Muslim Advocates condemns ICE’s brutal, point-blank killing of Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a mother and concerned neighbor. She was reportedly a legal observer, attempting to hold ICE accountable for the very abuses it unleashed on her. This is the predictable outcome of a lawless agency empowered by a lawless president. Trump invoked racist vitriol against Somali community members as ICE unleashed the “largest immigration operation ever” to terrorize Minneapolis residents, be they immigrant, Black, Brown, or concerned neighbors who gather to protect and witness. We still mourn George Floyd, who was murdered nine blocks away in 2020 and sparked a national uprising against racist police. We also remember and mourn Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a father of two, killed by ICE agents in Chicago, whose death was ruled a homicide. Since last July, DHS agents have committed 16 shootings in their militaristic raids on American cities. 

 The Trump regime has acted in lockstep with its authoritarian playbook, as laid out in its National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, which labels lawful dissenting views, including those who protest ICE, as domestic terrorism. This is a ploy to claim absolute power, escape accountability and blame victims of the regime’s abuse. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem repeatedly weaponized this framework to spuriously describe Ms. Good’s shooting as a response to an “act of domestic terrorism.” The FBI brazenly blocked Minnesota officials from the investigation, and Vice President J.D. Vance made the blatantly false claim that federal officers have “absolute immunity” from prosecution. This is a red alert. We cannot accept a government that claims absolute power to arrest, surveil, assault, and kill people.

We take heart and join in solidarity with the courageous masses who refuse to be silenced, and continue to demand that the government answer to us. 

 We demand the same from Congress and elected officials nationwide who must exercise their constitutional authority to check this lawless regime. Right now, Congress has the power to halt yet another billion-dollar money grab for DHS and demand a reckoning for its out-of-control ICE agents, its assaults and spike in shootings in the past year, and the overcrowding, medical neglect and record deaths in detention. Congress must oppose funding for DHS, abolish ICE, and hold violent officers accountable.