“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
The line from George Orwell’s “1984” reflects the propaganda‑filled streets and media of his time.
Writing in 1949, Orwell depicted a world where one side could do no wrong, a side that thrived on hatred of the other and survived by telling “minitruths.”
The formative variable that holds our humanity together is our ability to see beyond the hypocrisies of those in charge and instead look to the people who reflect more of ourselves than any millionaire ever could.
And today, we see the same streets, the same hatred that blinds us from the images of atrocities that are available at every swipe, and still, nothing has changed.
The Trump administration began an immigration crackdown in Minnesota last month, deploying scores of federal agents to the state.
Federal immigration officers on Tuesday described their presence in Minnesota as the “largest operation to date.”
On Wednesday, Jan. 7, Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot three times in the face by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
The videos provided show that she was in her car, avoiding ICE. What we saw was the temperament and aggravated authority given to ICE. And while we see no unlawful acts of violence from Good.
The president flips the script again. On Truth Social, President Trump maintained that ICE agents shot and killed the woman “in self-defense” and falsely claimed that the woman “viciously ran over” the federal officer.
Vice President JD Vance later said that ICE has complete immunity.
The issue with ICE is not the existence of immigration enforcement itself–that is nothing new in the United States.
The concern today is that people like Good, along with the 32 others who have died in ICE custody, the 170 U.S. citizens detained by the agency, and the hundreds of protesters who have reported pepper‑spraying or beatings, point to a deeper problem happening across the U.S.: there is no clear way to know when immigration enforcement crosses a line due to the lack of accountability in enforcement.
It is easy to assume officials are doing everything right when no one else knows the rules of the game. Make no mistake, though–this is what totalitarianism looks like. This level of unchecked authority is what America once feared, and ICE is, in fact, not simply “doing its job.”
Accountability is absent, and the public is left guessing where authority ends and abuse begins.
Maybe in other countries, enforcement officers who walk the streets and barge into people’s homes without proper warrants or paperwork earn a gold star. But in America, this represents an unprecedented abuse of power.
In the videos of Good’s death, a maroon Honda Pilot is shown partly blocking one lane of a snowy residential street.
Two agents approach the driver and tell her to get out of the car. One tries to open the driver’s side door and reaches through the window. A third agent steps in front of the Honda.
The vehicle is shifted from reverse into drive and begins to move ahead. Jonathan Ross, the agent at the front of the vehicle, standing near the driver’s side headlight, pulls out a gun and fires at the driver, continuing to shoot as the vehicle moves past him.
In the video, we hear Ross murmur, “Fucking Bitch,” as Good sat dead.
There was no reason for Good to comply with ICE; they are not police officers, and she is a U.S. citizen. Without any stated reason for the investigation, and with masked men approaching her car, what would you do?
The Honda accelerates and then crashes. Ross approaches the vehicle, then walks away and tells other agents to call 911.
Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, punctuated his call for ICE agents to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis” with an expletive, adding that the presence of the agents was sowing chaos in the city. “People are being hurt,” he said. “Families are being ripped apart.”
The country is tired, the citizens are weary, but to what end do we allow the death of others justify the protection of some?