I felt compelled to repost this essay on Facebook by Michael Jochum.
The murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota is not an isolated tragedy. It is a case study in how authoritarian rule manifests in the United States, courtesy of Trump-style fascism, an administration that no longer governs but commands, a complicit GOP that enables it, and a hand-picked Supreme Court that has stripped away the guardrails that once protected the public from exactly this kind of abuse.
That both DHS and Donald Trump issued false accounts of Renee Good’s killing while four videos already circulating clearly contradicted them is the most important fact of this moment. They are no longer even attempting to justify their actions. They are demanding that Americans abandon reality itself and accept whatever story the administration chooses. If that demand continues to succeed, it becomes the purest demonstration of totalitarian power, the ability to control how people think. At that point, accepting the lie is no longer a mistake, it is a loyalty test.
What we know is chilling and clear. An ICE officer killed a Minneapolis driver during an explosive federal enforcement operation. Mayor Jacob Frey called the operation reckless, unnecessary, and harmful to families. Local activists and residents mobilized immediately, using chants and whistles to monitor the surge. Kristi Noem, in grotesque form, declared the killing an “act of domestic terrorism” against ICE. And the White House amplified the same lie. This is not governance. This is propaganda wrapped around a corpse.
Meanwhile, Trump will threaten to bomb a different country every twelve hours until the world stops talking about his record, his corruption, his violence, and the mountains of credible evidence surrounding his abuse of children. The most dangerous kind of stupid is the politically illiterate person who votes for human garbage like this and then calls it patriotism. You were not tricked forever. You chose comfort over conscience, identity over integrity, and cruelty over citizenship. The cruelty has always been the point.
One thing Americans, especially white Americans, must finally understand is this: when a government learns to abandon the vulnerable, erase minorities, and treat suffering as policy, it will do the same to everyone else the moment they are no longer useful. If a flag-waving evangelical voter believes this administration will not eventually turn on them too, they have not been paying attention. Tyranny does not stop at the edges of someone else’s life. It expands until it reaches your own.
It now behooves all people who love this country to leave behind the self-deluded hero worshippers in their sealed bubbles, ranting to Fox News, marinating in grievance, mistaking obedience for belonging. They have had years to see the truth staring them in the face. They chose not to. Education, facts, evidence, and reality itself have failed to penetrate their fog-bound skulls. Trump’s thousands of documented lies, his naked racism, his cruelty, his corruption, his record of harm, none of it made a dent. That was their choice.
So the only path left is the oldest one in a democracy: truth, resistance, and the vote. We do not need their permission to save our country. We need their lies to fail. We need their power to end. We need the truth to keep doing what it always does when people are finally ready to hear it.
Some people bruise the meaning of human. I try to rise above it. Some of these motherfuckers make that hard.
But the truth remains: it will set us all free from their gross stupidity, if we have the courage to carry it.
We are all Renee Nicole Good.
— Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition
An International Educator in Vietnam 
January 10, 2026 (Saturday) by Heather Cox Richardson
Yesterday, in an apparent attempt to regain control of the national narrative surrounding the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, Vice President J.D. Vance led the administration in pushing a video of the shooting captured by the shooter himself, Jonathan Ross, on his cell phone.
The video shows Ross getting out of a vehicle and walking toward a red SUV where Good sits in the driver’s seat. Sirens blare as he walks toward her. She smiles at him and says: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” As Ross walks alongside the car, she repeats: “I’m not mad at you.” As he reaches the back of the vehicle, another person, presumably Good’s wife, Becca, says: “Show your face.” As he begins to record the vehicle’s license plate, the same person says: “That’s okay, we don’t change our plates every morning,” referring to stories that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) switch out plates to make their vehicles hard to track. “Just so you know, it’ll be the same plate when you come talk to us later.” Ross’s camera pans up to show the person recording him on her cell phone.
She continues: “That’s fine. U.S. citizen. Former f*cking veteran.” As she walks to the passenger-side door, she looks at him and says: “You wanna come at us? You wanna come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy. Go ahead.”
Another officer approaches the driver’s side of the vehicle and says to Renee Good: “Out of the car. Get out of the f*cking car.”
As the passenger calmly reaches for the passenger-side door handle, the police officer on the driver’s side again says: “Get out of the car!” Other videos indicate that he had then put his hand into the car and was trying to open the door. Good quite clearly turns the wheel hard away from the police officers to head down the street as the passenger yells: “Drive, baby! Drive! Drive!”
