ICE shootings multiply as narratives solidify

Both sides are acting recklessly. Also, will Iran be free?

When I first found out something happened in Minnesota the other day, it was by a notification on my phone, I think from the New York Times, about a “vehicle-related incident.” It was only a few hours later that the story had gelled into “ICE kills protester,” which led to all kinds of terrible political takes on both sides. Charles C.W. Cooke, the American patriot Brit over at National Review, had a good take: how not to think about the ICE shooting in Minnesota.

Image; Grok

It happened again in Portland, Oregon. Another vehicle, another shooting by ICE, but this one does not appear to be fatal. Again, the ICE take: “Fearing for this life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot.” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson used the occasion to call on ICE to end all operations in Portland: “We stand united as elected officials in saying that we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”

These situations are more complicated than the worst takes, like “ICE executed/assassinated a peaceful protester,” or “ICE shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” On the other end, the bad takes are all versions of “FAFO” for the protesters. It turns out, in Minneapolis, that the officer who killed the protester in her vehicle was dragged 50 yards by a vehicle in an altercation with an illegal Mexican immigrant.

“Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala is a child sex offender and illegal alien from Mexico who attempted to evade law enforcement and dragged an ICE officer 50 yards down the street with his car. Thankfully, the officer is expected to make a full recovery,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement at the time of the incident.

Munoz-Guatemala had been in the U.S. for 15 years, and is a convicted child offender, “who has a rap sheet that includes an arrest for domestic assault and multiple driving offenses,” according to DHS.

Now, keep in mind, everything can be painted in its worst light by either side. I reported on a terrible incident of fear-based policing in north metro Atlanta in 2021. It involved a hispanic man who had taken the wrong meds and his wife and stepson. The responding officer ended up putting his police dog on the man. The resulting lawsuit was recently settled by the city, and the officers in question are no longer with the department. But if the man who was arrested was ever in an encounter with ICE, I’m sure they could say he’s got a rap sheet for domestic assault and other offenses.

What I’m saying is don’t take the word of a law enforcement spokesperson as the unadulterated truth. Also, don’t give the words of politicians any value at all. It’s all polemical dumpster fire fodder.

What I do know and understand is that ICE is much larger now than it was a year ago. By my lights, the agency has hired around 12,000 new Deportation Officers and other agents. Many of them have law enforcement backgrounds, but it’s not required for the job. The training regimen is 13 weeks. DHS does not publish how many officers were hired from which kinds of backgrounds. So the officer who shot and killed Renee Gold may have been an experienced federal agent, or he may have been a Crossfit instructor before this job. Since ICE hasn’t released his identity, we simply don’t know.

But we do know that adding thousands of brand new ICE officers, allowing them to wear face masks while heavily armed, and deploying them in cities where maximum political unrest is evident, will lead to encounters with protesters, some who are intent on civil disobedience, interference with federal officers, and even harm. It’s not wrong for officers to take their own safety seriously.

For its part, the government, led by POTUS, is not taking the incident seriously enough. Anytime a federal officer shoots and kills a citizen bystander who is not the target of an arrest warrant or other legal directive to detain, it should be treated how the military treats a peacetime training death. The military normally stands down and conducts some basic training in safety or procedures. ICE is not standing down, it’s doubling down. That’s not smart.

Thousands of ICE officers are placed in situations where angry and outraged protesters are present, ready to bait them into violence while videoing the mayhem. Whatever value the country might extract from shutting down Somali crime rings in Minneapolis, or deporting illegal immigrants who strain local resources, the squeeze is not worth the juice if it ratchets up the probability of violence against American citizens. That’s not to say that ICE should be subject to an objector’s veto. It means that operations should be sensitive to the political situation and avoid set-piece scenarios for potential violence. (There’s a word for this: it’s “duh”.)

I’m not really even sure ICE is doing anyone a favor anymore. I wrote about the Trump administration’s immigration policy, and said “don’t be evil.” Hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants have had their legal status yanked, with only 60 days to wrap up their affairs. This includes people from Venezuela (which recently paid a ransom for the current tyrannical communists to remain in power), who will be deported to a very, shall we say, oppressive, homeland. It also includes thousands from various African nations, such as Ethiopia, who have scrambled to find ways to stay in America, and keep their jobs.

Meanwhile, one of the more profitable ways to stay here is to become a porn star. That’s right, according to the New York Post, over half the rare O-1B visa applications now come from OnlyFans influencers. If you don’t know, OnlyFans is a platform mostly used by people producing sex videos. The O-1 visa is supposed to be used for “extraordinary” individuals—the O-1A enabling law gives an example of evidence, such as a Nobel Prize. The O-1B is for actors or film crews, and is intended for the movie industry to bring foreign cast here. There’s also an O-1 category for professional athletes. The approval rate for the O-1 visa program is well over 90 percent, with about 3,000 applications a month. That’s a lot of porn. I wish USCIS and ICE would do something about that, versus facing off against protesters in Minneapolis and Portland.

