This story was co-published with The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. On December 31, in the waning hours of 2025, the Washington Post reported on an internal ICE document that concerned the agency’s “wartime recruitment” strategy, or rather its attempt to expeditiously swell its ranks of deportation officers. The memo, according to the Post, had in mind a pool of ideal candidates who lead a “patriotic” lifestyle and have an interest in “military and veterans affairs,” “physical training,” “gun rights organizations,” and “tactical gear brands.” The memo’s logic was easy enough to understand, since what it described, if you read between the lines, was an informal paramilitary that was waiting to be tapped. Over the last month—as a violent federal occupation has unfolded in Minneapolis, where veteran immigration agents brutally killed two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti—both the memo and the new recruits it would draw into the fold began to take up outsized space in my mind. For a long time now, the gun rights movement has been animated by the promise of a violent reckoning, a sentiment nurtured by the groups that represent it and Republican politicians, who seek to channel a wild, truculent energy into votes and profits. It seemed the promise was being fulfilled in Minneapolis, like the fatal denouement of a production that had one harbinger after another. > “Any mission, any condition, any foes, at any range.” During the 2016 election cycle, when as a reporter I attended my first National Rifle Association annual meeting, I began to see that the promised reckoning could not be delayed forever. At the convention, in Louisville, Kentucky, there was the tradeshow floor, akin to a medieval arms bazaar and containing some 520,000 square feet of guns and tactical accessories. There were seminars covering “Defensive Shooting Skills Development,” “Methods of Concealed Carry,” “Current and Emerging Threats,” and “The Bulletproof Mind For The Armed Civilian.” And there was a line of some 7,000 people, leading into an arena called “Freedom Hall,” where there would be speeches by the emerging Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, and Mark “Oz” Geist, a member of the Benghazi diplomatic compound’s security team that had come under siege in 2012. Three middle-aged white men stood in line in front of me making confident assertions about Barack Obama and “government cover-ups.” One informed the others that Obama, still president, had purchased a “$10 million mansion in Saudi Arabia,” where he and his family would flee after leaving the White House to “evade charges.” Trump would of course chase him down, the man assured everyone, while the United States reembraced frontier justice and flourished under his rule. The line then moved inside, 7,000 people took their seats, and the Republican presidential candidate promised them: “I will never let you down.” Based on the ecstatic response from the crowd, it seemed to me that the message Trump had transmitted was about power—raw power—and who would wield it during his administration.   Going back to at least the early nineties, when President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was in office, gun rights organizations, led by the NRA, and various prominent Republicans pushed an argument for the Second Amendment that was disguised as a historical one. The right to bear arms, they said, was intended to be unfettered because its purpose was to provide citizens with the means to fight a tyrannical government that had turned against its own people. Federal agents, under Clinton, were “jack-booted government thugs,” according to a notorious fundraising letter signed by former NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre. These thugs, he said, had the power to “take away our Constitutional rights, break in our doors, seize our guns, destroy our property, and even injure or kill us.” It was often implied that such arguments, which grew in prominence during Barack Obama’s tenure, applied only to the Democratic Party, which posed a vague yet persistent threat to “freedom,” while the Republican party would preserve it. Republican values were antithetical to tyranny, whereas Democrats were inherently tyrannical, and therefore any actions taken by the former were in service of saving the country from the latter. In 2016, while sitting in “Freedom Hall,” I began to feel a sense of alarm that I’d never before felt. Under Trump, this contingent would feel it had permission to act against the enemy. The carrot that was dangled during each election cycle—in fundraising pitches by gun rights groups and the sale of military-style firearms to civilians—was finally being fed to the horse. There would be no more “couch commandos,” as gun industry executives referred to their most enthusiastic customers in the years after 9/11. This was the period in which soldiers were in American streets, and the industry, en masse, had seized on a marketing opportunity to blur the line between soldier and civilian.  What the industry was selling was theatrical participation, the thrill of COSPLAY, except the props were real. “As close as you can get without enlisting,” one gun company, in 2010, boasted as it advertised its “semi-auto only version of the U.S. Special Operations Command’s newest rifle.” “Any mission, any condition, any foes, at any range,” said another manufacturer about its latest assault weapon. In the ad it was equipped with a scope and propped on a tripod, as if intended for a sniper, which of course was the point. Companies were selling military-style weapons with a “combat-proven design,” that provided “versatility on the range or during patrol,” and were a symbol of “bravery on duty.” To enhance the feeling of a simulated combat experience, manufacturers of AR-style firearms cut product placement deals with video game designers. An executive at the gun company Sig Sauer told authors Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, who co-wrote the book American Gun, that featuring the weapons in games was tantamount to “seed planting.”  