Someone says “Whoa!” as the car moves down the street. Ross’s camera shows his face and then sways—remember, he has been filming all this on his phone. There are three shots and the houses on the side of the street swing back into view on Ross’s camera, indicating he did not drop it. As the car rolls up the street, Ross says, “F*cking bitch!” just before there is the sound of a smash.
What is truly astonishing is that the administration thought this video would exonerate Ross and support the administration’s insistence that he was under attack from a domestic terrorist trying to ram him with her car. The video was leaked to a right-wing news site, and Vance reposted it with the caption: “What the press has done in lying about this innocent law enforcement officer is disgusting. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.” The Department of Homeland Security reposted Vance’s post.
As senior editor of Lawfare Media Eric Columbus commented: “Do Vance and DHS think we can’t actually watch the video?” Multiple social media users noted that Good’s last words to Ross were “That’s fine. I’m not mad at you,” while his to her, after he shot her in the face, were “F*cking b*tch!”
The release of this damning video as an attempted exoneration reminds me overwhelmingly of the release of the video of the murder of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in February 2021 in an attempt of one of the murderers to prove they had acted in self-defense.
In that case, the district attorney for that circuit told police that the video showed self-defense and declined to prosecute. When the story wouldn’t go away, one of the murderers apparently thought that everyone else would agree that the video exonerated the killers. His lawyer gave the video to a local radio station. The station took the video down within two hours, but the public outcry over the horrific video meant the killers were arrested two days later. A jury convicted them, and they are now in prison, two for life without possibility of parole, one for life with the possibility of parole after 30 years, when he will be about 82.
In the case of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the murderers and their protectors were clearly so isolated in their own racist bubble they could not see how regular Americans would react to the video of them hunting down and shooting a jogger.
In the case of the murder of Renee Good, the shooter and his protectors are clearly so isolated in their own authoritarian bubble they cannot see how regular Americans would react to the video of a woman smiling at a masked agent and saying: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you,” only to have him shoot her in the face and then spit out “F*cking bitch” after he killed her.
The thread that runs through both is the assumption that an American exercising their constitutional rights must submit, without question, to a white man holding a gun.
This is the larger meaning of federal agents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol in U.S. cities. While they are attacking primarily people of color, the message they carry is directed at all Americans: you must do what the Trump administration and its loyalists demand.
Another recording from the past few days shows a federal agent walking toward a woman recording him. She tells him: “Shame on you.” He answers: “Listen. Have you all not learned from the past couple of days? Have you not learned?” She responds: “Learned what? What’s our lesson here? What do you want us to learn?” He begins: “Following federal agents….” and he knocks the phone out of her hand. Hours after Good’s death, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem appeared in Manhattan behind a podium emblazoned with the words: “ONE OF OURS, ALL OF YOURS.”
After doubling down on their false narrative, the administration pulled 200 Customs and Border Patrol agents from a crackdown in Louisiana to send them to Minnesota, where administration officials already had deployed 2,000 federal agents—more than three times the number of police officers in Minneapolis. There they are cracking down, apparently indiscriminately. Yesterday, Gabe Whisnant of Newsweek reported that ICE has detained four members of the Oglala Lakota Nation, a federally recognized tribal nation of the Indigenous peoples who were in North America long before European settlers arrived.
In November, as Sarah Mehta of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted at the time, the administration replaced almost half of ICE leaders across the country with Border Patrol officers. Border Patrol, a subagency of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is the agency responsible for acting on President Donald J. Trump’s policy of taking children from their parents during his first term, and it remains at the center of complaints of cruelty, racism, and violation of civil rights. This is the agency led by Greg Bovino, and the one behind the attack on a Chicago apartment building led by agents who rappelled into the building from a Black Hawk helicopter.
Although ICE currently employs more than 20,000 people, it is looking to hire over 10,000 more with the help of the money Republicans put in their One Big Beautiful Bill Act of July. That law tripled ICE’s budget for enforcement and deportation to about $30 billion.
On December 31, Drew Harwell and Joyce Sohyun Lee of the Washington Post reported that ICE was investing $100 million on what it called a “wartime recruitment” strategy to hire thousands of new officers. It planned to target gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts as well as those who listen to right-wing radi0 shows, directing ads to people who have gone to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fights or shopped for guns and tactical gear. It planned to send ads to the phone web browsers and social media feeds of people near military bases, NASCAR races, gun and trade shows, or college campuses, apparently not considering them the hotbeds of left-wing indoctrination right-wing politicians claim.
