“…that to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,…That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People, to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety  and Happiness” – Declaration of Independence

Ever since the entry into the White House by Donald Trump for the second time, the United States governmental Administration has descended into unadulterated buffoonery, lawlessness, and chaos. At the top of this administrative dysfunction is the gestapo tactics of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) personnel. In the area of Foreign Policy, political gangsterism, the threat of annexation by force, imposition of idiotic Tariffs, and the bullying of other countries, have become the modus operandi of this current Administration.

ICE Carries Out Havoc and Murder Across US Cities

Reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s Brown Shirts and Benito Mussolini’s Black Shirts, during German and Italian fascism respectively, under the guise of enforcing Immigration laws, the untrained and thuggish ICE agents have been terrorizing the citizens of communities of color, including illegal detention and even murder. Within one month, ICE agents have singly or as a group shot and killed three citizens who had posed no threat to them, neither by resisting arrest nor engaging the agents in gunfire. Renee Good was shot and killed on January 9, 2026, by ICE agents in Minneapolis; Julio Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg on January 14, 2026, where eyewitnesses unequivocally said Celis did not attack the officer; on Saturday Morning January 24, 2026, Alex Pretti a 37-year-old Intensive Care Unit nurse, was shot and killed by ICE agents. Eyewitnesses widely dispute the claim, that Pretti “violently resisted” being disarmed by the agents. Prior to this, Keith Porter was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent on December 31, 2025, outside Porter’s own apartment complex.

Vigil for Keith Porter - Photo: YouTube

These are the most pronounced atrocities carried out by ICE to fulfill the White House’s agenda of the so-called “crackdown” on illegal immigrants. Several Independent Media organizations have reported that detainees have been held under torturous conditions: deprived of medical attention, given insufficient and improper meals, of having to sleep on concrete floors, being subjected to bright lights twenty-four hours a day, and other illegal and inhumane treatment. Some people have been violently detained after emerging from their scheduled court hearings, some with their children, children as young as five years old. ICE agents have illegally broken down the door of a US citizen, took him outside in sub-zero temperature and detained him. In order to justify their illegal and oppressive actions, the Administration has repeatedly threatened to invoke The Insurrection Act enacted in 1792, to stomp out Constitutional dissent. These actions are a grave cause for concern and should not be tolerated in any civilized society, much more one that claims to be a “democracy.” This begs a fundamental question.

Is The Society “Immune” To Injustice?

In this 21st Century, it is difficult to imagine, and moreover justify acceptance, of the lawlessness and repressiveness carried out by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. What has taken over the society – as a collective – which has been inculcated in the minds of the populace for centuries, is the apathy and lethargic response to social injustice. This is more pronounced especially if it affects people of color or oppressed people of another country; the society suffers from severe parochialism regarding international issues.

The lack of critical thinking is absent in Media reports, analyses, and is definitely not taught or encouraged in the institutions of higher learning; the media has duped the populace into “American exclusivity” and Denialism. An examination of any report or commentary on critical social issues will reveal simplistic, irrational, and a cognitive dissonance to events taking place: People are poor because they didn’t work hard enough or spend money wisely; if people have no college education it’s their fault, the country has hundreds of colleges and universities; if a woman is raped, there must be something she did or was delinquent about that resulted in her being raped; to most Americans racism is a thing of the past, nothing to be concerned with presently; to most Americans challenging authority is “radical” and “leftist,”  after all, the US is the beacon of social morality and democracy.  

Capitalism, as the driving force responsible for the Climate Crisis, and the movement to end the use of fossil fuels, are still not widely accepted and given the prominence it deserves in the Corporate Media, despite the empirical scientific reports. The “brainwashing” of the populace seems to take on deeper meaning and implementation since 1975 with the publication of the Trilateral Commission’s report entitled The Crisis of Democracy. Among the arguments presented in this document, is the critique that the Media because of democracy has retorted to “advocacy journalism,” being too critical of government. Over the decades, the Media has consistently veered towards a policy of supporting and regurgitating the Administration’s narrative regarding domestic and international issues. This is especially true during the Trump Administration’s first time in office, and more so this second time. Under such circumstances it is imaginable why the populace has not resorted to mass protests and dissention towards social injustice issues. Except for the few who are not “bamboozled” by government narrative and Media intellectual manipulation, the populace as a collective is “pacified” and “sanitized” regarding social injustice. There are a latent “approval” and “acceptance” towards repression.

ICE and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026 - Photo: Chad Davis

Mass Movement: Grounds for Hope

In both domestic and international Policies, the Trump Administration has relegated public administration to lawlessness, vindictiveness, infringement, and threat to the Constitution, international gangsterism, murder, and kidnapping. Truth be told, the country has descended into State sanctioned domestic terrorism on the basis of fascism. Citizens and non-citizens are intimidated, harassed, detained, and killed under the guise of ridding the country of “illegal aliens” and criminals. It is critical to note that this siege, which is widespread across the country, is ethnic cleansing US style; it takes place in cities and communities where the majority are people of color.

The rule of fascism relies on the passivity of the populace, the weakness and disorganization of the working class. In the words of Georgi Dimitroff fascism carries out “terrorist vengeance against the working class,” but it also terrorizes people of the intelligentsia and other non “blue-collar” workers. On January 30, 2026, Federal agents arrested Journalist Don Lemon in Los Angles, in connection with a January 18 protest at a church in St Paul Minnesota, and independent journalist Georgia Fort was arrested in Minnesota. These actions are appalling to say the least, but are meant to intimidate, coerce, and bully members of the Press into supporting, and reporting a false and misleading narrative about ICE’s actions within the communities they raid. In many countries, even in Europe, these repressive actions would not go relatively unchallenged. The populace would be pouring in the streets in mass protests, against such actions.

Photo: Nathaniel St. Clair

The developing nationwide movement for no school, no work, no shopping, and the abolishing of ICE Day of protest on January 30, 2026, must be further organized and extended; this calls for massive political education, and mobilization. While we must protest these gestapo tactics against the immigrant residents of our communities, we cannot ignore the wider repressive and reactionary actions of the Administration:  attacks on poor people’s programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program (SNAP), the gerrymandering of voting districts boundaries, the ending of funding to HBCU’s, the obscene increase in the military budget, invasion and kidnapping of Heads-of-State and their wife, the bombing of fishing boats and killing of the survivors, and the destabilization of countries to effect regime change. Most importantly, we cannot forget the genocide and ethnic cleansing still going on in Palestine, and the expansion of Empire into the West Bank and Syria.

Fascist violence and terrorism must be confronted in mass; it represents the desperation and attempt at resuscitation of a declining empire in the interest of capital. The populace cannot afford the destructive luxury of silence, indifference, apathy, or be parochial in our struggle. The terror of fascism as we have already seen is not meted out on immigrants only; those who support peace and working-class democracy, sooner or later will be in the “crosshairs” of tyrants. We must remember the words of the late James Baldwin: “If they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.”