The facts of Renee Good’s murder at the hands of ICE agent Jonathan Ross are indisputable. In a society led by people with a commitment to truth and human decency, we wouldn’t have to rehearse those facts. But we do not live in such a society. 

Ross shot Good as she attempted to leave, which we know because we can see in his own footage that she was dramatically cranking the wheel away from him. The car had passed him by when he fired the first of three shots, which we know because both of his legs are visible on the ground to the left of the car in the footage from several angles. His life was not under threat, which we know because killing her had no bearing on the car’s immediate course and he walked away unharmed. And if he had actually been under threat, shooting her would have contributed nothing to his self-defense, which we know because cars do not stop instantly when their drivers die.

Ross, who had walked in front of Good’s car as she was distracted by other agents yanking at her side door and reaching into her side window, had two options when Good began to flee: take a small step out of the way without killing her, or take a small step out of the way while also killing her. He chose the latter.

As for his motivations, it’s a toss-up between two options. He was either afraid, in which case he both egregiously misjudged the severity of the threat and failed to comprehend the role of killing her in mitigating that threat. Or he was angry at her and her wife, Becca Good, for being disobedient and acted out his anger through lethal force. This latter possibility is supported by Ross’s immediate words as he sauntered away, with Good’s car still careening uncontrolled behind him: “That fucking bitch.”

This compilation of synchronized angles leaves zero doubt about the actual choreography of the exchange. Don’t take my word for it, watch for yourself:

@barelyinfo

Video analysis: did Renee Nicole Good hit the ICE agent with her car? #reneenicolegood #ice #jonathanross #politics #fyp

♬ original sound – Barely Informed – Barely Informed

Nevertheless, the Trump administration has lied through its teeth about the appalling incident from the moment it occurred. First, they accused Good of intentionally trying to “weaponize her vehicle” in “an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to agents, an act of domestic terrorism.” When that obvious lie became untenable, they pivoted to insinuating that Renee and Becca Good were engaged in seditious political activity that posed an inherent threat to the safety of ICE officers, who had descended on Minneapolis to conduct raids of immigrant communities.

From these statements, the Trump administration seems to be implying that any opposition to the government’s activities is criminal, and any activist is therefore a willing volunteer for legitimate state execution. As ridiculous as it seems to have to say this, I must: there is nothing illegal about protesting the US government and coordinating with others who share your beliefs — something advocates of democracy like to call “freedom of assembly.”

But that hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from announcing that it will investigate Becca Good’s activist ties in the aftermath of her wife’s murder. To underscore the point, the Trump administration is electing not to investigate Ross, who fired three bullets into the face of the driver of a car that had already not struck him. Instead, it will investigate the political leanings of the woman who watched her wife be brutally executed for trying to get away from the terrifying agents at her side door.

In the wake of Good’s murder, ICE has dispatched at least a thousand more agents to Minneapolis. Struggling with internal dissension and low morale, the Department of Homeland Security has canvassed all its branches to find willing volunteers, guaranteeing that it’s sending the most conflict-hungry, retribution-minded, politically motivated agents into the city.

The results are predictable: ICE agents in Minneapolis have shoved and tackled observers to the ground, dragged drivers from their cars, rammed civilian cars through red lights, threatened to hurt unarmed people to teach them a lesson (“Have you not learned from the past couple of days?”), brutalized teenagers to punish them for filming, pepper-sprayed septuagenarians, left wrecked vehicles in their wake on open city streets, and more. Meanwhile, they continue to maraud around the city on deportation-related business, conducting door-to-door house raids dressed like soldiers invading Fallujah and demanding that residents reveal the ethnicity of their neighbors. Not the citizenship status, the ethnicity.

CNN airs a compilation of ICE aggression against peaceful protesters in Minnesota pic.twitter.com/OWjIFIIigO

— FactPost (@factpostnews) January 14, 2026

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is promising ICE officers that they have the full backing of the administration in whatever atrocities they commit. Here is Stephen Miller’s address to ICE officers, making clear that the US government will turn a blind eye to any action ICE officers take against “obstruction” and “criminal conspiracy,” meaning protests and activism:

Revolting pic.twitter.com/bHV7V6D8k7

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) January 14, 2026

It’s time we see ICE as it already sees itself: a rogue internal paramilitary force dispatched by the Trump administration to terrorize vulnerable people and violently intimidate political enemies into submission. As Senator Bernie Sanders observed, “ICE, Trump’s domestic army, is now attempting to occupy Minneapolis. Let’s be clear: This is a Trump authoritarian power grab — an open attempt to suppress dissent and heighten conflict after ICE shot and killed a mother of three in broad daylight.”

The only silver lining here is that the Trump administration, trapped in an echo chamber of its own making, is clearly overplaying its hand. Nearly all Americans have seen the videos of Good’s killing, and a majority of Americans believe it was unjustified. Furthermore, ICE’s already-low favorability has tanked to the point that more Americans now support abolishing ICE than oppose doing so.

Pro-Trump press outlets have been attempting to run interference, including Bari Weiss–led CBS nakedly acting as a mouthpiece for the administration by sharing an unsubstantiated report from two unnamed administration officials that Ross suffered internal bleeding in his torso after the incident. But so far, the shameless propaganda only seems to be reinforcing the delusional ire of MAGA diehards rather than swaying the mind of the broader electorate.

It seems impossible to imagine that the administration’s outright despotic behavior in the last week won’t come back to haunt them in Novembers 2026 and 2028, provided our democratic institutions remain functional. Still, the administration must face forceful opposition immediately. We can’t endure another week of this, much less another several years.