Buying a gun had become a way to serve at home, and serving at home came to mean preparing for Democratic tyranny. In 2015, for instance, while Obama was still president, the Pentagon prepared for a training exercise across the American Southwest called Jade Helm 15. It was here that the performative, paranoid politics of the right during the Obama years reached something of a fever pitch. Conservative bloggers and commentators created widespread hysteria by alleging that the exercise was a veil for imposing martial law, confiscating firearms, arresting dissidents, and taking over Texas. The state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, called on the Texas State Guard to monitor developments. It was “important,” he said, that Texans know their “rights” and “liberties” would not be “infringed.” The last word did not seem like an accidental allusion to the Second Amendment. For conservative elites, the preservation of power requires giving those beneath them a taste of it, without actually surrendering anything substantial, such as higher tax payments. In the meantime, they have created a shadow army, empowering them not with wealth but with the alluring prospect of crushing their opponents. A few months after the 2016 NRA convention, Trump said at a rally that Hillary Clinton “wants to abolish” the Second Amendment. “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks,” he went on. “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is.” Trump for much of his career had been the paragon of vapid wealth, but unlike other leaders of the right who came before him, he was signaling that he would take the army off standby, out of the realm of theater, and move the violent plot forward. The 2020 anti-lockdown Covid protests were a stark indicator of the new paradigm under Trump, who directed blame for restrictions toward Democrats such as Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer. After state lawmakers voted to extend her state of emergency, a large group of men carrying assault rifles packed the Michigan Capitol rotunda and attempted to barge into the legislature, where a line of police guarded the doors. They screamed in the faces of the officers, who looked on impassively. > The lurid fantasy at the heart of the gun rights movement is playing out, but > the leading roles, as they were previously imagined, have been reversed. As the year wore on, Trump told the Proud Boys during a televised presidential debate to “stand back and stand by.” His loss to Joe Biden then set into motion the January 6 insurrection. Oath Keepers stashed an arsenal of weapons at a hotel in Arlington, Virginia. One member imagined a scenario in which “millions die resisting the death of the 1st and 2nd amendment.” A week later, a middle-aged white man named Ian Rogers, a California resident and proud NRA member, was arrested with his best friend for planning to attack the state’s Democratic headquarters. He owned roughly 50 firearms, including four illegal automatic weapons, and had stockpiled 15,000 rounds of ammunition. Writing to me from prison last year, he said that the Democratic Party was “the greatest threat facing the United States today.” He went on, “Just as Rome was brought down by enemies within, we have such traitors amongst us now,” adding, “These people fundamentally hate the country and they will do anything to impose their vision on the nation.” Now, in Minneapolis, masked federal agents, dressed as soldiers, have fatally shot two American citizens. Both were victims of an occupation, in which the Trump administration has unleashed a savage campaign of terror against civilians. The lurid fantasy at the heart of the gun rights movement is playing out, but the leading roles, as they were previously imagined, have been reversed. The party in power is not a Democratic regime, but a Republican one, prompting accusations of hypocrisy against gun rights organizations, who have had little to say and have not called on their followers to face down tyranny in Minneapolis. Following the merciless second killing, of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, federal officials, led by Stephen Miller and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, concocted a false narrative alleging that Pretti had murderous intentions. Pretti had a sidearm on his waist, and they shamelessly pointed to it as evidence, even though the gun was holstered, he was legally carrying it, and agents shot him after they had removed the weapon.  Officials also tried to argue that, owing to the firearm’s presence, Pretti’s death was justified. This assertion presented an existential quandary for gun rights organizations, which have spent decades working to dismantle carry restrictions. One by one, the groups issued statements about how a holstered handgun did not give law enforcement the right to kill a person. That was the wrong message, the groups said, but the tyranny of the occupation itself was treated as legitimate. Gun Owners of America stated that “the Left must stop antagonizing @ICEgov and @CBP agents who are taking criminals off the streets and play a crucial role in protecting communities and upholding the rule of law.” The NRA similarly declared, “For months, radical progressive politicians like Tim Walz have incited violence against law enforcement officers who are simply trying to do their jobs.” What is happening now, in other words, is a reminder that the argument about government tyranny was always a canard. Beneath it lurked what was really at stake, which was the right to assert control through force. Over and over, conservatives and Second Amendment stalwarts have claimed that right as their own, with Minneapolis being the latest example. The story they have told for decades is a binary one—good versus evil. In that framing, they are righteous and have but one job: Vanquish the enemy. Hold power. Save America. The same day Pretti was shot, video surfaced of federal agents pointing their weapons at civilians. “It’s like ‘Call of Duty,’” someone could be heard saying, referencing the blockbuster military-style video game series. Since then, Trump has suggested he will deescalate in Minneapolis. But whatever happens, the players have had a taste of the real thing, and there’s no going back.

