Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

ICE is a domestic terror organization.

Conservatives have been fear mongering about immigrants, gangs, and shadowy organizations that are supposedly trying to destroy the American populace. They have claimed criminal gangs from other countries have taken over apartment complexes in Colorado, run drugs in motorboats from the coast of Venezuela up to the U.S., and accused immigrants of voting illegally in multiple elections. 

None of those claims were backed by evidence or consistency. But one thing we know for sure is that these supposed criminal gangs aren’t doing to U.S. citizens what our own federal government is doing.

Murdering them in broad daylight in cold blood.

I’m writing this on the same day federal government agents murdered a woman in Minneapolis. I have seen a video—you’ve probably seen it too—of an ICE agent accosting Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen who was trying to get away from the officers in her vehicle. An agent tries to open her door, she backs away from him, angles to leave, and another agent unloads multiple rounds into her windshield and through the driver’s side window.

She was killed immediately and crashed her vehicle into another parked car as her foot fell onto the accelerator.

Even if you think people should “always comply” with law enforcement. Even if you think Renee Good was somehow the belligerent one in this confrontation. Do you really think that a traffic violation is grounds for summary execution?

She wasn’t killed by the local police, a rogue entity, or a South American invading gang. A federal government entity has taken over parts of an urban center in the Midwest, and its agents exercised lethal force against a civilian population. This was an act of terrorism.

This was the work of ICE.

An organization that has done nothing but sow terror among communities and unnecessarily escalate situations. 

The gang that needs to be disposed of isn’t groups of brown people seeking asylum, it isn’t immigrants or day laborers, it’s the organized federal entity that is now openly murdering and terrorizing the U.S. population.

Make no mistake, the FBI itself defines terrorism as using violence or the threat of violence against civilians, in order to create fear and achieve political or ideological goals. That is what happened in Minneapolis on January 7, and it is what ICE stands for. They are very intentionally targeting civilians, eroding civil rights, and now upgrading to summary execution of U.S. citizens.

These are acts of terror, sanctioned by the federal government, against U.S. citizens.

Of course, before the identity of the victim was released, Republican politicians were engaged in a media spin campaign to justify shooting an unarmed woman at point blank range. As if someone trying to get away from a masked gunman who doesn’t identify himself is grounds to summarily shoot them multiple times in the face. As if someone who is deceased due to an ICE agents’ weapon was intentionally speeding away.

There is no scenario where ICE should be able to carry out unreasonable search and seizure, much less exercise lethal force against civilians.

I implore anyone who considers themselves a patriot, a leader, or someone who believes in the rule of law to oppose ICE. Leaders should be calling for ICE to be abolished, and state governments should mobilize their resources to expel this invasive terrorist organization. There are far more effective and constitutional ways to enforce immigration law. Deploying armed, masked, anonymous gunmen is not the way to do it.

Abolish ICE and stand for justice against this wrongful murder. This organization should not exist.