ICE escalates war on civilian accountability [View all]

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ICE escalates war on civilian accountability
Critics say federal agents are following a playbook to give themselves an excuse to react violently

By Nicholas Liu
Reporter
Published January 17, 2026 6:30AM (EST)


(Salon) The suddenness, scale and violence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids over the last year have prompted neighborhoods and volunteers to either record raids in progress or preemptively stand guard near areas where raids might take place, such as schools with immigrant children. This accountability led to the numerous videos that captured the moment when ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last week, sparking a nationwide outpouring of anger and grief.

Good had been monitoring an elementary school as students were being dropped off before Ross stepped in front of her vehicle and shot her. Human and civil rights advocates who spoke to Salon have called this a classic example of law enforcement foisting on their victim a “deadly dilemma,” forcing the person to appear as aggressive or insubordinate and giving agents an excuse to react violently.

Before Good’s death, other civilians across the country who were recording or watching ICE had been threatened, physically assaulted and arrested, amplifying the sense among critics that ICE officers, the broader law enforcement establishment and the Trump administration view themselves as above the law and capable of getting away with it.

Nevertheless, critics say that ICE, Customs and Border Protection and other institutions have followed a similar playbook used by police states, maintaining the thinnest pretexts to justify their behavior in a way that gives, in theory, plausible deniability, and signals to critics that they’re too powerful to need a perfect alibi. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/17/ice-escalates-war-on-civilian-accountability/