A peaceful protest in Portland, Oregon on Saturday broke into chaos as federal agents deployed tear gas on demonstrators—including families with young children.  Thousands of protesters marched through the city and gathered in the blocks surrounding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. According to the Oregonian, just minutes after the crowd arrived at the facility, federal agents launched tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and flash-bang grenades after some demonstrators approached the security gate.  Labor leaders from over 20 unions led the march to the ICE building, with many protesters participating as part of the “Labor Against ICE” rally.  > Video shared with me by attendee at the ICE protest in Portland, OR earlier > this evening where federal agents tear gassed peaceful protestors—including > children, disabled and elderly: > > — Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) 2026-02-01T04:09:52.219Z Portland City Councilor Mitch Green wrote in a social media post that he was tear gassed in the crowd: “Federal agents at the ICE facility tear gassed children. We must abolish ICE, DHS, and we must have prosecutions. I expect to see enforcement of our city code prohibiting the use of tear gas.” > I just got tear gassed along with thousands of union members, many of whom had > their families with them. Federal agents at the ICE facility tear gassed > children. We must abolish ICE, DHS, and we must have prosecutions. I expect to > see enforcement of our city code prohibiting the use of tear gas. > > — Mitch Green (@councilorgreen.bsky.social) 2026-02-01T01:23:34.948Z Portland’s city code bans selling, furnishing, transporting, carrying, possessing, or using tear gas weapons within the city limits. The code does not apply to “members of the armed forces of the State of Oregon and the United States in the performance of their official duties,” but federal agents are not exempted under the statute. The Portland Police Bureau posted on X on Saturday night that they closed a major street to prevent drivers from being affected by the tear gas.  Portland Mayor Keith Wilson released a statement late Saturday night, saying that it was a “peaceful daytime protest” that “posed no danger to federal forces.”  “To those who continue to work for ICE: Resign. To those who control this facility: Leave,” he continued. “To those who continue to make these sickening decisions, go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children. Ask yourselves why you continue to work for an agency responsible for murders on American streets.” Wilson said later in the lengthy statement that the city would carry out an ordinance that went into effect in January that imposes financial penalties on facilities where chemical agents are deployed. The crackdown against protesters in Portland comes one day after a nationwide uprising where hundreds of demonstrations took place across the country to demand federal agents leave American towns and cities.

Many thousands of protestors across hundreds of demonstrations around the country on Friday once again took to their streets to tell President Donald Trump’s federal immigration agents a simple message: Get out of our towns and cities.  Friday’s nationwide mobilization is only the most recent in a string of demonstrations demanding justice for those targeted in the Department of Homeland Security’s ongoing, and violent, operations. Many of them focused on the brutality in Minnesota, including the killings of two US citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents, and the apprehension of Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old boy with the Spider-Man backpack and the blue hat, who is currently sick in a Texas detention center after being picked up by DHS officials.  There’s no clear sign of when agents will leave the Twin Cities, as a US District judge on Saturday declined to order the Trump administration to immediately scale back its operations. As the Washington Post reported, she argued “Minnesota and the Twin Cities had not definitively shown that the administration’s decision to flood the state with agents was unlawful or designed to force local officials into cooperating with the administration’s objectives.” And, even if some agents leave Minneapolis, scores of immigration officials around the nation continue to target people in their cars, at home, and while working.  In addition to protests, the widespread actions included refraining from economic participation—no shopping, no working—and a school walkout, organized by students around the country.  Here are just some of the places where immigrants and their allies—many of them schoolchildren—took to the streets across the US: TWIN CITIES Protests in Minnesota have continued unabated for weeks as locals face subzero temperatures, yet come out en masse around the Twin Cities area. Stephen Maturen/GETTY Anadolu/GETTY Stephen Maturen/GETTY John Moore/GETTY John Moore/GETTY ROBERTO SCHMIDT/GETTY CALIFORNIA Demonstrations took place in major California cities, including Los Angeles, where prominent journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon was arrested by federal agents late Thursday night in connection with his appearance at a church protest in St. Paul, which he reported on earlier this month. Los AngelesGenaro Molina/GETTYProtesters descended on City Hall Friday, Jan. 30, 2026 as part of a nationwide day of action to stop funding for ICE and the shooting deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Los AngelesPATRICK T. FALLON/GETTY San FranciscoSan Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/GETTY PasadenaMediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images/GETTY NEW YORK CITY Starting at Foley Square near City Hall, a large crowd of demonstrators marched toward Washington Square Park. Earlier this week, dozens of protestors were arrested after going into the lobby of a TriBeCa hotel where they said federal agents were