Where are the Democrats???

Our Panic World episode about ICE’s invasion of Minneapolis is out. You can watch the video version by clicking the embed above and you can listen to an audio version here or anywhere you get your podcasts.

The situation in Minneapolis is escalating rapidly. Last night, the Department of Homeland Security said they arrested eight “rioters,” after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers tried to clear out protesters camped out at the Whipple Federal Building, ICE’s de facto headquarters in the area. And riot squads, likely run by Minnesota state police based on what we saw this weekend, arrested protesters last night at another noise demo outside of the Hilton Canopy in downtown Minneapolis.

There’s a lot of paranoia on the ground right now. There were rumors circulating on Reddit last night that ICE agents are planning an even more massive swarm of the city. Details are still coming in about how big it actually is, but it looks bad. And there is chatter on local Signal groups that ICE is ratcheting up their presence at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. We didn’t personally see any ICE officers while we were flying in or out of the airport, but we did hear of agents hassling Uber drivers at the airport when we arrived on last Thursday. And MPR News is reporting that ICE detainee flights have significantly increased over the last few days, as the agency flies captured migrants (and citizens) out of the state. ICE agents are also storming hospitals in Minneapolis now, as well. They’ve also been spotted recording crowds with what look to be Meta Ray-Bans.

Meanwhile, a whistleblower inside the DHS reportedly leaked the names of nearly 5,000 employees working for ICE and Border Patrol. You can view the list here. Though, take it with a grain of salt. The claims that this was leaked might be wrong, as some Bluesky users have noticed a lot of it lines up pretty well with publicly availably LinkedIn data. Either way, no, it is not doxxing to know the names of the people who are supposedly working in law enforcement.

Speaking of who is working for ICE, a recent piece from WIRED touches on something that I think is very important. “In a world where ICE agents are shooting US citizens on the street, the need for militias and extremist groups like the Proud Boys to support far-right interests has evaporated,” Reporter David Gilbert wrote this morning. And I’d like to take that line of thinking further.

This weekend, I watched January 6th insurrectionist Jake Lang agitate crowds of anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis and I realized how strange it was that he wasn’t just, you know, officially part of ICE. He could certainly join them, seeing as how their standards are so low they’re accidentally hiring Slate writers. But that’s what ICE’s true purpose is — a state-sanctioned holding pen for Trump’s most violent supporters. Looking back at it, January 6th was likely Trump’s version of the Night of the Long Knives, or at least a first attempt. Just like when the ascendant Nazi party cleared out their paramilitary gangs and laid the groundwork for more official party enforcers, to too do insurrectionists and far-right militia members now have two easily-monetizable paths towards legitimacy. (That aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.) Join ICE and fuck up the libs and brutalize minorities, or film it for the internet.

If this all sounds very scary, don’t worry! The Democrats have finally settled on a response to the roving gangs attacking their constituents. New York Rep. Ritchie Torres proposed the Quick Recognition (QR) Act this morning, which would require ICE agents to wear a QR code that connects to a digital ID with the officer’s name and badge number. Maybe someday soon you’ll be able to scan an ICE agent like a restaurant menu right before he shoots you to death. That’s probably the best we can hope for, seeing as how Third Way, a noxious centrist think tank, is currently telling Democrats that “abolish ICE” is an “emotional” and “politically lethal” stance to take. Hey, at least Minneapolis Gov. Tim Walz finally did a very somber photoshoot at Renee Nicole Good’s memorial. Only took him about five days to get over here. Longer than he waited to mourn The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, in case you were wondering.

We’ll be trying to keep the bulk of our ICE coverage free, out of public interest. If you want to read the rest of today’s paywalled issue, click the green button below.