If an immigrant has a stable job, but is in the wrong category, like A12 (Temporary Protected Status), doesn’t want to marry a U.S. citizen, work in sex, or have an employer who is willing to bend heaven and earth to keep them (the H-1B fees can exceed $100,000), there’s no choice but to go home within 60 days. But it’s not easy to get out of the country if tens of thousands of others are trying to leave at the same time. So many stay, and end up swept into the ICE net. They were legal, but two months later, they are criminals because Kristi Noem signed an order published in the Federal Register.

ICE is doing a job. I understand that. But ICE is also creating political division. And ICE consists of a lot of inexperienced, heavily-armed, masked paramilitary troops. If that’s not a recipe for someone getting hurt, then I don’t know what is. It seems the narratives have taken over, and the work has taken a back seat. For the administration and its MAGA fans, it’s about “sticking it to the libs.” For the resistance and opposition, it’s about stopping the Fascist pigs. In this environment, any incident can look like whatever story you want it to be.

I tend to think incidents like the one in Minnesota are inevitable when the narratives are in the driver’s seat, and every response by both sides is not to thoughtfully disengage, but to double down. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. But I’m being cynical here.

What needs to happen is a little of both sides prescriptive medicine for the other side. Protesters need to stick to peaceful political speech and quit interfering with federal operations. Baiting officers into violence is dangerous and dumb. And ICE should scale back a bit in places where idiots are ready to incite problems. They both should, but I know they both won’t.

Is this freedom for Iran?

I’ll just quote Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as posted by Yashar Ali on Twitter/X:

In his first address since protests erupted across Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, slammed President Trump, criticized the protesters, suggested that Trump will be overthrown, and said that the Islamic Republic is not backing down.

“There are also people whose work is destruction. Last night in Tehran, and in some other places as well, a group of vandals came and damaged buildings belonging to their own country. Why?

Because someone [Donald Trump] said some nonsense — that if the Iranian government does such-and-such, I will come and stand with you, I will take your side.

These rioters and harmful individuals — their hearts are pleased by him. If he can, let him destroy his own country. In his own country there are all kinds of incidents. His hands are stained with the blood of more than a thousand Iranians.

In the twelve-day war, more than a thousand of our compatriots — aside from commanders, scientists, and prominent figures — ordinary people — were martyred.

This person [Donald Trump] said, “I gave the order. I commanded the war.” So he confessed: his hands are stained with the blood of Iranians.

Then he says, “I support the Iranian nation.”

A bunch of inexperienced, careless people, without thinking, believe him, accept it, and act according to his wishes. They set trash on fire, burn things, just so he’ll be pleased.

Everyone should know: the Islamic Republic came to power on the blood of hundreds of thousands of honorable people, and it will not retreat in the face of those who seek to overthrow it. It does not tolerate being an agent of foreigners.

Whoever you want to be — once you become a foreign agent, once you work for foreigners — the nation rejects you, and the Islamic system rejects you as well.

And that man [Donald Trump] who sits there with arrogance and pride, passing judgment on the whole world — he should also know that usually…

…the despots and arrogant tyrants of the world — like Pharaoh, Nimrod, Reza Khan, Mohammad Reza, and others like them — when they were at the height of their arrogance, were overthrown.

This one [Donald Trump] will be overthrown as well.”

I think it’s extraordinary that, as he deploys the IRGC and elements of his secret police, in the midst of a total Internet blackout, that Khamenei has named his enemies and threatened its people. But this is the template the regime uses. Cut off communication, crack down on the protests, crush resistance, blame foreigners, and get back to daily life.

The protests are growing. I’ve seen reports that the Mossad is secretly providing StarLink terminals. It was reported that Elon Musk has opened StarLink for free in Iran. The communications blackout will therefore fail. The crimes against humanity the ayatollahs use to attempt to crush this protest, which may have become a full-fledged revolution, will be reported publicly and shared in Iran, building more support for the revolution.

I think this might be the beginning of the beginning for a new Iran, and the beginning of the end for the Islamic Republic.

We need to be circumspect and careful. Reports like this one, claiming Khamenei has left Tehran and is planning to flee to Russia, are unconfirmed and possibly planted. But I’ve also seen reports that seem solid about U.S. forces being ready to intervene (tankers and logistics flights are well tracked). And it’s confirmed that some Iranian diplomats have settled in Lebanon, with their families, intending to stay a while.

This convulsion in Iran is more than just a protest movement. But the regime will not step down without a fight. Many brave Iranians are putting their lives on the line to have a free country. Let’s stand with them, in prayers, and in support.

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