This afternoon, Kyle Cheney, Ben Johansen, and Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico reported that the day after Good’s murder, Noem quietly restricted the ability of members of Congress to conduct oversight of ICE facilities. The policy came out in court today after ICE officers denied Democratic Minnesota Representatives Ilhan Omar, Angie Craig, and Kelly Morrison entry to a detention facility in Minneapolis. Last month, a federal judge rejected a similar policy.
Trump and his allies have singled out Minnesota in large part because of its large Somali-American population, represented in Congress by Omar, a lawmaker Trump has repeatedly attacked, from a population Trump has called “garbage.” As Chabeli Carrazana explained in 19th News, shortly after Christmas, right-wing YouTuber Nick Shirley posted a video that he claimed showed day care centers run by Somali Americans were taking money from the government without providing services.
The video has been widely debunked. In 2019, a state investigation found fraud taking place in the child care system and charged a number of people for defrauding the state. After that, the state tightened oversight, and state investigators have conducted unannounced visits to the day cares Shirley hit in his videos, where they found normal operations. Shirley claimed fraud when the centers would not let him in, but child care centers lock their doors and obscure the windows for the safety of the children, and would not let a strange man inside the facility to videotape.
But Trump used the frenzy to justify cutting $10 billion in antipoverty funding to five states led by Democrats—California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, and New York—only to have a federal judge block his order yesterday. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins promptly announced she was withholding $129 billion in federal funding from Minnesota, alleging fraud. Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison responded: “I will not allow you to take from Minnesotans in need. I’ll see you in court.”
When Kaitlan Collins of CNN asked Trump yesterday if he thought the FBI should be sharing information about the shooting of Renee Good with state officials, as is normally the case, Trump responded: “Well, normally, I would, but they’re crooked officials. I mean, Minneapolis and Minnesota, what a beautiful place, but it’s being destroyed. It’s got an incompetent governor fool. I mean, he’s a stupid person, and, uh, it looks like the number could be $19 billion stolen from a lot of people, but largely people from Somalia. They buy their vote, they vote in a group, they buy their vote. They sell more Mercedes-Benzes in that area than almost—can you imagine? You come over with no money and then shortly thereafter you’re driving a Mercedes-Benz. The whole thing is ridiculous. They’re very corrupt people. It’s a very corrupt state. I feel that I won Minnesota. I think I won it all three times. Nobody’s won it for since Richard Nixon won it many, many years ago. I won it all three times, in my opinion, and it’s a corrupt state, a corrupt voting state, and the Republicans ought to get smart and demand on voter ID. They ought to demand, maybe same-day voting and all of the other things that you have to have to safe election. But I won Minnesota three times that I didn’t get credit for. I did so well in that state, every time. The people were, they were crying. Every time after. That’s a crooked state. California’s a crooked state. Many crooked states. We have a very, very dishonest voting system.”
Trump lost Minnesota in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
Protesters took to the streets today across the United States to lament the death of Renee Good and demand an end to ICE brutality. At Strength in Numbers, G. Elliott Morris reported that ICE’s approval rating has plummeted in the past year, from +16 to -14. The day ICE agent Ross shot Renee Good, 52% of Americans disapproved of ICE while just 39% approved. In February, 19% of Americans held a strongly unfavorable opinion of ICE, while today 40% do. There is, Morris notes, “a growing and intense, angry opposition to [ICE] across America.”
‘How do I know you’re a US citizen?’ ICE agent confronted by protest after questioning man in MN (11.1.26) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhB7g7LU0Wc
What To Do When ICE Knocks on Your Door
Mitch Jackson
Jan 11, 2026
There are increasing reports of ICE agents going door to door looking for people. That makes it important to understand your constitutional rights and what you can and cannot do if you hear, “Knock, knock. It’s ICE. Open up.” As a lawyer with more than three decades of experience, here’s what you need to know.
Start with this. When ICE knocks, the tools being used are speed and pressure. Your job is to slow everything down. You have rights before the door ever opens. Calm is not weakness. Calm is control.
The most important thing to know is that you do not have to open the door. You can speak through it. You can ask why they are there. You can ask for an interpreter. You have the right to understand what is happening before anything moves forward. You do not need to explain yourself. You do not need to answer questions.
