Who will watch the watchmen?

The shooting dead of 37-year-old mother of three and US citizen Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis has seldom been out of the media since the killing on Wednesday. There’s a good forensic examination of the video by Canadian journalist Andrew Chang:

ICE’s role in aggressive immigration enforcement has expanded dramatically under Trump’s second term, with a significant surge in arrests, raids, and deportations. The agency has carried out large-scale operations in major cities, ramped up arrests of people without criminal records, and worked under tight arrest quotas and new executive orders that emphasize expedited removals and widespread enforcement—even at sensitive locations like schools and hospitals. This hardline approach has fueled public and political backlash, particularly from immigrant-rights advocates, local officials in state jurisdictions, and civil liberties groups who argue it creates fear in communities, undermines due process, and targets people who pose no safety threat.

Several high-profile incidents and broader patterns of conduct have intensified controversy around ICE. High numbers of detentions, overcrowded facilities, and reports of use of force have drawn widespread criticism and fueled protests nationwide. Additionally, controversy over recruitment practices, training standards, have sparked opposition from cultural figures and companies pulling support, further magnifying scrutiny. ICE’s expanded footprint and the political polarization around immigration policy have made it a focal point of contention in national discourse and it has seriously polarised the US with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz comparing ICE to a ‘modern day Gestapo’:

With journalist Alex Bandon alleging it is ‘fast becoming a key piece in the repressive apparatus of American authoritarianism’:

https://theconversation.com/how-ice-is-becoming-a-secret-police-force-under-the-trump-administration-255019

The NYT tells us that this is the 9th ICE Shooting Since September:

In the last four months alone, immigration officers have fired on at least nine people in five states and Washington, D.C. All of the individuals targeted in those shootings were, like the woman killed on Wednesday, fired on while in their vehicles. In each case, officials have claimed that the agents fired in self-defense, fearing they would be struck by the vehicle.

At least one other person died as a result of those shootings.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/us/ice-shootings-minneapolis-other-cities.html

I of course have my own opinions on the killing of Renee Good but I’ll keep my powder dray and let others view the examination of it above and draw their own conclusions but what did strike me was the attitude of the Trump administration in the wake of it. I had thought to myself that now that ICE agents were responsible for the death of a US citizen and mother of three there might have been some compassion and contrition shown but the brutality and coldness of the response shocked me, Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, actually branded this woman a domestic terrorist and Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and a regular spokesperson for ICE claimed one of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them – an act of domestic terrorism and that ‘multiple ICE officers were hurt’. Trump himself claimed that Renee Good violently, wilfully and maliciously ran over the ICE officer and US Vice President JD Vance claimed that the dead mother was was part of a ‘broader leftwing network’ that has been working tirelessly and using ‘domestic terror techniques’ to stop Trump enforcing immigration laws and that there’s an entire network – and, frankly, some of the media are participating in it – that is trying to incite violence against our law enforcement officers. It’s ridiculous. It’s preposterous. And part of our investigatory work is getting to the bottom of it

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/08/jd-vance-ice-agent-killing-minneapolis-trump

We now learn that there has been a further shooting of two people by Federal Agents in Portland, Oregon and that Minnesota State Investigators have been blocked by the FBI and denied access to materials and evidence.

I’m sitting almost 4,000 miles from the US across the Atlantic in Europe but from my vantage point what’s happening in the US has all the hallmarks of any South American military dictatorship or European fascist authoritarian police state.