being housed. Spencer Platt/GETTY Spencer Platt/GETTY NurPhoto/GETTY MIAMI Anadolu/GETTY Anadolu/GETTY CHICAGO Anadolu/GETTY Anadolu/GETTY BOSTON JOSEPH PREZIOSO/GETTY JOSEPH PREZIOSO/GETTY LIVINGSTON, MONTANA As with previous nationwide mobilizations, residents of smaller cities or towns gathered near the side of a road to protest. These are demonstrators in Livingston, Montana. William Campbell/GETTY William Campbell/GETTY COLORADO DenverMark Makela/GETTY DenverTimothy Hurst/GETTY BoulderMatthew Jonas/Boulder Daily Camera/GETTY CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA Peter Zay/Anadolu/GETTY Peter Zay/Anadolu/GETTY WASHINGTON, DC Anadolu/GETTY Anadolu/GETTY Tom Brenner/GETTY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And, demonstrations are not just in the United States. Anti-ICE protests in cities around the world, including Paris and Milan, took place this week in solidarity with demonstrators in the United States. Those in Milan were focused on protesting the possible presence of ICE at the Olympic Games. There’s another US-based nationwide mobilization planned for March 28. That action is being organized by the No Kings coalition, which has put on several mass demonstrations across the nation in the past year. Though it is unclear if another cross-country day of outrage will take place before then, as people remain ready to respond to whatever news alert about DHS comes across their phones next.

Don Lemon, the prominent journalist and former CNN anchor, was arrested by federal agents Thursday in Los Angeles on charges that he violated a law while reporting on a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota earlier this month.  The saga represents a startling, if not new, turn in the Trump administration’s attacks on reporters and protesters. President Donald Trump’s administration, via Attorney General Pam Bondi, arrested Lemon along with three others—Georgia Fort, an independent journalist who filmed last night as agents came to her home, along with Trahern Jeen Crews and Jamael Lydell Lundy, both activists—who were at the church during the demonstration against federal immigration agents’ violent campaign in the Twin Cities. On January 18, protestors entered Cities Church in St. Paul, where a pastor was identified as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.  Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Lemon, said that the reporter had been picked up while covering the Grammy awards. “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said. “The first amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.” Lemon is set to appear in court on Friday.  > @donlemon > > Minneapolis activists disrupted a church service where David Easterwood serves > as a pastor, according to lawyer and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. > Easterwood is also the acting field office director for U.S. Immigration and > Customs Enforcement in St. Paul, overseeing enforcement and removal operations > across Minnesota and neighboring states. > > ♬ original sound – Don Lemon In total, the administration tried to charge eight people, including Lemon, under a law that protects people participating in services at their houses of worship. A federal magistrate judge who reviewed the arrests only approved three, throwing out the cases against Lemon and others. The Department of Justice then tried to convince a federal appeals court to force the judge to issue additional warrants for the arrests. The judge, again, declined to pursue charges. Still, the administration went after the journalists and activists.  When the DOJ arrested the three people that the judge signed off on, it invoked a federal felony statute from the Reconstruction Era, designed to safeguard the rights of Black Americans to do things like worship and vote amid terror and violence from the Ku Klux Klan.  Lemon, like several of the other people the administration arrested in connection with the January 18 protests, is Black.  Related TRUMP DOJ USES ANTI-KKK LAW TO CHARGE ICE PROTESTERS WITH FELONY Conservative political strategist and lawyer Mike Davis lauded the move by Bondi on X, writing, “Nobody is above the law. Especially not today’s klansmen—like Don Lemon—who storm churches and terrorize Christians.” Harmeet K. Dhillon, the DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, reposted it. “We’re going to pursue this to the ends of the Earth,” Dhillon said during an interview with Megyn Kelly on Friday.  > From January to December 15 of last year, at least 32 journalists were > detained or charged just for doing their jobs. The official X account for The White House boasted about the arrest on Friday, posting “When life gives you lemons…” accompanied by a chain emoji and a black and white photo of Lemon.  Lemon is also reportedly facing charges of violating the FACE Act, or the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994, which was created to protect people trying to obtain or provide reproductive health services from violent or disruptive protestors. A section in that law also protects worshipers in religious spaces.  “Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump justice department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” Lowell, Lemon’s lawyer, said, referencing the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. “This unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court.”  Lemon is the latest in a long string of journalists being arrested at immigration-related protests.  From January to December 15 of last year, at least 32 journalists were detained or charged just for doing their jobs, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker created by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.  Twenty eight of the 32 were at immigration-related protests—a reality that is poised to become even more critical after the violent crackdown in the Twin Cities, and as federal agents continue their operations across the nation. 