Take out your phone and start recording. Audio is good. Video is better.
Be firm and polite. Do not escalate the situation. Words and actions matter.
If ICE agents ask or demand to enter your home, you have the right to see a judicial warrant issued by a court and signed by a judge or magistrate. Not an ICE form. Not an administrative document. A judicial warrant. You can ask to see it through a window or have it slid under the door. If they do not have one, you can refuse entry. An ICE administrative warrant does not authorize entry into your home without consent. That distinction matters.
Do not engage in conversation. Do not answer questions. Simply repeat this from the other side of the door:
Do you have a judicial warrant? If so, please slide it under the door or hold it up to the window for me to review.
If agents continue to press, say this clearly from the other side of the door:
I do not answer questions. I do not give you permission to be on my property. Please leave immediately and get off my property. I am asserting my right to remain silent and I want my attorney present.
Never lie. Lying can be a crime.1
Following these steps protects you from being pressured into saying something that can later be used against you.
If agents force their way inside, do not resist. Resistance creates danger. Tell everyone in the home to remain silent. Silence is a constitutional right. It is not guilt. It is protection.
If you are detained or arrested, remain silent and ask for a lawyer. Do not sign anything. You do not have to answer questions about where you were born or your immigration status.
Fear feeds on confusion. Confidence comes from knowing your rights. Talk about this with the people you live with. Practice the words now, not later.
What if someone runs into your house asking for help?
Someone entering your home and asking for protection does not automatically give ICE or any law enforcement the right to enter without a judicial warrant. Your rights do not disappear because another person is inside.
Here is how the law generally works in plain terms.
Your home remains protected space. The Fourth Amendment still applies. Law enforcement, including ICE, cannot enter your home without your consent, a judicial warrant, or a narrow emergency exception.2
Another person’s presence does not waive your rights.
Harboring laws are often misunderstood. Briefly allowing someone into your home in the moment, without prior planning, payment, or concealment, is not automatically a crime. Federal harboring laws generally require intent to conceal or shield someone from detection over time. They involve far more than refusing to open a door.3
Conclusion
Stay calm. Be polite as possible. Assert your rights. When you can, call your lawyer. If you do not have one, contact the ACLU through its website.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
Here’s a message from Renee Good’s widow, Becca Good on Renee’s GoFundMe page:
“First, I want to extend my gratitude to all the people who have reached out from across the country and around the world to support our family.
This kindness of strangers is the most fitting tribute because if you ever encountered my wife, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, you know that above all else, she was kind. In fact, kindness radiated out of her.
Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.
Renee lived by an overarching belief: there is kindness in the world and we need to do everything we can to find it where it resides and nurture it where it needs to grow. Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole.
Like people have done across place and time, we moved to make a better life for ourselves. We chose Minnesota to make our home. Our whole extended road trip here, we held hands in the car while our son drew all over the windows to pass the time and the miles.
What we found when we got here was a vibrant and welcoming community, we made friends and spread joy. And while any place we were together was home, there was a strong shared sense here in Minneapolis that we were looking out for each other. Here, I had finally found peace and safe harbor. That has been taken from me forever.
We were raising our son to believe that no matter where you come from or what you look like, all of us deserve compassion and kindness. Renee lived this belief every day. She is pure love. She is pure joy. She is pure sunshine.
On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns.
Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children; the youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him. That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.
We thank you for the privacy you are granting our family as we grieve. We thank you for ensuring that Renee’s legacy is one of kindness and love. We honor her memory by living her values: rejecting hate and choosing compassion, turning away from fear and pursuing peace, refusing division and knowing we must come together to build a world where we all come home safe to the people we love.”
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-renee-goods-wife-and-son
A message from Robert Reich:
The view from Minneapolis Living under ICE yet finding solidarity
Robert Reich
Jan 12
Friends,
I just received this from Phillip Cryan, a former student who lives in Minneapolis:
I got an unexpected, heartfelt “I love you” this afternoon from a Latino neighbor driving by in an SUV. He was stopped at a red light, and saw me trying to read his vehicle’s license plate. He knew that meant I was out patrolling for ICE, so he rolled down his tinted windows to shout out with a laugh “we’re not those assholes!” And then he thanked me for what I was doing and told me “I love you,” pumping his fist to his heart.
I got an unexpected, heartfelt “I love you” on Friday afternoon, at the vigil in front of the State Capitol, from an elder whose wisdom I revere, and who I had thought I’d just barely been getting started on the project of hopefully getting to know.
