned son at school. (As this newsletter was being finalized last night, news broke that federal agents shot another person in Minneapolis.)
Trump’s corrupted FBI has taken over the investigation from state officials, cutting them out of what will likely become a sham process shielding ICE from accountability. Shamefully, the president and his ghoulish lackeys, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance, quickly launched a smear campaign against Good. Instead of expressing remorse, they slandered her as a “domestic terrorist,” a grotesque lie that conveys how the regime views anyone who resists.
Renee Nicole Good’s murder should not become another statistic, just a line item in the ledger of mounting offenses that Democrats hope they can settle in upcoming elections. Her death must serve as the last straw when Democrats finally say “enough” and stop engaging with the Trump administration as a good-faith governing partner.
Democrats should uniformly reject any pretense of political normalcy while Trump’s goons wage an ongoing terror campaign in the Twin Cities. DHS is heightening tensions, brutalizing people, and putting innocent civilians at risk every single day. When ICE and CBP agents overwhelmingly outnumber local police, it’s clear the goal is more akin to occupation than it is maintaining law and order.
Democrats will have a chance to offer more than thoughts and prayers in the coming weeks.
Last November, seven Senate Democrats and one independent joined with Republicans to end a weeks-long government shutdown without gaining much of anything in return. The continuing budget resolution they passed will expire on January 30. That includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
Once again, Republicans will require at least seven Democratic votes in the Senate to reach the 60-vote threshold to bypass the filibuster. This time, no self-respecting Democrat should provide their vote.
American carnage
Some congressional Democrats have shown openness to using their limited leverage to force significant changes at ICE, which has terrorized Minneapolis to the point that schools closed last week because children weren’t safe.
Rep. Delia Ramirez declared that “statements and letters are not enough.” She pointed out that the appropriations process and the CR expiring provide an ideal opportunity. Likewise, Sen. Chris Murphy posted on social media shortly after Good’s killing that “Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn’t restrain the growing lawlessness of this agency.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal put it even more bluntly, saying “we can’t just keep authorizing money for these illegal killers. That’s what they are, this rogue force.” Rep. Eric Swalwell told Greg Sargent, "I’m not voting to fund this ICE. I support getting rid of their immunity. I support requiring them to take off the masks ... This ICE is not what anybody asked for, and I’m not going to vote to continue it."
Murphy is rallying Democrats to reject DHS funding that doesn’t include major ICE reforms. His proposed bill would require DHS obtain a warrant for any arrest that isn’t at the border and restrict Border Patrol operations to the actual border. It would limit ICE’s use of firearms when conducting routine civil matters. Perhaps most importantly, ICE agents would have to wear identification and remain unmasked when on duty. These are all reasonable requests in a free society, and it says everything that they are non-starters for this administration.
Of course, no rational person thinks that Trump would ever negotiate in good faith with Democrats or honor any deal he makes. He’s a bully and a thug. The odious troll Stephen Miller nodded to this reality last week when he told Jake Tapper that “we live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.” Trump has no interest in the “art of the deal” at this point. He thinks he can take whatever he wants through brute force.
Democrats should play no part in this farce, even if it means the government shuts down again. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated earlier this month that a shutdown was not on the table. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he’s focused mostly on advancing the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which passed in the House last Thursday. That’s good news, but it doesn’t address the very real threat that ICE agents could kill more Americans.
Barely 24 hours after Good’s murder, federal agents shot a married couple in Portland, Oregon. And Trump’s open support for extrajudicial violence has further emboldened ICE, who openly threaten protesters or anyone who dares challenge their authority.
The footage coming out of Minneapolis look disturbingly like scenes from an authoritarian dystopia. They are conducting warrantless door-to-door “searches,” like Soviet secret police.
They are swarming vehicles and grabbing people they presume are here illegally as if they are suspected murderers or violent terrorists.
ICE agents are seen on video threatening citizens. One even asked a woman if she'd “learned anything” from the past week, a chilling reference to Good’s killing.
ICE agents are openly aggressive, brutalizing protesters or anyone who simply questions their gestapo tactics. Their blatant thuggery seems designed to provoke a response so Trump can finally impose the Insurrection Act.
And yet the senators who capitulated to end the shutdown last fall seem ready to do so again.
