Dear John,
Yesterday, Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement thugs crossed the most dangerous red line yet. An agent of ICE – the federal agency responsible for mass deportations – shot and killed an unarmed US citizen and legal observer, Renee Nicole Good, in cold blood. This is what happens when immigration is used as a pretext to build an unaccountable secret police force, and it should concern us deeply here in Britain. This is the path we’re on.
The killing came at the start of what Trump has called ICE’s “largest operation to date” in Minnesota. Masked officers brandishing rifles flooded local communities, abducting people from gyms, convenience stores, libraries, homes, and schools. Good, who was clearly identified as a legal observer monitoring enforcement activity, was shot in the head as she attempted to flee in her car. Agents then blocked emergency medics from reaching her.
In the aftermath, the Trump administration moved quickly to distort the facts. Despite contradictory video footage and eyewitness testimony, officials claimed that Good had “weaponised her vehicle” and attempted to run down officers. Trump himself accused her of “obstructing and resisting”, claiming that she acted “violently, wilfully and viciously.” It’s an Orwellian distortion, asking us to reject the evidence of our own eyes and ears.
The administration insists that ICE exists to target dangerous criminals, and yet the reality looks very different. Again and again, those on the receiving end are unarmed citizens, grandmothers, and children. The vast majority of ICE detainees have no criminal record. In nearly every documented case, the violence flows in the same direction – from the state downward.
As horrifying as this whole story is, it is no longer surprising. Trump’s immigration agenda has enabled the creation of an armed force with extraordinary powers and near total impunity. The violence once restricted to undocumented migrants has now extended to ordinary citizens.
It’s no wonder that public opinion in the United States is beginning to shift. Polling shows growing discomfort with the scale and brutality of the deportation regime, particularly among voters who were never told this is what it would look like. Even many on the American right are starting to recognise this as the very form of ‘big government’ power they once claimed to oppose.
And things could get worse. The backlash to this shooting may provide the pretext Trump has long sought to go full dictator and invoke the Insurrection Act – deploying military force across the country and overriding state authorities. That dark path risks escalating already tense standoffs between federal agencies and local officials, with unpredictable and dangerous consequences.
None of this is irrelevant to us in Britain. Nigel Farage is openly campaigning for a British version of ICE, promising mass deportations while (like Trump) glossing over what such a system would require in practice. And rather than challenging this agenda head-on, the Labour government has too often echoed its language, seemingly hoping to neutralise it by imitation.
This is a premonition of our future if we don’t restore democracy and force Farage to fight fair.
The difference is that we have the benefit of foresight. We can see what happens when immigration hysteria is used to justify sweeping state power. Those powers are never confined to their original targets. They reshape everyday life, weaken civil liberties, and build the infrastructure for authoritarian rule.
What is happening in the United States is deeply alarming. But it is not inevitable here. In both countries, those who believe in democracy, accountability, and human dignity still outnumber those pushing fear and repression. That only matters if we act on it – and the clock is ticking.