I got an unexpected, heartfelt “I love you” on Thursday morning before dawn, at the protest in front of the Whipple building (ICE’s central staging location here), from one of the original members of the Planned Parenthood North Central States union bargaining team I spent 2022 and 2023 in the trenches with, fighting for a first union contract. She had on a much better mask and goggles than I did, for the pepper spray we were about to get hit with by jackbooted ICE agents hoping to provoke peaceful protestors to respond with violence.
I didn’t get an “I love you” from him, but a neighbor on my block who has always seemed to be the type of strong, taciturn Midwestern guy who would be mortified at the suggestion of any physical or overtly-emotional connection with another guy readily accepted when I asked if it was okay to give him a hug yesterday morning, when we got back to our block after having both raced to a nearby corner where ICE agents with long guns had been reported (but they were gone by the time we got there). And he wept in my arms.
This is what is happening in Minnesota right now. The horror, grief and fear we are all experiencing every day, watching our neighbors get hauled away by reckless, cruel, masked paramilitaries; trying to protect one another; and knowing that what they did to Renee Nicole Good could happen to any of us, is generating this: unexpected, heartfelt new connections of not just solidarity but real love. At a massive, simply-incomprehensible scale. Good people coming together in all our fear and vulnerability and care and kindness and bravery, discovering the transformative power of our love for one another.
Alt National Park Service
** Re-Share **
Good morning,
My name is Brandon Siguenza, and I am a US citizen from Minneapolis. Yesterday, while doing legal observation, ICE stopped their cars to harass my friend and me. They sprayed pepper spray into the vent of our vehicle. We held our hands in the air and told them we were not obstructing, that the car was in park and they were free to drive forward and away. There was no active immigration raid. They returned to their cars, and drove forward a bit, then decided to stop again. They surrounded us, smashed the windows of our car, opened the doors (they were unlocked), ripped my friend and I out of the car and arrested us on charges of obstruction.
I was put in an unmarked SUV, separated from my friend. As I was put in the back seat an ICE agent tore the whistle off my neck and said “I’ll be taking this, I might need it later.” My phone was knocked out of my hand while being arrested. As we drove away I asked the driver and the passenger if they wouldn’t mind buckling my seatbelt, as they were driving erratically. I was ignored. I asked them if I could have the handcuffs loosened, as I was losing circulation, and was told no. At one point the passenger realized his own driver’s license was in the backseat next to mine, and tried to surreptitiously grab it without me seeing it.
We were taken to the Whipple federal building, where I saw dozens of brown people being processed in an unheated garage. I was frisked, told of my charges, and saw buses and vans being prepped. I later learned that these were being filled with detainees and driven to the airport for deportation. As we were led in, I noticed that the building was very busy. I got the impression that one of the 2 agents bringing me around was being trained. At multiple points throughout my stay, government agents were unable to open doors, not sure where they were meant to be going, and overall confused and overwhelmed. They couldn’t figure out how to use the building phones, or complained about a lack of cell service preventing them from checking the internet or making calls.
The people in the cells were extremely scared. We heard people screaming “let me out!”, crying, wailing and terrified screams. There were cells with as many as 8 people. I have no way of knowing how long they have been there, if they were allowed any contact with the outside world, or if they were being brought food or water. Most people were staring at the ground with almost no energy. I was not allowed to talk to anyone imprisoned. I distinctly remember seeing a desperate woman. She was staring at the ground with her head in her hands crying, hopeless, while her friend or family member sat on a bathroom seat observed by 3 men.
My friend and I were put in an area for “USCs,” which we eventually learned meant US citizens, separated by gender. We were imprisoned for 8 hours, during which my friend was never allowed a phone call. I was allowed to call my wife and tell her where I was. During my interview with Special Agent William and Special Agent Garcia, they asked me to empty my pockets. When I pulled out gloves, Agent William said those were meant to be taken when I was processed, and complained about having to fill out the form again. He frisked me once more, where he found glass in my pocket from when our car window was shattered. He filled out the form listing my personal items again, but put the wrong date. I was read my rights, I pleaded the fifth and was led back to my cell.