The centrist independent Angus King told CNN he supports changes to ICE but added, “I never like shutdowns.” New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen insists “there are other ways to deal with ICE.” But It’s unclear what those are considering Kristi Noem’s open sneering at normal congressional attempts at oversight. She’s banned Congress members from visiting Minneapolis ICE facilities without a week’s notice while at the same time implementing a further “surge” of ICE agents into the tinderbox that is the Twin Cities.
Democrats might argue there’s little they can do to constrain Trump until they regain control of at least one chamber of Congress. But a relative lack of power does not obligate them enable Trump’s malignant lawlessness. Consider that the day after Good was murdered, a half dozen Democrats voted to confirm one of Trump’s judicial nominees, 53 to 40. This included Amy Klobuchar from Minnesota. What are we even doing here?
It seems ridiculous that we even have to say this, but Democrats shouldn’t affirmatively fund a government that’s terrorizing their constituents with a secret police force. Vance has even lied that masked ICE agents enjoy “absolute immunity” when brutalizing residents of cities they weren’t invited to and aren’t welcome in. It would be a betrayal for Democrats to cosign any of this.
It’s morally correct to oppose ICE’s actions, but it’s also good politics. After their loss in 2024, Democrats are understandably spooked about appearing soft on border security. But Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump’s fascist overreach. Support for his immigration policies has steadily fallen over the past year. Recent polling now reveals a majority of Americans disapprove of ICE’s actions.
“Abolish ICE” is no longer just a far-left slogan. God knows why Americans reelected Trump — but they clearly didn’t envision masked goons knocking down doors and disappearing people.
Accountability can’t wait
The bottom line is that if Trump and his goons insist on waging an unpopular war on American soil against American citizens, Republicans have enough votes to kill the filibuster and pass a spending bill by themselves.
Even if Democrats are worried about what Trump and Republicans will do without the filibuster — and Trump has already demanded they end it — that isn’t a compelling argument for voting to fund this government. Trump is already violating the Constitution as a matter of course.
Trump has tried to cut up to $10 billion in childcare and social services funding from five Democratic-run states (a court earlier this week blocked him from doing so). He’s stealing spending authority from Congress and using the power of the purse to punish blue states that won’t submit to his will. He’s started wars without congressional consent or approval and is threatening more of them. He’s weaponized the Department of Justice against his political opponents and attacked the independence of the Federal Reserve. None of this is normal or tolerable.
If last year’s shutdown was still successful because it put the focus on healthcare, ICE warrants a similar spotlight. Accountability can’t wait. Trump’s poorly trained, radical thugs are invading American cities, and the regime’s response to Good’s killing indicates that there’s no level of violence they wouldn’t endorse.
There is no better time for Democrats to take a clear stand against an out-of-control government that’s acting like an occupying force. It would show Americans that this isn’t politics as usual. These aren’t normal times, and there’s no sense pretending otherwise.
That’s it for today
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What’s happening here isn’t “law enforcement,” it’s the behavior of a security apparatus that’s slipped its leash and started treating the public as an occupied population.
When masked federal agents roam a city with impunity, firing into cars and smearing the dead as justification, you’re not looking at public safety, you’re looking at a domestic intimidation force that’s learned it can operate without consequence.
Call it whatever you want: a parallel police state, a rogue internal militia, an unaccountable enforcement caste. The label matters less than the function, and the function is fear.
And the irony is almost too on‑the‑nose: a country that lectures the world about authoritarianism is now running operations that mirror the very regimes it claims to oppose.
If another nation deployed masked federal units to terrorize its own citizens, Washington would call it a human‑rights crisis. When it happens here, it’s rebranded as “security.” The cognitive dissonance is doing more work than the agencies themselves.
This isn’t drift, it’s design. A state that treats oversight as optional and violence as administrative routine eventually stops resembling a democracy and starts resembling something far more familiar to people who’ve lived under coercive rule.
And the most telling part? The people in power don’t even bother hiding it anymore. They assume the public will adapt to the new normal. That’s the real danger.
I’m working on a new piece about this from a behavioral standpoint that will drop later today. I invite you all to check it out and thank you for writing this piece.
—Johan
Former foreign service officer
Everyone do what you can to influence your elected officials votes. We don't deserve this.
If you have ICE fascists in your city, help protect your neighbors as best you can.