The Trump administration is using an anti-Ku Klux Klan law to prosecute Minnesota activists for demonstrating against ICE at a St. Paul church. On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had arrested Chauntyll Allen, Nekima Levy Armstrong, and William Kelly for their alleged involvement in a January 18 anti-ICE demonstration. The three protesters were charged with conspiracy to deprive rights—a federal felony under Section 241, a Reconstruction-era statute enacted to safeguard the rights of Black Americans to vote and engage in public life amid the KKK’s racial violence. Levy Armstrong and Allen are both prominent Black community organizers. Levy Armstrong leads the grassroots civil rights nonprofit Racial Justice Network and once served as the president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP. Allen is a member of the St. Paul School Board and a founder of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities. (The DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did lawyers for Levy Armstrong, Allen, or Kelly.) An affidavit filed in support of the government’s case by a special agent with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also claims that the protesters sought to violate the “free exercise of religion at a place of religious worship secured by the FACE Act,” a 1994 federal law designed to protect people seeking abortion services. The affidavit appears to name several other redacted defendants as participants in the conspiracy. Videos showed the group of activists disrupting the St. Paul church service with chants of “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” a reference to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month. Protesters selected the church because they say one of its pastors, David Easterwood, leads a local ICE field office. Reporting from PBS found that the church pastor’s personal information matches that of the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office, and that Easterwood “appeared alongside DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a Minneapolis press conference last October.” The HSI agent’s affidavit designates Easterwood as “Victim 1.” The document also lists several chants made by “agitators” that “terrorized the parishioners,” including “this is what community looks like” and “hands up, don’t shoot.” (According to the affidavit, one churchgoer only heard the word “shoot” and therefore feared the protesters could have guns.) The agent also characterizes Good’s death as “an officer-involved shooting as a result of her assault on an immigration officer.” A press release published by DHS on Friday called the three arrested activists “ringleaders” of a “church riot” and alleged that their actions amounted to an “attack on churchgoers’ religious freedom.” But a legal filing from Levy Armstrong’s lawyer arguing for his client’s pretrial release notes that Levy Armstrong herself is a Christian reverend. “Contrary to the charges, there was no intent to deprive anyone of their right to worship, but the desire was to initiate a debate about religious values,” her lawyer wrote. “It was a non-violent protest, which under a normal government, would not lead to criminal charges, much less federal felony charges.” All three organizers were released from federal custody on Friday. The extraordinary decision to charge the protesters with felony federal conspiracy against civil rights comes after footage of the event sparked days of viral outrage among Trump’s supporters, with right-wing websites calling the protest a “mob,” “riot,” and “attack.” The DOJ also sought to bring conspiracy charges against journalist Don Lemon, a former CNN host who was present at the protest, an effort rejected by a federal magistrate judge. “Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon told far-right influencer Benny Johnson during a podcast appearance on Monday. “He went into the facility, and then he began ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part, of a criminal conspiracy. It isn’t.” The Trump administration evidently hopes to make an example of Allen, Levy Armstrong, and Kelly: “Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” Bondi posted on X on Thursday. One of Trump’s first actions as president was to overturn a longstanding policy that restricted ICE enforcement at “sensitive areas,” including places of worship.

