I remember the morning I first came across videos of ICE agents murdering citizens on the streets of Minneapolis. Sitting outside Mudd-Blaisdell Hall, I forced myself to watch agents shoot Renée Good, a mother of three children, three times in the face. I then scrolled to a second video of agents kicking and murdering Alex Pretti, an ER nurse who attempted to film ICE with his cell phone. In the background of Good’s murder, I saw the houses I routinely pass on evening walks with my father. I recalled standing in the same place where ICE agents murdered Pretti.
Over the past month, I have watched from a distance as ICE terrorizes my beloved hometown, Minneapolis. I resent ICE’s attempt to undermine its tight-knit community with racist, brutal behavior — these unwarranted actions in Minneapolis expose our government’s terrifying shift towards authoritarianism.
Federal agencies are not entitled to authority and power; rather, they should earn it by modeling a respect for justice and dignity. As scary as it may be, the social contract has been breached. We have reached a turning point where we can no longer place our trust in the government. If we stand by passively as our institutions abuse the power and authority we have entrusted to them, we will become bystanders to their increasingly authoritarian agenda. It is our responsibility to recognize the severity of this situation and act decisively, rather than continue to hope that democracy will prevail and our lives will miraculously return to normal.
Throughout Trump’s second presidential term, ICE has been utilized at the whim of the federal government, morphing into a lawless force that routinely engages in racial profiling. Furthermore, the agency primarily relies on administrative warrants when making arrests, which the judicial branch does not review before ICE acts on them. Even setting aside the questionable legality of these warrants, according to a federal judge ICE agents have violated more judicial directives in just the past month than other federal agencies have in their entire existence.
Trump’s actions should set off major alarm bells for every American. It is evident that we are falling into a pattern all too familiar to those who have experienced authoritarian regimes outside the U.S.’s borders. In 2015, Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro transitioned Venezuela from a democracy into an authoritarian regime using similar tactics. The two politicians rose to power via democratic processes before seizing control of institutions and federal agencies, suppressing the media — much like Trump’s attempts to obscure the Epstein files — and slowly undermining the fundamental rights holding up democracy in Venezuela. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey pulled off the same scheme in 2016, and Turkey’s authoritarian regime has remained in place ever since.
Our president, in line with the regimes of Turkey, Venezuela and even 1930s Germany, is asking something of us: Trump demands that we see ICE’s atrocities not as the injustices they are, but as acceptable pieces of his twisted, nonsensical narrative. In George Orwell’s famous novel 1984, he describes how a fictional totalitarian government “told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” We live in a nominally democratic nation that prides itself on being the land of the free, and yet every time Kaitlyn Levitt stands at the podium to deliver Trump’s latest narrative, Orwell’s words ring more true. I saw Pretti bleed out on the snowy road. I saw the blood-soaked seat in Good’s car next to a glovebox filled with stuffed animals. Confronted with this evidence, our government is blatantly asking us to be complacent.
I am indescribably proud of my community for persevering through one heartbreak after another. Minneapolis residents have responded to these tragedies with a resilience mirroring that which followed the murder of George Floyd. Minnesota politicians — including Tim Walz and Jacob Frey — publicly condemn ICE, the Minneapolis police force actively resists ICE agents and residents march the streets to protest in sub-zero temperatures. Despite this, I’ve developed a devastating sense of powerlessness as I watch my city and many others across America erupt in violence and protest — a feeling I imagine many students can currently relate to.
As students at the 5Cs, we have the privilege of residing in a community that feels physically and emotionally distant from ICE activity, despite deportations taking place as close as Pomona County. Scrolling through horrific reels, at a loss for what to do, we think to ourselves: What impact do we really have when our government is crumbling around us? This sense of helplessness is exactly what Trump and other elected officials want you to feel — it allows them to continue to exercise their power to commit crimes without facing the consequences.
I urge you now more than ever to leave behind your denial and join existing efforts to push back against ICE on the ground. Sign up for ICE watch to report activity in your area and protect our fellow community members. Join Claremont students just up the street on Foothill Blvd, who are already participating in protests. If we do not take such action — and it breaks my heart to say it — Minneapolis will be our point of no return as a nation.
Olivia Brinkman PO ’29 might have put a tiny piece of her soul into this article, which is her first with TSL. She is thrilled to be writing once again!
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