On January 7th, an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good.
On January 8th, ICE shot Luis David Nico Moncada and  Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras.
On January 14th, ICE shot a man in Minneapolis.
On January 21st, ICE shot an undocumented man in Willowbrook, California.
On January 24th, ICE wrestled Alex Pretti to the ground and shot him ten times, killing him. ICE claimed that he was armed with two magazines, but it was found that he was holding just a phone.
This is only a short list of some of the people who have been recorded as killed by ICE so far in 2026. This does not include the dozens of people who ICE killed last year, and who have died in ICE custody.Â
In grade school, we all learned about the Holocaust. I’m sure we all had the reaction of “That is so terrible, if I was alive, then I wouldn’t have supported Hitler and the Nazis”. Well, what are you doing right now? Are you speaking out, protesting, fighting for the rights of human beings? Or are you letting it happen without anger and heartbreak, letting these people be brutally detained, treated, and killed while going about your everyday life without giving even a thought to them?Â
If you happen to be the second option, please imagine this. You are an immigrant from a country that has proven to be too dangerous for you to live in. You came to America because of this notion of freedom and the “American Dream”, hoping to live a successful and safe life for you and your family. However, even after going through the process to become an American citizen legally, going to court, classes, taking tests, one day after work, you are detained on your way home. Your boss has called ICE on you because they know that you are an immigrant, but don’t care that you even went through the insanely long and difficult process of becoming an American citizen. You are sent away from your family and sent to an ICE detention center, where the conditions are deplorable. You don’t know when or if you will ever see your loved ones again, and they have no access to knowing where you are or if you are okay. Maybe they can visit you once a week, if the protocol on the part of ICE is followed, but chances are it is not.
As a society, we have become so desensitized to disgusting brutality that it has become a norm in the United States. Social media shows us someone being killed and then an AI video of cats, and then a plea from someone who has had someone taken from them by ICE without warning.Â
We also need to be aware of the censorship that is happening in this country. Just now, when I was researching who ICE has killed this year, the search bar would not suggest anything about ICE, clearly trying to push me to look up something about ice cream, or how to melt the ice on your doorstep. There is no other reason that would be suggested than to distract the American people from the gut-wrenching events that are happening every day in our supposedly “free” country.Â
This is no longer a fight between republicans and democrats, conservatives and liberals; it is a fight between human decency and allowing innocent people to be killed and detained in broad daylight. Something that people seem to be failing to realize is that illegal immigration is a misdemeanor, not a felony. Another aspect that people seem to not quite understand is that law enforcement is not even supposed to shoot guilty people. Let’s look at Renee Good. In the video, it is very clear that she was not posing a threat to the ICE officer and was trying to drive away from the situation. That ICE officer then shot her in the face, completely dehumanizing her, and called her a “fucking bitch”. Does that sound like someone who is remorseful over taking a life from someone exercising their right of free speech and protest? No. It doesn’t.Â
I will never be quiet or compliant with innocent people being shot, tackled, assaulted, detained, or jailed. I hope that the people reading this feel the same. Imagine in a few decades when the next generations are reading about these events in their history class. I would hope that they would feel the same way that we felt reading about the Holocaust in the past. Do you want to tell these people that you helped, and fought, and protested? Or are you okay with having to tell them that you stood by or even encouraged this destruction of humanity?
The easiest way to help: DON’T SHUT UP ABOUT IT. Keep posting, keep writing, keep talking about it, call your state representatives. Once people stop bringing attention to it is when we can’t improve the state of this country. The Constitution gives us the right to free speech, and I beg you all to use it.