Food, water, and bathroom breaks were extremely difficult to acquire. I would ask over the intercom provided in the cell for a bathroom break, be told someone was on their way, then ask again 20 minutes later, be told someone was on their way, wait another 20 minutes, etc. Eventually they either turned off the intercom or it stopped working, because no one would respond. I could get water and bathroom breaks by pounding on the glass when someone happened to walk by and beg them directly. Hours would go by without anyone checking on us. I am vegan and the only food they offered were turkey sandwiches, fruit snacks with gelatin, and granola bars with honey. I eventually ate a granola bar out of hunger.
I was in the cell alone for between 1 and 2 hours, then another man was put into my cell, whose shirt was ripped open from his arrest, and an injured toe, who was carried aggressively into an unmarked car during his arrest. After about 4-5 hours, another man was brought in who had a cut on his head from his arrest. He told me he was tackled by 4 or 5 agents during his arrest. At no point was he offered medical assistance.
Later I was told that a lawyer was here to see me, and I was able to speak with him in a visitation room. The special agent told me that the door could not be closed all the way, so it was cracked during my interaction with my lawyer. I got the impression that they were not used to having lawyers present, and were trying to follow procedure as best they could. I asked an agent if the other detainees were allowed lawyers and was not answered.
At one point, 3 men from the department of Homeland Security Investigations brought me into a cell. They insinuated that they could help me out. After inquiring several times what exactly they meant they finally told me that they could offer undocumented family members of mine legal protection if I have any (I don’t), or money, in exchange for giving them the names of protest organizers, or undocumented persons. I was shocked, and told them no.
Finally, after hours of detention, I was told to follow an agent. At no point was I told whether or not I was being charged, or where I was going, but I was led out of the building. I asked if I could use a phone to call my wife to pick me up, and was told I could not. After pleading for several minutes eventually Special Agent William let me use his phone to call my wife. As I was escorted off the property by government agents, I was told to turn right. I was escorted to the protest area, where 5 minutes later, tear gas was deployed and I was struck by a paint ball gun. I was not protesting, I was simply being released without charges after an 8 hour detention. I was on the other side of the street, as instructed by the agents that released me and the agents shouting orders over a bullhorn. A passerby who was tear gassed was panicking and having an asthma attack, so I helped her find a medic to get her an inhaler. I used a stranger’s phone to co-ordinate pickup, and was picked up by my wife.
During my detention I knew that I was being released. I knew that as a citizen of the United States I have legal protection. The hundred or so other people being detained had no such protection. At this time I don’t need your help, it is the families that are being separated, abused, terrorized, harassed and killed that need your help. If this is happening to me, an American citizen born in the United States, then what is happening to the people in here that have no one calling lawyers on their behalf? That have no constitutional rights to due process? What is happening to the people that they will never be released to see their families, go to their jobs, or walk through their city ever again?
Please take care of yourselves, your family, and your community. I am safe and healthy, if you feel compelled to help, please offer your help to the Immigrant Defense Network at https://immigrantdefensenetwork.org/. If you know someone detained by ICE, call or text CAIR-MN at 612-206-3360 for 24/7 legal intake.
The Machinery of Terror by Chris Hedges (12.1.26) The Trump administration is consolidating the familiar machinery of terror of all authoritarian states. We must resist now. If we wait, it will be too late. https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-machinery-of-terror
From Mitch Jackson:
ICE Stops You on the Sidewalk and Asks, “Are You a U.S. Citizen?” Know Your Rights.
Mitch Jackson
Jan 12
You are walking down the sidewalk when a vehicle slows beside you and an ICE agent looks over and asks a question that sounds simple and feels anything but. Are you a U.S. citizen?
Or you are crossing a parking lot on the way into a store when agents step in, surround you, and repeat the same question. In that moment, knowing your rights changes everything.
That moment freezes people because confusion favors authority. I have spent decades inside courtrooms, police encounters, constitutional disputes, and real world cases where a few words changed everything. I know how these encounters unfold, how rights get blurred in public, and how fast fear fills the gaps when people do not know where the law actually stands. This guide exists so you meet that moment steady, informed, and grounded.
This matters now. We are living through Trump’s second term. Immigration enforcement rhetoric has spilled into everyday spaces. Sidewalks, streets, and roadways have turned into testing grounds for constitutional limits. The Constitution still applies in every one of those places.
Here is what the law actually says.DIFFERENT ENCOUNTERS
An ICE officer speaking to you on a sidewalk, public street or private parking lot (think Target or Walmart) begins as a voluntary encounter. A voluntary encounter means you are free to walk away.
