Category: Military

by Ernie McCray

The murder of Renee Michele Good

in her neighborhood

for reasons as unjustified

as a motive

could possibly be

has grabbed my attention dramatically

due to such action being extremely unlikely

considering

that law enforcement people

There’ a new rule in America: ICE agents are now allowed to execute American citizens with impunity — and the federal government will lie about it and cover it all up.

That’s what happened this weekend in Minneapolis when unidentified agents shot and murdered Alex Pretti, a 37-year old ICU nurse, as he was trying to come to the aid of a woman being pushed by ICE men.

All the videos that have been viewed by Americans since the shooting clearly show he was holding a camera or phone filming agents, when he was pushed violently, then tackled by a half dozen ICE agents. During the scuffle, an agent can be seen removing a gun from Pretti, which he was not brandishing and who had a legal right to own and carry at the time.

By Frances Vinall, Arelis R. Hernández and Maria Sacchetti / Washington Post / Jan. 22, 2026

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo instructs agents and officers that they can enter a person’s home to arrest them without a judicial warrant, a move that immigration lawyers and advocates say violates the Constitution.

The memo was included in a disclosure to senators by Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit legal organization, based on information provided by two of their clients, government employees who are not named in the document. It requests that lawmakers investigate its claims. The memo was separately shared with The Washington Post and was first reported by the Associated Press.

Several people with direct knowledge confirmed the directive existed but said they did not know whether it was widely shared within the agency.

The policy was issued in May and has been carried out in places such as Texas, the disclosure alleges. The Post could not independently confirm where it has been put into practice.

The memo, signed by Todd M. Lyons, acting director of ICE, gives the agency broad authority to enter homes to arrest immigrants. Officers are instructed that they can use a Form I-205 to force entry into a private residence. A Form I-205 is signed by an immigration enforcement official and authorizes an arrest following a final order of removal.

ICE OUT FOR GOOD — San Diego County Solidarity Actions & Nationwide Minnesota Day of Action

Friday, January 23, there are coordinated rallies and calls for boycotts across San Diego County as part of “ICE Out for Good”, aligned with the broader Minnesota Solidarity Day of Action opposing recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and demanding accountability, community safety, and human rights protection.

These local actions are connected to nationwide demonstrations and economic solidarity efforts responding to the federal ICE enforcement surge in Minnesota and the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renée Good — an unarmed civilian killed by a federal ICE agent during heightened immigration enforcement activity earlier this month — which has sparked widespread protests and national outrage.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY ACTION SCHEDULE — JANUARY 23, 2026

Intro by Rag Staff:

In a speech to House Republicans earlier this month, January, Donald Trump cast the coming midterm elections in existential terms, declaring Democrats would impeach him if they won a majority in Congress. He then supposedly joked about canceling the midterms, but muttered he’d be accused of being a dictator if he did.

But as Patrick Marley and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez report in a sweeping and important piece in the January 12th issue of the Washington Post they assure us that “Trump can’t cancel elections and he lacks the authority to carry out some of his most far-reaching plans because local and state officials oversee elections, rather than the federal government.”

That’s a relief, isn’t it?

But they hammer away: “Trump has already ignored those constraints and signaled he will continue to do so, which means courts will probably have to determine what rules are in place for the midterm elections.” With the way courts operate, that’s downright scary.

To make their case, the reporters checked out documents and interviewed more than three dozen election officials and experts over the past year “at how Trump and the administration are trying to reshape how the midterm elections will be conducted.” Check the following out, it’s extremely important that we citizens grok what they’re doing — but remember these reporters work for Jeff Bezos, a Trump billionaire supporter who owns the Post, so they’ve also minced their words (which means things are even worse).

Here are the key methods:

Pushing states to redraw House districts

What has Trump done? Trump pressed GOP leaders in several states to take the unusual step of redrawing their congressional maps for partisan gain in the middle of the decade. Ordinarily, states draw new maps once every 10 years, after the census is completed.
Where is it happening? Republicans made nine districts more favorable for themselves across Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina and Texas and are considering redrawing districts in Florida.

What does this mean? If successful, Republicans could gain enough seats to protect their thin House majority, even if Democrats have a good year and pick up other seats. Republicans lead the chamber 218-213, and a handful of races could determine control after 2026.

By Pam Kragen / San Diego Union-Tribune / Jan. 14 -15, 2026

Stan Levin, a Korean War veteran who spent the later years of his life as a passionate anti-war activist and helping San Diego’s homeless population, passed away Jan. 8 at a local hospital. He was 96.

The longtime San Diegan worked as an acrobat, in airplane manufacturing, as a schoolteacher and in the real estate industry. But he became best known for his volunteer work with San Diego Veterans for Peace, a vocation that began around his 80th birthday in 2010. He participated in demonstrations, protested at the Miramar air shows, spoke at public events and wrote many essays and letters to the editor that were published in this and other local newspapers and on news sites.

