In an MS NOW column last May, I wrote that the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were becoming so reckless that a fatal encounter was all but inevitable. On Wednesday, my prediction sadly came true, as an agent shot a woman at close range in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement action, killing her.
President Donald Trump posted on social media that the woman was a “professional agitator” who “ran over” the agent (which video plainly shows is not true), while members of the Trump administration are already calling what she did “domestic terrorism.” Accounts like Libs of TikTok leaped to argue that the agents were acting in self-defense and that the driver had attempted to “ram” them.
This moment was always going to come. It is the logical result of Trumpism and MAGA extremism, both in theory and practice.
We don’t know what transpired before the multiple videos of the incident begin, but several camera angles seem to indicate that the use of force was unnecessary. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., posted to X: “Enough. This is murder. Local officials must prosecute ICE. And Congress should strip them of their immunity.”
This moment was always going to come. It is the logical result of Trumpism and MAGA extremism, both in theory and in practice.
First, ICE’s application of lethal violence is the natural product of an administration animated by violence as a core feature of its politics. Trump has repeatedly called for people to “beat the hell” out of his opponents. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has put the spectacle of violence at the center of her propaganda efforts, even posing in front of prisoners in El Salvador’s CECOT prison — a photo op that I compared at the time to a lynching postcard. Violence and the performance of violence are everywhere.
In front of this backdrop of bloodlust, ICE has waged a recruitment drive drenched in war metaphors and martial imagery. The type of person DHS seeks out to perform immigration enforcement is someone with a fervor for guns and an eagerness to apply violence.
As Drew Harwell and Joyce Sohyun Lee recently reported for The Washington Post, this has become an explicit tactic within the agency, circulated in what DHS calls its “wartime recruitment” strategy. They note that DHS’ plan was to direct recruitment efforts at “people with an interest in ‘military and veterans’ affairs,’ ‘physical training,’ or ‘conservative news and politics,’ and [to] target people whose lifestyles are ‘patriotic’ or ‘conservative-leaning.’” DHS also aimed to attract conservative radio show listeners and social media users with interests in “conservative thought leaders, gun rights organizations [and] tactical gear brands.”
This is an administration built on a fundamentally violent worldview, nourishing violent impulses within the national community and seeking out the most brutish among us to implement its draconian policies.
The MAGA view is that ICE’s actions — like all state actions against unprotected groups — must be presumed to be always already legitimate.
But all the cultivation and direction of violence against both immigrants and American citizens is possible because of a second feature of Trumpism: the friend-enemy distinction. This idea comes from Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt and has become, as journalist Zack Beauchamp has argued, an energizing logic on the right. Beauchamp writes: “Schmitt’s chief insight into democracy was seeing how the politics of illiberal groupism, of replacing ‘all men are created equal’ with ‘friend and enemy,’ could justify a brand of authoritarian politics in seemingly democratic terms.”
In essence, some people belong to favored “friend” groups. Everyone else is an enemy, outside the normal presumptions and protections of the state.
Major MAGA influencers like Robby Starbuck and Nick Sortor have already linked the ICE shooting incident to the police murder of George Floyd in 2020, suggesting Democrats intend to lie about the shooting to foment unrest. Sortor even called for the jailing of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing him of “trying to spark a riot.” The MAGA view is that ICE’s actions — like all state actions against unprotected groups — must be presumed to be always already legitimate. Opposition to those actions must consequently be presumed to be illegitimate and dangerous. This is not a formula for state accountability. It’s a recipe for authoritarianism. The cumulative implication of all this is simple: Immigrants and those who want to see them treated humanely are not subject to the same rights and protections as MAGA Americans. This also explains the demands of commentators like The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani be stripped of his U.S. citizenship. It explains the extrapolation of the fraud scandal in Minnesota into an excuse to deport Somali Americans. ICE, as it exists, is about the raw application of Trumpist authoritarianism. And they’re seeking the most violent and illiberal among us to implement its mission. This was always going to happen. And it is almost certainly going to happen again.
Alan Elrod
Alan Elrod is the president and CEO of The Pulaski Institution, a new think tank dedicated to the connection between global politics and economics and heartland areas. He lives outside Little Rock, Arkansas. 
