Ever since Donald J. Trump descended on a gold escalator at his eponymous Manhattan tower in 2015, he has sworn that a scorched-earth campaign in opposition to “unlawful immigrants” would make life safer for People and that residents had nothing to fret about.
Properly.
In 2025, Trump’s marketing campaign vow to focus on “the worst of the worst” was put aside within the title of not simply going in spite of everything undocumented immigrants and limiting legal migration however even the objective of remigration — the concept immigrants of any standing ought to return to their house international locations. Now, U.S. residents Keith Porter Jr., shot at an condominium advanced within the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, and Renee Nicole Good, whose capturing sparked massive protests in Minneapolis and nationwide, are lifeless.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is about to storm American streets and neighborhoods with hundreds of recent recruits who acquired simply eight weeks of coaching as a substitute of what was 5 months. The Fourth Modification bans the federal government from subjecting People to “unreasonable searches and seizures,” but we now have a vp promising that they’re forthcoming throughout the nation.
“I feel … we’re [going] to see these deportation numbers ramp up,” JD Vance informed Fox Information’ Jesse Watters, “as we get increasingly more folks on-line working for ICE going from door-to-door.”
He repeated his boast the following day throughout a information convention whereas including that the killing of Good — who was shot while trying to drive away from an agent who stood in entrance of her SUV throughout an immigration enforcement operation — was justified, including that the 37-year-old mom of three was “brainwashed” and “radicalized in a really, very unhappy approach.”
The start of 2026 now exhibits even these in the USA legally are targets for the too typically Keystone Kops-like, keen beaver, trigger-happy federal immigration enforcement drive I prefer to name la migra.
This isn’t something new, in fact. Since June, when ICE, Border Patrol and their sister companies used Los Angeles as a testing ground for what they’ve inflicted on the remainder of the nation, the federal government has handled residents who dare oppose mass-scale deportations — veterans, Democrats or Republicans, young and old, Latino and never — as an enemy of the “homeland.” Residents have had their front doors blown out, been hit with pepper balls for praying outside government facilities, been wrongfully charged with assaulting agents and have seen their identification papers dismissed as faux and thus grounds for detainment.
With the Trump administration’s accelerated recruitment drive for immigration officers and rhetorical bloodlust, don’t be shocked if these masked Bizarro Barney Fifes knock in your door or demand to see your papers. The truth is, count on it.
The MAGA excuse for these caught up in la migra’s crackdown — the way in which to remain out of bother is by avoiding it — doesn’t work when the difficulty involves you.
That’s why evidently the deaths of Porter and Good final week, coupled with Vance’s authoritarian promise, appear to be waking up People into resisting the deportation Leviathan like by no means earlier than.
Anti-ICE protests are persevering with throughout the nation this coming weekend. On social media, conservatives and libertarians who largely stayed silent on Trump all through 2025 are criticizing him over Good’s demise and his administration’s insults in opposition to her. Trump’s approval score has slipped because the begin of his presidency, even among supporters — and ICE’s out-of-control conduct is changing into an even bigger and larger issue.
A YouGov poll carried out on the day of Good’s killing discovered 52% of People surveyed don’t like how ICE is working, whereas the company’s approval score has gone from plus-16% to unfavorable 14% in a yr. Whereas the ballot unsurprisingly splits on partisan traces — Democrats overwhelmingly oppose ICE, Republicans nonetheless suppose they’re Trump’s Hardy Boys — the independents who delivered the 2024 election to Trump oppose ICE’s actions by a wholesome majority.
If he’s shedding the center, he’s shedding America.
Until, in fact, Trump goes full banana republic dictator and decides his regime isn’t leaving workplace — it doesn’t matter what. And truthfully, would you be shocked if this administration tried to make that dream a actuality?
Each motion wants martyrs, and if the deaths of Porter and Good show to Americans and everlasting residents as soon as and for all that they’re not protected from ICE, then their deaths weren’t in useless. That’s why the Trump administration and its lackeys are straining so exhausting to slime Good’s title — as a result of they know the general public isn’t having its lies.
Their smears don’t have the identical impact they used to, fortunately. Simply take a look at what occurred not too long ago with Grok, Elon Musk’s AI creation on X.
It’s important to take what it digitally blurts out with a grain of salt — Grok as soon as began calling itself “MechaHitler” and spewed antisemitic conspiracies after an replace that Musk swore “improved [it] considerably.”
However think about what Grok did when the billionaire Trump enabler “tweeted” of Good: “She tried to run folks over.”
When requested whether or not it “would have licensed deadly compelled based mostly solely on this video proof,” even Musk’s creation, Grok, replied (whereas noting that “ICE claims differ”):
“Primarily based on descriptions from a number of sources … it exhibits the automobile shifting slowly back and forth with out clear proof of making an attempt to ram officers. Beneath goal requirements like [the Supreme Court decision] Graham v. Connor, which require an imminent risk for lethal drive, I’d not authorize deadly drive solely on this footage.”
I suppose even Grok is able to calling out Trumpworld’s BS when it “sees” what hundreds of thousands of different folks throughout the U.S. have seen with their very own eyes.
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