The encounter turns into a detention when a reasonable person would not feel free to leave. Blocking your path, commanding you to stop, surrounding you, or retaining your documents all signal detention.
Detention triggers constitutional protections.YOUR CORE RIGHTS IN PUBLIC SPACES
You have the right to remain silent. Silence is lawful. Silence does not create suspicion.
You also have the right to ask one clarifying question. Am I free to leave?
If the answer is yes, you walk away calmly. Don’t say another word.
If the answer is no or the officer avoids answering, you are being detained.
If you are a U.S. citizen, you do not have a duty to answer questions about citizenship, place of birth, or immigration status during a street encounter inside the interior of the United States. If you are a noncitizen over the age of 18 who was issued immigration related registration paperwork, the rules are a bit different and I explain them below.
You do not have a duty to explain where you are going or where you came from.
You have the right to say, I choose to remain silent. You have the right to say, I want to speak with a lawyer.WHAT ICE NEEDS TO DETAIN OR ARREST YOU
ICE officers operate under the same Fourth Amendment rules that govern all federal officers.
A detention requires reasonable suspicion tied to a specific immigration related violation. An arrest requires probable cause under federal immigration law.
Here is the legally accurate nuance.
Race, accent, appearance, clothing, or speaking another language cannot on their own justify a stop or detention under the Fourth Amendment. An officer may not lawfully stop someone based solely on how they look or sound, and courts have made clear that using those factors alone amounts to unlawful profiling.
At the same time, courts have acknowledged that characteristics such as Mexican appearance may be described as a relevant factor when combined with other specific observations. Officers sometimes point to these traits as part of a broader set of facts, and courts then examine the total context to decide whether there were specific, articulable grounds for reasonable suspicion of a violation. That determination happens later in court, not during the encounter itself, which is why remaining silent and asking if you are free to leave remain the safest responses in the moment.
Administrative immigration warrants are not signed by judges. They do not allow entry into homes or private areas without consent. Public arrests still must meet constitutional standards and statutory authority.SIDEWALK STOPS AND IDENTIFICATION
If you are walking, there is no general federal rule requiring a U.S. citizen to carry identification or proof of citizenship.
Even before Trump, federal immigration law requires many noncitizens age 18 and older who have been issued registration documents to carry proof of that registration with them at all times. This includes items like a green card, work authorization, or an official admission record, and failing to carry it is technically a federal misdemeanor, even during casual public encounters. Having said that, this rule does not erase constitutional protections against unlawful stops or questioning.¹
If you are undocumented, you still have rights and they matter. You have the right to remain silent. You do not have to answer questions about citizenship, immigration status, place of birth, or how you entered the country. You may say, “I choose to remain silent,” and “I want to speak with a lawyer.” Those statements are lawful and protective.
You may ask one clarifying question. “Am I free to leave.” If the answer is yes, you may walk away calmly. If the answer is no, you are being detained, and ICE must have lawful authority for that detention. Do not lie and do not present false documents. Lying or using fake papers creates separate criminal exposure.
You do not have to consent to searches of your person, belongings, or vehicle. You do not have to sign anything you do not understand. You do not have to make statements to “clear things up.” Silence is not an admission. Silence preserves options.
If ICE has lawful grounds to arrest you, the encounter may move forward despite your silence. That reality exists. What silence does is protect you from making the situation worse and preserve defenses that lawyers raise later.
The most important rule is this. Do not try to win the encounter on the street. Courts exist for that. Your job in the moment is to stay calm, say little, ask for a lawyer, and protect your rights.ROADWAYS, VEHICLES, AND CHECKPOINTS
A traffic stop or checkpoint counts as a seizure under the Constitution.
Officers may ask limited questions tied to the purpose of the stop.
You still have the right to remain silent.
You may ask the reason for the stop.
You may refuse consent to search your vehicle or belongings.
You generally must present a valid driver’s license during a lawful traffic stop under state law.
You do not have a duty to answer questions about citizenship during a roadside encounter.
Fixed immigration checkpoints operated by federal authorities may briefly question occupants. Roving vehicle stops require reasonable suspicion.A PRIVATE PARKING LOT LIKE TARGET OR WALMART IS PRIVATE PROPERTY THAT FUNCTIONS AS A PUBLIC SPACE
A Target or Walmart parking lot is privately owned, and it is generally open to the public for shopping and travel. That combination matters.
For constitutional purposes, law enforcement encounters in a large retail parking lot are usually treated like public encounters, not like entry into a private home which I discussed here. People come and go freely. Vehicles circulate. There is no expectation of privacy the way there is inside a residence.
