Policing the ICE Gestapo paramilitary goons

The state and local governments in Minnesota are dealing with the serious misconduct of the ICE paramilitary that the Trump regime has sent there. (1)

The ugly and murderous conduct of the ICE Gestapo in Minneapolis has got me thinking more specifically about the authority that states and local governments may have for restraining criminal conduct on ICE’s part.

Despite the title having to do with Greenland, the first part of the following interview has former senior general Mark Hertling talking about the terror tactics being used by ICE. And he rightly says that their obvious goal is to provoke a violent reaction that they can then use as an excuse to declare martial law or something like it. (2) (Trump seems to think invoking the Insurrection Act would be the same as setting up martial law, but it isn’t.)

But he also notes that, no matter how much goodwill and peaceful civic dedication most people have, if the current violent and even murderous tactics of ICE continue the way they are going, it’s inevitable that someone somewhere will react violently. He also has some interesting memories of how the post-2003 Iraqi security forces stopped wearing masks and why.

And anyone who thinks they are not trying to recruit provocateurs should read up on COINTELPRO from the 60s and the feds’ tactics during the post-9/11 period. And those were pre-Trump times!

There has been speculation over the last year is what it might look like in the US if actual civil war conditions were reached. What would that look like? What it will not look like is some kind of Democratic Party armed militia rising up against the ICE Gestapo, because no such partisan militia exists. Nor anything like that in the form of some National Antifa Underground Army or such like.

Robert Reich’s recent weekly podcast noted the fact that the Trump regime has sent three thousand ICE goons to Minneapolis, a city which has a police force of around 600. (3)

The most hopeful approach is the one municipal police and county sheriffs are now starting to use and even openly announce, which is that when ICE goons break the law, as they do regularly now, the local forces will arrest them and charge them. And since it’s now clear that ICE has been heavily recruiting Proud Boy-like “patriot militia” types like the cop-killing thugs who stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, there’s a good chance they will be doing more cop-killing. That is even more reason for local and state officials sooner rather than later to enforce the law against the militia goons who are breaking it.

Cops are there to enforce the law, not to break it (even though too many cops do). These ICE thugs are obviously operating on directives to terrorize local citizens, almost certainly as preparation for doing so on a wide scale on election days this year. On this matter, it really is “Support Your Local Police” time - and demand they do their jobs.

It’s important to remember that especially the recent hires among the ICE Gestapo are poorly trained in basic police conduct. It’s one thing for them to shoot an unarmed woman like Renee Good in the face with no warning. Dealing with armed and well-trained police is a whole different matter. And since ICE is reportedly planning to hire hundreds more goons in coming months, the average level of their professionalism will decline even further.

ProPublica just published a report on the use of deadly and banned chokeholds on people they attack. (4) If this goes on, there will be more people killed from this kind of abusive ICE practices:

An agent in Houston put a teenage citizen into a chokehold, wrapping his arm around the boy’s neck, choking him so hard that his neck had red welts hours later. A black-masked agent in Los Angeles pressed his knee into a woman’s neck while she was handcuffed; she then appeared to pass out. An agent in Massachusetts jabbed his finger and thumb into the neck and arteries of a young father who refused to be separated from his wife and 1-year-old daughter. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head and he started convulsing. ...

ProPublica found more than 40 cases over the past year of immigration agents using these life-threatening maneuvers on immigrants, citizens and protesters. The agents are usually masked, their identities secret. The government won’t say if any of them have been punished.

In nearly 20 cases, agents appeared to use chokeholds and other neck restraints that the Department of Homeland Security prohibits “unless deadly force is authorized.”

If the ICE Gestapo violently resist legitimate local and state law enforcement, then we could see some civil-war-type scenes. It won’t be states seceding from the federal Union 1860-61 style and forming a secessionist army.

But Trump might also be willing to declare martial law, in which case opposition to it would have to take some combination of states and localities enforcing the actual law, federal institutions like the Army refusing to obey illegal orders, and civic society actively protesting. Even something vaguely resembling the Wobblies’ dream of a nationwide general strike is not impossible to imagine.

But we shouldn’t let the Cabinet and Congress off the hook on their responsibilities. The Cabinet can invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office. The Congress can also impeach and remove the President, which would of course require Republican votes. The Democrats also have a responsibility to actively pursue such remedies.

Arresting people at random on the street with no legal cause or arrest warrant, shooting drivers in the face because an ICE thug just feels like it, sending armed masked goons into schools with no actual legal purpose - this stuff is seriously illegal, and the local and state police do have a duty to enforce the law.

That has bit of a "states rights" ring. But it's actually about the basic rule of law. Wearing a black mask and combat-style camouflage does not give anyone the right to illegally beat, tear-gas, assault or murder people. And their black masks certainly do not give ICE criminals the "absolute immunity" Vice President JD Vance says they have.

Reducing the ICE recruits' training from six months to 47 days because Trump is the 47th President pretty much tells us all we need to know about ICE professionalism.

Notes:

(1) Masters, Clay (2026): With limited political power, Minnesota Democrats navigate resistance to Trump. NPR 01/16/2026.<https://www.npr.org/2026/01/16/nx-s1-5678565/immigration-minnesota-democrats-navigate-resistance-to-trump> (Accessed: 2026-16-01).

(2) Taking Greenland Would Trigger a NATO Crisis (w/ Mark Hertling). The Bulwark YouTube channel 01/14/2026. <https://youtu.be/1-6wDWfrJHI?si=QX87aooeICKyoUGE> (Accessed: 2026-15-01).

(3) ICE: The American Gestapo. Robert Reich YouTube channel 01/17/2026. <https://youtu.be/ZVGTmdKoTME?si=Fu2cqe1qOcH2QpUR> (Accessed: 2026-17-01).

(4) Foy, Nicole and Funk, McKenzie (2026): We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing. ProPublica 01/13/2026. <https://www.propublica.org/article/videos-ice-dhs-immigration-agents-using-chokeholds-citizens> (Accessed: 2026-15-01).