Levin’s daughter Annie Revel said her father loved talking to people on virtually any topic, but over the past 20 years he increasingly became an outspoken anti-war activist.

“He was opinionated and very engaged in life,” Revel said. “He always had a twinkle in his eye and he had a great sense of fun. He was very curious and inquisitive and always learning.”

By Brad Reed / Common Dreams / Jan. 14, 2026

A broad coalition of Minneapolis labor unions and community organizations is calling for a general strike to take place next week with the goal of forcing federal immigration agents to leave their city.

According to a report by Workday Magazine, the groups announced their plans on Tuesday to create a day of “no work, no school, no shopping” on Friday, January 23.

JaNaé Bates Imari, representative of the church Camphor Memorial UMC, said that next Friday would be “a day when every single Minnesotan who loves this state—who loves the idea of truth and freedom—will refuse to work, shop, and go to school.”

“We are asking every single person, every family member, every teacher, every bus driver, every childcare worker, to come together, to be in community, to stand with one another,” Bates Imari added.

In Minneapolis and other cities where federal agents have led immigration crackdowns, residents have formed loose networks to track and protest them.

By Julie Bosman / New York Times / Jan. 14, 2026

It began in Los Angeles, in Signal chats and strategy sessions on Zoom. Last year, as immigration raids proliferated throughout the city, Latino activists and neighbors began organizing a response, monitoring for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents along sidewalks and in Home Depot parking lots and texting their networks when they spotted an arrest underway.

By late summer, activists in Chicago were trained and ready. Before the Trump administration had announced a crackdown called Operation Midway Blitz, immigrant rights organizations had handed out orange whistles for volunteers to use as a public warning system, formed “rapid-response” groups and advised people to report sightings of ICE agents and memorize their own legal rights. Chicagoans, even many without formal ties to protest groups, showed defiance against ICE with “Hands Off Chicago” signs adorned with the city’s beloved starred-and-striped flag, placed prominently in windows of restaurants and bungalows.

And in recent weeks in Minneapolis, the latest focus for a Trump administration surge of immigration enforcement, a loose but growing network of neighborhood volunteers has shown up near reported arrests, yelling at agents and recording them on iPhone cameras. Some gathered near hotels where agents were believed to be staying, pounding drums and making noise.

By Harry Litman / The New Republic / January 13, 2026

The stunning resignations on Monday of four senior career officials from the Criminal Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division confirm that DOJ has gone profoundly off the rails in its handling of what increasingly appears to be one of the gravest federal excessive-force cases in decades.

The resignations reportedly had multiple causes, but the central one was the sidelining of the Criminal Section from the investigation of the January 7 fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross.

In any normal, professionally run Department of Justice—Democratic or Republican—a shooting that looks this serious on its face would trigger a searching civil rights investigation by the Criminal Section, the Department’s long-standing unit for prosecuting unlawful uses of force. That has been true whether the assailant was a state officer, as in the Rodney King case, or—more rarely—a federal one, as at Ruby Ridge. (I served in the department during both and worked on the King case.)

ICE has steadfastly maintained that the shooting was justified because Ross reasonably believed that Good was attempting to run him over. But multiple bystander videos and visual analyses have seriously undermined that self-serving account. I put the point in that lawyerly, hedged way because, for present purposes, it is more than enough to establish beyond any cavil that this case demands the most thorough investigation the federal government can muster.

That is the very opposite of what happened here.

Here are some pics from today’s events.

Pacific Beach Saturday, Jan. 10

Nearly 600 Events Planned as of Friday Evening

By April Rubin / Axios / January 9, 2026

ICE Out For Good” vigils and protest events were quickly planned nationwide for Jan. 10 and 11 in response to a fatal shooting by immigration officers in Minneapolis, organizers told Axios on Friday.

Why it matters: The killing and a subsequent Border Patrol shooting in Portland have sparked outrage and anger at the Trump administration, which has defended its agents.

Driving the news: There have been at least seven officer-involved shootings since President Trump ramped up Homeland Security operations in early 2025.

On Wednesday, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis as she drove past immigration agents. The Trump administration claimed the shooting was an act of self-defense as Good drove away, but Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has rejected that claim.

On Thursday, two people were shot by Border Patrol agents in Portland during what officials said was “a targeted vehicle stop.” Both were hospitalized.

State of play: Protests, vigils and other “ICE Out For Good” events are being held by groups including Indivisible, 50501, the Disappeared in America Campaign, Voto Latino and the American Civil Liberties Union. The mobilization is meant to humanize ICE victims and demand accountability.