Donald Trump and maga Republicans are in denial about how dangerous ICE is causing harm to innocent American people

Just when it seems as if Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown can’t get any worse, it does. Echo opinion published in the Boston Globe by Abdallah Fayyad.

Over the span of less than three weeks in January, federal officers shot and killed two US citizens in Minnesota.

In normal times, it should be easy to say that Renee Good and Alex Pretti — who were standing up for their neighbors and against the aggressive and violent operation to arrest, detain, and deport immigrants — should still be alive. But top government officials have justified the killings by accusing both Good and Pretti of being “domestic terrorists.”

That this cruel and callous rhetoric seems almost reflexive for top officials underscores the most disturbing fact about the Trump administration’s overall strategy on immigration: This crackdown is neither coherent nor methodical. It’s random. Students have been detained for merely participating in protests, certain cities and states have been targeted for no apparent reason, and homes have been raided without judicial warrants.

It’s that arbitrary nature of the crackdown — and the Trump administration’s vociferous defense of its worst evil excesses — that make it nothing short of state terror. Specifically, the US government is wielding state violence arbitrarily to instill fear in and ultimately subdue the population. Immigration officers can strike, it seems, anyone, anywhere, anytime. And now, as the Good and Pretti killings show, it’s gotten to the point where no one can take their freedom or safety for granted, citizen or not.

What we’re witnessing on the streets of Minneapolis and elsewhere, in other words, is not “law and order” but full-on, unadulterated, state-sanctioned chaos.

The problem is that there’s no clear remedy for this kind of reckless and hate filled governance. Congress has proved itself to be spineless❗ and unwilling to exercise its core duty to be a check on the executive branch. 

Meanwhile, the legal system has shown that it’s not up to the task of meaningfully restraining a rogue president; in some cases, the courts have even emboldened Trump.

So with institutions failing to protect Americans from government abuse, how can we put a stop to the chaos❓ The answer is to unleash more chaos — not from the top down but from the bottom up.

But another way, Americans have to respond to state-sanctioned violent chaos with people-powered nonviolent chaos until the Trump administration is forced to retreat from the streets.

That means nonstop mass protests that attract people across ideological divides, akin to what Americans did in record numbers after a police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020.

It means targeted and sustained boycotts that make cooperating with Trump’s immigration crackdown financially unfeasible for businesses.

It means disrupting commerce to the point where a general strike is not a fanciful idea but an achievable tactic that labor unions can employ.

Everyone has the ability to create this kind of disruption so long as they do it together: Teachers have that power, doctors and nurses have that power, civil servants have that power. The point that Americans have to make to the Trump administration is that there is no going back to business as usual until people can sleep at night knowing that their rights are intact and that the sheer cruelty of immigration crackdowns will end.

Admittedly, it can feel futile to engage in protest against a government that’s so deeply out of touch and drunk with power. But that’s also precisely the time to participate in a mass movement.

Americans have to remember that even the most repressive, authoritarian regimes in the world aren’t immune to public backlash, and neither is the Trump administration. If movements around the world have toppled kings, then it’s not so far-fetched to believe that ordinary people can come together to stop agencies like the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from intimidating, harassing, and abusing immigrants and nonimmigrants alike.

That, of course, is no easy task. And it comes with serious risks. After all, Ms. Renee Good and Mr. Alex Pretti were engaging in this kind of resistance when officers shot and killed them. 

But at the end of the day, public perception still matters — that’s why Trump officials keep lying about the people they wrongfully detain or kill, essentially telling Americans not to believe what they’re seeing with their own eyes. And public perception is ultimately the last guardrail against tyranny. The only way for that guardrail to work is for people to continue expressing outrage and their dissatisfaction with the status quo, however uncomfortable that may be.

Minnesotans have set an example for the rest of America to follow. “The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone,” writes Adam Serwer in The Atlantic. “In Minnesota, all of the ideological cornerstones of MAGA have been proved false at once. Minnesotans, not the armed thugs of ICE and the Border Patrol, are brave. Minnesotans have shown that their community is socially cohesive — because of its diversity and not in spite of it.”

Indeed, we can already see hints that the relentless pushback from Minnesotans has, at least for the time being, caused the Trump administration to reassess its tactics. 

Since Mr. Pretti’s killing, Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol’s so-called commander-at-large, who has been one of the leading officials behind Trump’s immigration crackdown, has reportedly been demoted and is expected to retire soon. Even some Republican lawmakers have now called for the ouster of Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security.

The key 🔐🗝️ in this defining moment is for Americans to create chaos while ensuring that they stick to nonviolence. The last thing that the most vulnerable among us need is any pretext that the Trump administration can use to expand its operations or that the president can use to invoke the Insurrection Act in order to send troops to American cities.

So no matter your political background — whether you’re a leftist or a Trump voter who believes this has gone too far — if you want things to change, you have to exercise your rights. If there’s a demonstration in your neighborhood, for example, consider joining the crowd. If your elected representative is holding a town hall, show up, speak out, and make them uncomfortable (especially if they’re defending the administration). If you belong to a labor union, you can also help organize a strike, and all of us can boycott companies that collaborate with ICE.

And if ICE ultimately shows up in your neighborhood, take a note from Minneapolis residents and protect your neighbors in whatever way you can: Demand that officers follow the law, protest their raids, and record their transgressions for the world to see.

It might feel chaotic at times, but that’s exactly what the country needs: good chaos.