Anyone with a child in the spitting distance age of a preschooler is likely to be familiar with Spidey and His Amazing Friends, the 2021 animated TV series that follows grade-school versions of Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and Gwen Stacy as they take on baddies across New York City. Their kiddo fans might even break out in song and try to talk to you about Patrick Stump. Such is the intense patronage that Spidey inspires among today’s youngest kids, and by extension, their parents, willingly or not. So when news emerged that ICE had detained Liam Ramos, a 5-year-old Minnesota boy, it was the photos that broke me. Here is a literal preschooler wearing a Spider-Man backpack, just like all of our kids, as the hand of a much larger masked ICE agent holds onto his backpack, as if he were a flight risk. An oversized blue hat with bunny ears partially covers his face as he stares ahead blankly. Liam and his father will eventually be sent to an immigration detention center just outside San Antonio, but not before, as school officials reported, federal officers attempted to turn the child into “bait” by persuading him to knock on his own front door to see if there were other family members they could apprehend inside. Speaking to federal agents in a closed-door meeting, JD Vance defended ICE’s actions. The flimsy politics of citizenship might seem like what distinguishes Liam’s story from the stories of our own offspring. But his innocence, like the innocence of all children, is unimpeachable. We know this child: his goodness, his go-to superheroes, his goofy hat. In Minneapolis, Liam is one of at least four children who have been detained in the last month. All of them attend the same school district, where half of the students are Latino. Similarly grotesque incidents involving kids are taking place across the country, including in Portland, Maine, where huge swaths of school populations are no longer attending out of fear of ICE. A recent analysis from the Marshall Project estimated that at least 3,800 kids, including 20 infants, have been detained since Donald Trump returned to office. > Something is deeply wrong if we, as a society, cannot agree that an > administration that snatches up children, uses them as bait to hunt down > others is not morally repulsive. But, as with so much that has unfolded over the past year, reports of these horrors barely seem to break into our collective consciousness. We read them with disgust and protest in some shape, while the infinite loop of our paralysis ticks on. But excruciating images like Liam’s demand more. To be clear, one does not need to see a Spider-Man backpack to evince the atrocities at play here. Nor do I need some kind of parenting parallel to understand that this child is like every child. But the power of these optics, their unique ability to clarify with a terrifying precision, that these kids could be any one of our own, should puncture some well-fortified defenses. Because something is deeply wrong if we, as a society, cannot agree that an administration that snatches up children, uses them as bait to hunt down others, is not morally repulsive. So what now? Democrats, occupied with writing angry letters and demanding that mean tweets be taken down, are proving to be feckless. But the people of Minneapolis are resisting in ways that we can all learn from: showing up in the thousands every day to say that enough is enough. Putting down our capitalistic instincts to stage large-scale economic blackouts. Tailing ICE and making it clear that their fascist levels of terror won’t go unwitnessed, with the hope that it may not continue to go unpunished. As for the rest of us who don’t live in Minneapolis, bearing witness to these images of Liam is the least we can do.

On Friday afternoon, a judge blocked federal agents in Minneapolis from arresting peaceful protesters or using crowd control tools against them, just as news broke that Trump’s justice department desperately launched an investigation into whether Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey impeded immigration enforcement through their public opposition. US District Judge Kate Menendez ruled that DHS and ICE agents working in Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota must refrain from “using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity.” Menendez also barred federal agents from stopping vehicles from following them if they maintain a safe distance.  Menendez’s order granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by protesters last month that argued that their constitutional rights to exercise free speech and peaceably assemble were violated by federal agents who retaliated with intimidation, force, and detention.  Menendez wrote that protesters and observers “did not forcibly obstruct or impede the agents’ work.”  “The First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly—not rioting,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “We remind the public that rioting is dangerous—obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony.” Menendez’s order comes as the Trump administration began sending about 1,000 more federal agents to Minnesota last week—in addition to the 2,000 others already deployed in the state.  The Justice Department is also intensifying its assault on Minnesota by targeting Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey. Prosecutors reportedly issued grand jury subpoenas to the pair on Friday.  But the investigation into Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey raises similar First Amendment concerns as the lawsuit filed by the protesters—the right to condemn the government without fear of punishment.  “Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic, Gov. Walz wrote Friday in a post on X. “The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.” > Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before > that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an > authoritarian tactic. > > The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the > federal agent who shot her. https://t.co/MfgwSjDFwh > > — Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 16, 2026 On Friday night, Mayor Frey said on X that the subpoena was an “obvious attempt to intimidate.” In a Friday night post to X, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote, “A reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law.” But the Trump administration’s claim that its escalation of violence is justified against protesters comes as story after story emerges of violent encounters with federal officers, including using tear gas on a six-month-old baby.  While yesterday’s ruling protecting protesters will likely go to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, where 10 of the 11 active judges have been nominated by Republican presidents, the broader picture is becoming clearer: the administration must know protesters are thwarting federal agents; they know their enforcement is being challenged in court; and they know support for their immigration policies is plummeting.

