ICE agents in Minneapolis after the shooting of Renee Good, 7 January 2026. Chad Davis, CC BY 4.0

When US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed by immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota, bystanders captured videos that quickly spread online. Good, a mother of two, was pulling her vehicle away from a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer when she was shot three times at close range and killed. Pretti was assisting a woman who had been knocked down by an immigration enforcement officer when he was pepper-sprayed and tackled to the ground by multiple agents. Posing no threat, he was shot ten times in the back by Border Patrol agents.

President Donald Trump and senior members of his administration characterised the killings as justified. In a social media post, President Trump claimed Good had ‘violently, wilfully and viciously run over the ICE officer’, although later in January he described both shootings as ‘terrible.’ Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged that Good had been ‘stalking and impeding ICE’, labelling her a domestic terrorist.

Facing a growing backlash, Trump in January sent White House border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take charge of the operation. Homan announced on 12 February the deportation crackdown, which DHS officials say resulted in more than 4,000 arrests, would be brought to an end. ‘The surge is leaving Minnesota safer,’ Homan says, but adds that Trump’s promised mass deportations would continue.

The killings of Good and Pretti accelerated a broader rule-of-law crisis already unfolding in Minneapolis, marked by the erosion of constitutional safeguards and the expansion of unchecked executive power, says Greg Siskind, Co-Chair of the IBA Immigration and Nationality Law Committee. ‘This is about mass deportation without due process,’ he says. ‘Even people who support tougher immigration enforcement expect it to comply with the rule of law – and that is not what they are seeing.’

The Trump administration had previously deployed National Guard troops to support widespread ICE raids in Democratic-led cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. And ICE has reportedly been assigned daily arrest quotas. ‘An immigration arrest is for a civil offence. It is not a crime,’ says Siskind, who’s co-founder of Siskind Susser in Memphis. ‘ICE agents do not have the same authority as police pursuing a violent felon.’

As of late January, ICE held approximately 70,000 people in detention nationwide, often in poor conditions and with limited access to judicial review. Around three-quarters of those detained have no criminal record, according to government data relating to the period since October. Many of those targeted have lived in the US for years, sometimes decades, and include asylum seekers and long-term residents with families and established community ties.

Jonathan Hafetz, an officer of the IBA Human Rights Law Committee, says the scope and conduct of ICE operations far exceed that of lawful immigration enforcement. ‘International human rights law requires that any use of force by law enforcement be lawful, necessary and proportionate, with independent accountability for deaths resulting from police action,’ says Hafetz, who’s a professor specialising in subjects such as constitutional law and national security at Seton Hall Law School. Federal agents have engaged in widespread violations of free speech and due process rights, raising serious concerns about executive overreach, he adds.

Minneapolis, residents say, has come to resemble an occupied city. Schools have rolled out remote learning for students, while businesses have closed and the city temporarily suspended towing charges after numerous vehicles were abandoned following ICE arrests. People now wear passports on lanyards in case agents demand proof of citizenship.

Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W Bush, says ICE has repeatedly exceeded its authority. ‘They are clearly infringing on state prerogatives and multiple constitutional protections,’ Painter says. ‘The Trump administration is realising it overreached.’

Federal judges have pushed back forcefully. The government failed to comply with nearly 100 court orders in January, according to Chief US District Judge for Minnesota, Patrick Schiltz, who warned that ‘ICE is not a law unto itself’.

The US Attorney’s office in Minnesota has been beset by chaos, prompting at least 14 government prosecutors to quit or be dismissed, according to reports. ICE lawyer Julie Le made headlines when she told a federal judge that ‘[sometimes] I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honour, so I can have a full 24 hours sleep.’

Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St Paul filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in January, alleging a ‘federal invasion’. The lawsuit claims ICE has pointed firearms at lawful observers and protesters, arrested bystanders and conducted raids in schools, churches and hospitals. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told a conference of US city officials that ‘if we do not speak up, if we do not step up, it will be your city that is next.’ The Trump administration referred to the lawsuit as ‘baseless.’

Steven Richman, Chair of the IBA Bar Issues Commission, says the controversy highlights an inherent tension within rule of law systems. ‘The rule of law of course is the cornerstone, but it is not an all-or-nothing concept in terms of how it is implemented,’ says Richman, who speaks in a personal capacity. ‘Enforcement necessarily involves discretion, and political rhetoric that escalates conflict ultimately undermines legitimacy rather than strengthening it and can affect the integrity of institutions.’