Huddled Masses

Following the killing of Minneapolis protestor Renee Good by an ICE agent named Jonathon Ross last week, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem stood at a podium in New York City and castigated the victim, calling her a “domestic terrorist” who “weaponized” her car and tried to run over Ross. The agent, Noem said, “feared for his life,” and was just protecting his fellow officers by shooting Good three times at point-blank range as she attempted to drive over him.

Remarkably, despite being overwhelmed by fear, Ross managed to switch his phone from his right hand to his left, pull out his gun, and keep filming while shooting Good in the head and muttering “F—king bitch,” as the dead woman’s car rammed into another vehicle. Clearly Ross was terrified. Clearly this was excellent police work.

Little noticed were the words emblazoned on the front of Noem’s podium in NYC: “One of Ours. All of Yours.” It’s a fascist slogan meaning, “if you kill one of ours, we’ll kill all of yours.” In World War II, it led to the executions of every man in one Czechoslovakian village as Nazi payback for the assassination of a German commander. The slogan was on-brand for what we’re witnessing with the proliferation of ICE agents nationwide. It’s not remotely subtle. The Nazi inflections are all out in the open.

As the Washington Post reported last week, ICE officials are spending $100 million to recruit “gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts” through online influencers and a geo-targeted advertising campaign, part of what the agency calls a “wartime recruitment” strategy to hire thousands of new ICE officers. The theme of the ads is “Defend the Homeland.” Here’s a sample of the ad copy: “Murderers, rapists, terrorists, and child pedophiles — ICE is recruiting patriotic, brave Americans to remove these criminal illegal aliens!” The ads are sent to the social media feeds of those near military bases, NASCAR races, or gun and trade shows. There are $50,000 “signing bonuses.”

One of the Instagram ads seen in the Memphis area features the song “We’ll Have Our Home Again,” also known as the “Männerbund,” a German term meaning “band of brothers.” The song, you won’t be surprised to learn, is a big favorite at Proud Boy rallies. Like I said, none of this is subtle. The administration is intentionally creating an army of white supremacists — masked, heavily armed, anonymous, and hurriedly “trained” to run “turn and burn” operations in American cities.

It’s a blatant perversion of the agency’s traditional jurisdiction. ICE officers have never had legal authority to arrest or interrogate anyone not suspected of breaking immigration laws. They didn’t wear masks and body armor and didn’t carry tactical weapons. They wore monogrammed nylon jackets and investigated immigration violations. The escalation of ICE into a private Homeland Security army with the power to block streets, break into homes without warrants, and rough up protestors — and apparently shoot them — is illegal. Or at least it was when we had administrations that believed in the rule of law.

But it’s clear now that the response to the killing of Renee Good is a harbinger of things to come, especially since Vice President Vance has said ICE agents have “complete immunity” from prosecution — a legal fantasy, but one this administration thinks it can get away with. Vance’s statement was backed up by the fact that Ross, the movie-making shooter, was allowed to walk away from the scene and has been kept out of sight ever since. Noem, Vance, and Donald Trump proclaimed he was innocent, refused to share evidence of the incident with Minnesota police or investigative agencies, and that, apparently, is how it ends. No prosecution, and Ross walks off into right-wing hero status. What a proud boy.

The incident in Minneapolis is just the first of many, I fear, as tension escalates and protests become more frequent and the federal cop army begins exercising its muscle with more impunity. No one in the GOP appears willing to stand up to the man responsible for all of this, the current president of the United States who believes laws and treaties and borders of other countries are meaningless, and that all that matters is what he wants. What’s next? ICE invades Greenland? Don’t laugh.