With the death toll reportedly surging in the thousands as Iran continues to brutally suppress the nationwide demonstrations over the country’s economic collapse, President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Iranians to keep protesting the regime. “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING,” he posted on social media. “TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price.” In perhaps the strongest signal yet that the US could be planning to intervene, Trump added, “HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!!” The president’s message came as the number of dead is estimated to be as many as 2,000 to 3,000. According to a report by the Associated Press, Iranian state TV first recognized the devastating death toll on Tuesday. Reports from inside the brutal crackdown have been limited after Iran shut down internet service last Thursday and blocked calls from outside the country. The unrest, which started in December after the country’s currency collapsed, has prompted the Trump administration to threaten military strikes against Iran if it continues to kill protesters. “Diplomacy is always the first option for the president,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday. “However, with that said, the president has shown he is not afraid to use military options if he deems it necessary.” On Monday, Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on any country that does business with Iran, potentially leading to further economic turmoil for Iran. Iran’s head of the country’s Supreme National Security Council also shot back at Trump’s message on Tuesday with the following: > We declare the names of the main killers of the people of Iran: > 1- Trump > 2- Netanyahu pic.twitter.com/CqcQYKHbDJ > > — Ali Larijani | علی لاریجانی (@alilarijani_ir) January 13, 2026 Trump’s encouraging words for protesters in Iran come as his administration cracks down on protesters at home after the killing of Renée Good, the 37-year-old woman who was shot multiple times and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis last week. The glaring dissonance has been especially evident in the administration’s accusation that Good was guilty of “domestic terrorism,” as well as its apparent approval of federal agents continuing to brutalize, and sometimes shoot, at protesters.  > You don't get to change the facts because you don't like them. What happened > in Minneapolis was an act of domestic terrorism. >   > Acts of domestic terrorism like this should be condemned by every politician > and elected official. It shouldn’t be hard or remotely controversial. > pic.twitter.com/AmZLCyRiMo > > — Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) January 11, 2026 As my colleague Jeremy Schulman wrote on Sunday, Trump’s second-term crackdown on dissent started with pro-Palestinian activists, and never stopped. > Early last year, ICE began arresting and attempting to deport people with > legal immigration status—such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk—who had > engaged in pro-Palestinian activism or expressed pro-Palestinian views. The > administration was explicit about the new policy. Troy Edgar, Trump’s deputy > secretary of Homeland Security, made clear that the government was seeking to > remove Khalil in large part because he’d chosen to “protest” against Israel.

Two days after an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis, Rep. Roger Williams issued an ultimatum to the Trump administration’s critics in Minnesota and beyond. “People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil,” the Texas Republican told NewsNation. “And until we do that, I guess we’re going to have it this way. And the people that are staying in their homes or doing the right thing need to be protected.” > Rep. Roger Williams: "People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law > enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil." > pic.twitter.com/r5TFLgFHy1 > > — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 9, 2026 That’s a pretty clear encapsulation of MAGA-world’s views on dissent these days. You aren’t supposed to protest. You aren’t supposed to “yell at” or “challenge” the militarized federal agents occupying your city. And anyone who wants to be “protected” should probably just stay “in their homes.” Williams isn’t some fringe backbencher; he’s a seven-term congressman who chairs the House Small Business Committee. He is announcing de facto government policy. For nearly a year, President Donald Trump and his allies have been engaged in an escalating assault on the First Amendment. The administration has systematically targeted or threatened many of Trump’s most prominent critics: massive law firms, Jimmy Kimmel, even, at one point, Elon Musk. But it’s worth keeping in mind that some of the earliest victims of the president’s second-term war on speech were far less powerful. Early last year, ICE began arresting and attempting to deport people with legal immigration status—such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk—who had engaged in pro-Palestinian activism or expressed pro-Palestinian views. The administration was explicit about the new policy. Troy Edgar, Trump’s deputy secretary of Homeland Security, made clear that the government was seeking to remove Khalil in large part because he’d chosen to “protest” against Israel. Asked about such cases, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that engaging in “anti-American, antisemitic, pro-Hamas protest will not be tolerated.” It should have been obvious at the time that Trump allies were laying the groundwork for an even broader crackdown. “When it comes to protesters, we gotta make sure we treat all of them the same: Send them to jail,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) in March, discussing Khalil’s arrest on Fox Business Network. “Free speech is great, but hateful, hate, free speech is not what we need in these universities.” That’s pretty close to Williams’ demand on Friday that “people need to quit demonstrating.” It also sounds a lot like Attorney General Pam Bondi’s widely derided threat in September that the DOJ “will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.” Hate speech—regardless of what the Trump administration thinks that means—is protected by the First Amendment. Bondi can’t prosecute people for expressing views she dislikes. And ICE can’t deport US citizens like Good. But of course, federal law enforcement has more direct ways to exert control. “The bottom line is this,” said Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Texas Republican running for US Senate, in the wake of Good’s death. “When a federal officer gives you instructions, you abide by them and then you get to keep your life.” > Rep. Wesley Hunt: "The bottom line is this: when a federal officer gives you > instructions, you abide by them and then you get to keep you life" > pic.twitter.com/JhA09qoT8r > > — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 7, 2026 Moment’s later, Newsmax anchor Carl Higbie complained to Hunt that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) had “literally told Minnesotans to get out and protest and that it is, quote, ‘a patriotic duty.'” “People are going to go out there,” Higbie warned ominously. “And what do you think is going to happen when you get 3, 4, 5,000 people—some of which are paid agitators—thinking it’s their ‘patriotic duty’ to oppose ICE?”

