In Memory of Renee Good

They are swarming us. They are moving tactically as a group. They are masked. They are vulgar. They are in unmarked vehicles. They are poorly trained; they escalate every encounter. They are beating us, and they are killing us.

The brutal tactics of ICE agents look suspiciously similar to the Proud Boys and other Patriot groups’ violent January 6 insurrection tactics. Don’t they?

One huge difference between now and then?

These masked madmen are in unmarked vehicles, and they are heavily armed. Long guns, handguns, tasers, pepper balls, pepper spray, handcuffs. They are pretending to enforce criminal law, when Immigration is a civil matter punishable by fines and sometimes deportation. Entering the US to claim asylum is not illegal. The Administration draws no distinction and gives these masked men permission to do their worst.

The message is:

“WE are the police now. We can hurt you, and we’ll do it in public. The President has our backs.”

That’s not public safety, or law enforcement. That’s political violence.

These deployments in American cities are not targeting the “worst of the worst.” They aren’t about rapists or cartel members. They certainly aren’t about public safety. They make living in America less safe as we have seen on video after video. These men are designed to instill fear in ordinary peaceful people who disagree with the President. That’s a whole different mission than public safety.

You don’t deploy masked armed agents into neighborhoods to do routine policing. You do it to send a message: “Be afraid. Don’t challenge us. We’ll shoot you in the face and get away with it.”

When the goal is fear not public safety it’s not law enforcement anymore. It’s violence for power. Who has it and who is meant to feel it. Real Mafia shit. Real dictator shit.

I’ve heard that we are being prepared for a military presence at polling places during the Midterms this year. That would be illegal. Courts would intervene.

Under federal law, it is a crime for military personnel or armed federal agents to be deployed to polling locations to interfere with an election — unless there is an actual ongoing armed rebellion.

Introducing endless violence into ordinary suburbs and cities seems to be a good way to goad protestors into “armed rebellion.” Don’t take the bait. Don’t fall for it. We have the law on our side:

Federal statutes — dating back to post‑Civil War reforms — make it illegal to send armed federal forces to any place where votes are being cast for the purpose of influencing the election.

The Voting Rights Act also criminalizes voter intimidation — especially by federal agents — with penalties of up to five years in prison.

So, there’s that.

Right now, Congress should act to address the current situation.

First, Congress could prohibit DHS, ICE and Border Patrol from wearing masks.

Congress could insist cars be clearly marked.

Congress could prohibit interior enforcement by ICE and constrain their authority, including a requirement that they stick to the Border.

Congress could require agencies to publicly disclose any internal discussions about election day deployments, preventing secret plans from surprising local law enforcement.

Congress could tie all federal law enforcement or military funding to strict prohibitions on election interference in addition to existing laws.

And finally, attention must be paid to the new ICE budget. Congress should cut the appropriation or stop funding them altogether now that we’ve seen their tactics and who they’re going after.

The increase in the 2026 ICE budget suggests Trump is building a private army. His own militia. It is obvious that we do not have millions of illegal criminals or terrorists in America.

A new ICE budget would be key to reigning in the newly recruited, poorly trained, heavily armed, well-compensated goon squad.

The budget increase in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill for hiring ICE personnel was $29.85 billion in addition to the normal ICE baseline budget of $11 billion.

For Fiscal Year 2026, according to the House Appropriations Committee Report:

ICE’s baseline annual appropriation is roughly $11.0 billion. This is the funding Congress recommended in the FY 2026 Homeland Security appropriations bill

Beyond the NORMAL annual appropriations bill: $45 billion was added for expanded detention capacity—to build and operate detention centers for immigrants over several years.

Additional money: $29.85 billion for hiring, training and retaining ICE personnel with bonuses and student loan forgiveness.

Combined, these two provisions alone would total approximately $74.85 billion earmarked for ICE over the FY 2025–FY 2029 period, on top of the normal annual budget.

That represents a dramatic expansion in resources for immigration enforcement overall.

Goon squads have more resources now, but how those resources are used — and the policy choices that direct them — are determined by DHS leadership and, in some cases, by federal and state law.

ICE Queen Kristi Noem must be impeached and removed as Secretary of DHS. She is incompetent, lawless, cruel in spirit and she lies to Congress.

So, this is what it looks like when we give the very worst people leadership roles, unchecked power and massive funding. They create a brutal, violent, vulgar, masked, secret police that look a lot like heavily armed January 6ers.

Immigration as a problem deserves better than this. This is the ugliest way possible to handle Immigration.

What we have wanted and needed is Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Instead, we get bloodshed and terror.

We need a serious government that can solve serious problems.

If Democrats gain control of the legislature, Trump’s lawlessness would at least be subject to oversight, a check on unchecked power, if not a way to remove him from our lives.

Get ready to vote.

Renee Nicole Good and Rebecca Good