Liberty and Justice For All Who Comply

1/23 Minneapolis held a statewide strike and we showed up in the streets at -10°F. Photo courtesy of Jenny Salita on Flickr

The U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs (I.C.E) is a very prevalent part of President Donald Trump’s administration. Throughout his campaign and even during his first presidency, Trump promised the enactment of stricter immigration laws and actions, hence the rapid and violent deployment of I.C.E brigades throughout the nation. 

The very mission of ICE, according to Trump, is to prevent the terrorism these people bring along and ultimately protect the U.S from all illegal “criminals” as he sees them. 

But has it really ever been a question of criminal status? Since, of course, our president is in fact a 34-felony-count felon in the eyes of the law.

And ICE has been able to commit heinous crimes without as much as the government and/or their supporters so much as batting an eye; if anything, they’re receiving support.

ICE has been wrangling people of varying immigration statuses and ages and detaining them without Due Process, which is extremely illegal and in direct violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

While these people then wait to be deported, they are held in detention centers where their humanity is stripped from them. As of December of last year, the agency had 68,440 people in detention centers; nearly 75% of these people had no criminal convictions.

The conditions are nothing short of violating, with many detainees claiming they are denied the most basic of human rights and decency within confinement. The very freedom that is guaranteed to all who are on American soil.

Last year, 32 people died in ICE custody. They perished due to a plethora of different reasons: seizures, heart failure, stroke, respiratory failure, tuberculosis or even suicide. Many family members, along with their lawyers, of these victims have spoken out and claimed that their loved ones perished due to neglect after repeatedly trying to get medical care.

2025 was the deadliest year for the agency, with 32 people dying in ICE custody last year. 

So far in 2026, nine people have died. 

Their names are: Alex Pretti, Renee Nicole Good, Keith Porter, Herber Sanchaz Dominguez, Victor Manuel Diaz, Parody La, Luis Beltran Yanez-Crus, Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres and Geraldo Lunas Campos.

Within the media, the deaths of Good and Pretti have been the most publicized, as both deaths happened within weeks of each other in America’s new ICE hotspot, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

ICE’s prevalence in this area is part of "Operation Metro Surge,” a major federal immigration crackdown that is, evidently, resulting in brutal violence. 

Good, 37, was shot and killed by an ICE agent while in her vehicle on Jan. 7. Good arrived at the site of a neighborhood ICE raid in her car, where she and others lined the streets protesting ICE’s presence. 

Good was parked horizontally to prevent the agency from proceeding any further. As federal agents approached Good’s car on foot, telling her to “get out of the car,” Good began reversing in an attempt to move her vehicle, it was then a federal agent standing to the front-left of her vehicle, Jonathan Ross, open fired and shot Good three times, ultimately killing her while calling her, “A fucking bitch.”

A rather contentious argument regarding Good’s death is that “she should have just listened to the agents, should’ve just complied.” Lack of compliance should never result in children growing up without their mother. Lack of compliance should never result in a beloved community member perishing. Lack of compliance should never equate to death. 

Many say Ross acted in self-defense, that he would have been run over if he hadn’t acted. Yet video evidence has proven that Good was not attempting to hit Ross. Good most likely became frightened at the situation's escalation and tried to drive off. 

Ross has since testified that he has PTSD as a result of an ICE incident last June, where he was badly injured, yet he continued his job. It is also important to note that prior to the federal agent’s identity being revealed, he was praised and defended by Vice President J.D. Vance for his actions.

The Trump administration’s support for ICE did not falter after this attack, and it certainly didn’t after Pretti was killed either. If anything, it only grew. 

Pretti, also 37, was fatally shot ten times on Jan. 24 by federal agents after attempting to help a woman who was being attacked by ICE.

Pretti was holding his cellphone to document the attacks before him. Pretti was quickly taken to the ground by seven federal agents who proceeded to hold him down and pepper-spray him. An eighth agent then joins the attack, coming in to take Pretti’s gun, which he seemed not have any intent on using at the moment, from the holster on his hip, before Pretti was shot ten times by a different federal agent moments later.

One would think that after so many controversies, hundreds of protests nationwide and the death of nine people, something would be done to limit ICE’s power within the United States, correct?

Maybe in a perfect nation, but certainly not this one. In fact, amidst all this tension, federal agents were told on Jan. 30 that they now have broader power to arrest people without a warrant. This was enacted as the administration believes it allows for people who may be potentially taken into ICE custody to flee before a warrant can be obtained.

Arresting someone without a warrant and a complete lack of probable cause is a serious offense, a fact that many who are against ICE have pointed out.

So, as a way to sidestep this issue, it was made so that ICE agents can arrest someone if they have cause to believe they violate immigration laws. Of course, ICE agents took advantage of this rule; they began to racially profile people of legal status and even used children as a luring device.

This is hatred in its finest form. It is living with the malicious intent of harming those who are being villainized for the simple fact that they exist, and those who fight to protect them.

What place does this type of hatred have in the United States? The land of the free, the melting pot of the world.

If this is the new face of American society, if hatred is going to be a new normal, perhaps we shouldn’t force every child to say the words “With Liberty, and Justice For All” every morning if that is a blatant lie. Perhaps the saying should be changed to, “Liberty and Justice For All Who Comply.”