ICE officers do not need the store’s permission to stand, walk, or speak with people in a publicly accessible parking lot.
So here’s what you need to know.
The encounter starts the same way as on a sidewalk.
An ICE officer approaching you and asking questions in a parking lot is a voluntary encounter unless they restrain your movement.
You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to ask, Am I free to leave?
If you are free to leave, you may walk away or drive away calmly.
You do not have a duty to answer questions about citizenship, place of birth, or immigration status. You do not have a duty to explain why you are there or where you are going.
The encounter becomes a detention when a reasonable person would not feel free to leave.
Thinks like, blocking your car with vehicles or officers. Commanding you to stop. Ordering you out of your car without legal justification. Retaining your identification. Surrounding you or physically restricting movement.
Once detained, constitutional protections apply. ICE must have lawful authority based on reasonable suspicion or probable cause.IDENTIFICATION AND DOCUMENTS IN A PARKING LOT
If you are walking in the parking lot, a U.S. citizen has no general duty to carry or show identification.
As mentioned above, noncitizens age 18 and older are generally required to carry evidence of registration under federal law.
If you are driving, state law usually requires you to present a valid driver’s license during a lawful stop. You do not have a duty to answer questions about citizenship during a parking lot encounter.
Because the parking lot is private property, the property owner may set rules and may ask people to leave, including law enforcement, unless officers are acting under lawful authority.
You as an individual shopper cannot order ICE to leave the property. That decision belongs to the store owner.My team put this short video together using NotebookLM.
HOW TO HANDLE THE MOMENT
Stay calm. Keep your hands visible. Even if your rights are being violated, the last thing we want to see is you being harmed. Don’t give them a reason.
Speak slowly. Use simple statements.
Ask if you are free to leave.
If detained, state your choice to remain silent.
Ask for a lawyer.
Do not lie. Do not guess. Do not volunteer information.
Do not consent to searches.
Do not run. Movement escalates risk.
Do not debate the law on the street. Courts exist for that purpose.WHY THIS MATTERS BEYOND YOU
A question on a sidewalk reflects more than enforcement. It reflects how power tests boundaries and how fear spreads into ordinary life. Trump’s second term has normalized public intimidation wrapped in official language. Rights do not vanish because a badge appears. The Constitution does not pause because a question sounds casual.
Democracy survives when people know their rights and use them calmly. Confusion feeds abuse. Knowledge interrupts it.
Walk informed. Talk about this with your family. Share it with your neighbors. Teach your kids and grandkids how rights work in real life.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
Related: What To Do When ICE Knocks on Your Door
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If you are subjected to an unlawful stop, meaning the officer lacked legal authority to detain you, the stop itself violates the Fourth Amendment. The fact that you did not have identification does not retroactively make the stop lawful. An illegal stop stays illegal, even if the officer later discovers something they did not like.
During an unlawful stop, you generally cannot be punished simply for lacking identification unless a specific law applies to you. U.S. citizens have no general duty to carry ID while walking. Noncitizens who are legally required to carry registration documents may still face separate immigration related exposure for not having them, even though the stop itself was unlawful. Those are legally distinct issues.
Evidence obtained as a direct result of an unlawful stop may be suppressed in court. That includes statements, documents, or discoveries made because the officer stopped you without legal grounds. Suppression does not happen automatically. A lawyer must raise it, and a judge decides.
Practically, an unlawful stop can still turn stressful or messy in the moment. Officers may continue questioning. They may delay release. They may write reports that justify actions after the fact. None of that fixes the original constitutional violation.
The safest real world approach stays the same. Do not argue legality on the street. Do not lie. State that you choose to remain silent. Ask if you are free to leave. Ask for a lawyer. If your rights were violated, courts are where accountability exists.
An unlawful stop does not become lawful because you lacked identification. It becomes a legal issue for the government to explain.
David Abbruzzese (from Facebook)
Okay MAGA folks, here we go:
1. If you want to defend the first shot he fired, how do you defend the second and third shots into the driver side window?
2. If you want to defend all three shots, how do you defend them blocking medics from getting to her as she bled out?
3. If you want to defend all 3 shots and blocking medical care, how do you defend him getting in the car and driving away from the scene of a crime, after calling her a ‘f*cking b*tch’?
My replies are open. You have to answer all three numbered questions.