Steven Donziger: “Let’s Get Real . . . ICE Is a Domestic Terrorist Organization”

Earlier today lawyer and human rights activist Steven Donziger shared the following on social media.

Let’s get real: ICE is not just a rogue police agency. It’s actually a domestic terrorist organization.

Let’s review what happened in the last few weeks. Trump sent ICE agents to invade the U.S. city of Minneapolis to arrest immigrants, mostly Somalis who fled violence and persecution in their homeland and are living in the U.S. legally. During a tactical operation on January 7, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed an unarmed citizen named Renee Good by putting three bullets in her head. In my view, this was murder under any legal definition. Rather than investigate Ross and hold him accountable, Trump ordered the Department of Justice to investigate her widow for ties to activist groups.

Trump also is using the killing to launch an all-out military occupation of the city by masked agents recruited from far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys. Many are openly abducting people of color (including many citizens) from their cars and homes. The purpose is to freak out, intimidate, and terrorize the local population to submit to Trump as our strongman leader. It’s terrorism in service of fascism. And it’s happening not just in Minneapolis but all over the country in Democrat-led cities that by virtue of their multi-ethnic character directly challenge Trump’s conception of America as a white Christian nation. At core, this is all about using racism to divide people in service of Trump’s power grab.

Here’s my proposal: we must hit the streets to force ICE out of our cities and demand that it be abolished. In the meantime, state prosecutors in Minnesota should charge Ross with murder. More broadly, local police must start protecting us by arresting ICE agents who violate our rights through assaults, shootings and false arrests. In New York City where I live, our new mayor must try to create a model for the nation along these lines. For more on how ICE agents can be charged by local prosecutors, read this article by my colleague Marjorie Cohn.

Let’s be clear about the purpose of ICE. It’s not about protecting public safety. It’s about threatening public safety in service of Trump’s power grab.

– Steven Donziger
via social media
January 14, 2026

Related Off-site Links:
“Federal Invasion”: Minnesota Officials Condemn Violent ICE Raids and Arrests – Democracy Now! (January 14, 2026).
“ICE Is Okay with Renee Good’s Killing”: Journalist Ken Klippenstein on ICE Tactics and Recruitment – Democracy Now! (January 14, 2026).
ICE Agents Appear at Twin Cities Hospitals, Alarming Health Care Workers – Erica Zurek (MPR News, January 14, 2026).
“ICE Has Gone Rogue”: Rep. Ro Khanna Demands Accountability As New Videos Show Minneapolis Chaos – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
“Where Were You Born?”: ICE Demanding Citizens Show Their Papers in Minneapolis – Stephen Prager (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
ICE Using Private Data to Intimidate Observers and Activists – Jon Collins (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
ProPublica Finds More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing – Nicole Foy and McKenzie Funk (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
Twin Cities Students Walk Out, Decry ICE as Surge Continues – Elizabeth Shockman and Kyra Miles (MPR News, January 13, 2026).
Trump Vows “Reckoning and Retribution is Coming” to Minnesota as ICE Brutality Mounts – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, January 13, 2026).
Rep. Ilhan Omar Warns That Trump Aims to Provoke Enough Agitation in Minnesota So He Can Declare “Martial Law” – Jon Queally (Common Dreams, January 11, 2026). More Americans Support Abolishing ICE Than Ever Before, Polling Data Shows – Chris Walker (Truthout, January 12, 2026).
The Playbook of Every Successful Nonviolent Struggle – Jamila Raqib (Waging Nonviolence, November 21, 2025).


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Chris Hedges on ICE: “I Have Seen These Masked Goons Before”
• Why Minnesota?
• Omar Fateh: “Folks Are Waking Up”
• Doing What We Can to Stop Unjust Arrests of Immigrants
• Susie Hayward on What’s Happening in Minneapolis
• “It Was Murder”: 12 Powerful Responses to the Death of Renée Nicole Good
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• Karen Salmansohn on the “Duel Citizenship of Being Alive”
• “Most Revolutions Succeed Not Through Violence But Through National Strikes”
• Chris Hedges on the End of the American Empire
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions


Image: Reuters -- Minneapolis, January 13, 2026. Minnesota Public Radio News photojournalist Ben Hovland was also at the scene where this photo was taken. In an interview with MPR’s Nina Moini, Hovland said:

I had been tracking ICE activities in South Minneapolis all morning, and actually had been at an earlier operation over on Portland and 28th Avenue when we heard that there was a large gathering of agents and protesters over near 34th and Park Avenue. So we headed over there. And as soon as I jumped out, I ran over to the scene as fast as I could. And when I got there, I saw about a dozen agents and even more media and protesters surrounding this Ford Fusion in the middle of the road. And agents were actively grabbing this young woman who looked clearly distraught. They were grabbing her and taking out of taking her out of her car. I was documenting the scene at 34th and Park today, there is a constant cacophony of whistles, people blowing their whistles, people shouting. And so as the situation evolved, as you said earlier, ICE agents took this young woman and carried her to their vehicles and eventually, drove off with her. As I ran back, back toward the parked car where the woman was taken, I actually saw another elderly man being carried by ICE agents as well, and they put him in a car. And I don't the role that this man was playing at the scene, but his face was covered with blood when I saw him being put into the car.