Scores of people are once again taking to their streets this weekend to protest the Trump administration’s ongoing offensive against immigrants and those who attempt to stand up for them. More than 1,000 demonstrations are slated for Saturday and Sunday after federal immigration agents shot three people in the past week. On Wednesday, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renée Nicole Good in Minneapolis in her vehicle, and on Thursday US Border Patrol shot a man and a woman in a car in Portland.  “The murder of Renée Nicole Good has sparked outrage in all of us,” Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, one of the organizations spearheading the nationwide demonstrations, told Mother Jones. “Her death, and the horrific nature of it, was a turning point and a call to all of us to stand up against ICE’s inhumane and lawless operations that have already killed dozens before Renee.” > Just got home from our local ICE OUT protest. 24 degrees and snowing, hundreds > came out. Others were in the next town over responding to ICE trapping > roofers. > > — Ashley (@coyotebee.bsky.social) 2026-01-10T19:08:06.443Z The weekend protests are happening or poised to happen in blue cities like New York and Chicago, as well as Republican strongholds like Lubbock, Texas, and Danville, Kentucky.  The demonstrations are being organized by the ICE Out For Good Coalition, which in addition to Indivisible, includes groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, Voto Latino, and United We Dream.  “For a full year, Trump’s masked agents have been abducting people off the streets, raiding schools, libraries, and churches,” Katie Bethell, the civic action executive director for MoveOn, another organization in the coalition, said. “None of us want to live in a country where federal agents with guns are lurking and inciting violence at schools and in our communities.” According to tracking from The Guardian, 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025—the most of any year in more than two decades.  Additionally, The Trace reports that since June 2025, there have been 16 incidents in which immigration agents opened fire and another 15 incidents in which agents held someone at gunpoint. The outlet writes that, in these incidents, four people were killed and seven injured. The Trace noted that the number of incidents involving guns could likely be higher, “as shootings involving immigration agents are not always publicly reported.” Members of Concord Indivisible gathered outside First Parish in Concord, Massachusetts, to protest the killing of Renée Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.Dave Shrewsbury/ZUMA Since Wednesday, an already tense situation in Minneapolis—and in other cities—boiled over. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, officers on the scene met protesters with chemical irritants. In the days since, border patrol agents outside the Whipple Building in Minneapolis have used violent tactics against protesters, including using chemical agents on demonstrators.  Online, some videos show escalating moments between immigration agents and those resisting them. In one instance, a border patrol agent is seen telling multiple women sitting in cars in Minneapolis: “Don’t make a bad decision today.” The women were seemingly attempting to interrupt immigration agents by taking up road space.  The coalition hosting the protests said in its list of stated goals that the groups hope to “Demand accountability, transparency, and an immediate investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good,” “Build public pressure on elected officials and federal agencies,” and “Call for ICE to leave our communities,” among other aims.  > Huge turnout for anti-ICE protest in Newport News. They’re along a street so > hard to get everyone in one photo. Hampton Roads does not often see these > sorts of numbers. #ReneeGood > > — Zach D Roberts (@zdroberts.bsky.social) 2026-01-10T19:09:00.009Z These are just the latest protests to take over cities since President Donald Trump was sworn in for the second time. In April, it was the “Hands Off!” protest against Trump and Elon Musk’s gutting of government spending and firing of federal workers. Months later, in October, the “No Kings” demonstrations sought to call out Trump’s growing, often unchecked executive power. According to organizers, each saw millions of protesters. And now, only the second weekend of the new year, people are once again angry and outside.  “The shootings in Minneapolis and Portland were not the beginning of ICE’s cruelty, but they need to be the end,” Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer with the ACLU, said. “These tragedies are simply proof of one fact: the Trump administration and its federal agents are out of control, endangering our neighborhoods, and trampling on our rights and freedom. This weekend Americans all across the country are demanding that they stop.”