By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — January 28, 2026

Authoritarian Tools in Plain Sight

America is watching something dangerous harden into normal: a federal immigration enforcement agency operating inside U.S. cities like a militarized presence rather than a civil function with strict limits.

In early January, ICE announced the deployment of roughly 2,000 federal agents to the Minneapolis area for what it described as the “largest immigration operation ever.” Days later, Minneapolis became the center of a national firestorm after Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an immigration agent during a federal operation.

Federal leadership rushed to justify the killing. Minnesota officials disputed the justification, citing video evidence. Meanwhile, the investigation itself became part of the story, with repeated reporting that federal authorities have limited local access to evidence and control of the case narrative.

That’s the warning sign. Not just violence—but violence plus insulation.

The Fear Narrative Is the Point

Authoritarian politics always needs a villain: someone to blame, someone to target, someone the public is trained to fear. When people are afraid, they accept things they would otherwise reject: raids, secrecy, militarized tactics, and “trust us” explanations for blood on the pavement.

This is why the White House messaging matters. When the President’s team treats civilian harm as collateral and public outrage as disloyalty, the message is clear: compliance is expected, and accountability is optional. The current administration’s own public-facing materials and statements position Vice President J.D. Vance explicitly as part of President Donald Trump’s governing team and messaging operation.

And in the middle of it all stands ICE—now widely perceived as the executive’s street-level instrument, the agency that shows up in armor while the politicians talk about “order.”

The Use-of-Force Pattern Americans Are Seeing

Minneapolis is not happening in a vacuum. It is landing on top of other reports of aggressive enforcement tactics, including a widely reported case in which a U.S. senator said ICE released an “attack dog” on a man who was not resisting and that the man suffered severe injuries.

A republic cannot survive a law-enforcement culture that treats force as the first tool and transparency as a threat.

“People Should Not Be Afraid of Their Governments…”

The line that keeps resurfacing is from V for Vendetta:

“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

That isn’t a call for chaos. It’s a description of democratic balance. In a functioning republic, fear flows upward—toward elected officials who know the public can remove them, investigate them, defund them, and prosecute wrongdoing. When fear is pushed downward—toward ordinary people—the relationship flips. Citizens become subjects. The state becomes an idol. Rights become permissions.

And that is exactly what authoritarian movements try to manufacture: a public trained to keep its head down.

What Americans Must Do Next

If the government is going to behave like an occupying force, the people have to respond like citizens—disciplined, relentless, and unafraid.

That means every lawful, public means necessary:

  • sustained, nonviolent protest
  • civil-rights litigation
  • aggressive Freedom of Information Act requests
  • congressional subpoenas and public hearings
  • electoral consequences for officials who enable impunity
  • relentless documentation and journalism

You don’t beat a fear machine by panicking. You beat it by refusing to be intimidated—and by forcing the state to operate in daylight.

Final Word

No republic survives on fear. No government deserves obedience when it prioritizes control over accountability. If federal agents can kill a citizen in the street and the system’s first instinct is to seal the file and spin a story, then the United States is being tested.

And tests like this have only one answer:

The public does not back down. The public tightens the screws. The public drags the truth into the open—until power remembers who it works for.

For more social commentary, please see Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com

References (APA)

Associated Press. (2026, January 6). 2,000 federal agents sent to Minneapolis area to carry out “largest immigration operation ever,” ICE says. PBS NewsHour.

Reuters. (2026, January 10). Tens of thousands protest in Minneapolis over fatal ICE shooting.

ABC News. (2026, January 9). Minneapolis ICE shooting: A minute-by-minute timeline of how Renee Nicole Good died.

The Guardian. (2026, January 10). Renee Nicole Good shooting casts scrutiny on ICE’s use of deadly force.

ABC News. (2026, January 7). Minnesota governor says he is preparing National Guard amid furor over fatal ICE shooting.

The White House. (2026, January 8). MUST WATCH: Vice President Vance RIPS the fake news media (video page).

The White House. (n.d.). Vice President JD Vance.

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