It Is Like 1933 - ICE Agents Issue Their Own Search and Arrest Warrants

They ram the door. They go in. And they present a piece of paper that looks like law, but is not. The ICE operation in the south of Minneapolis has made visible what many have long feared: the US immigration agency is acting by its own rules - bypassing any judicial oversight.

The images from Sunday show an operation on a quiet residential street. Protesters honk their horns, whistle, try to buy time. Officers in black protective gear deploy pepper spray. Seconds later the front door is broken open, Garrison Gibson is taken away, once again. His wife comes out of the house shortly afterward - with a document in her hand. No court seal. No judge’s name. Only the signature of an ICE officer. Legally, the paper is easy to classify. It is not a search warrant. It is not even a valid arrest warrant in the classic sense. It is an administrative form - signed by the person directing the operation. That is precisely the problem: the immigration authority grants itself permission to enforce the action. And uses it to storm homes.

The scene took place just days after the death of Renee Nicole Good. The 37-year-old was shot in her car by an ICE agent. The agent filmed the operation with his own phone. In this case as well, the Department of Homeland Security relied on such a self-issued document. Protests in Minneapolis have not stopped since. Schools remained closed. Thousands have since taken to the streets to watch over their neighborhoods. Not armed - but with whistles, cameras, and reflective vests.

Under US law, a home may only be entered with a warrant signed by a judge. Documents issued by ICE itself apply only to arrests in public spaces. All legal experts confirm this, from the ACLU to the American Immigration Council. The agents on the ground are not deterred by this. The door is broken down anyway. The camera runs. The person disappears.

Uninvolved bystanders were injured during this operation as well. Pepper spray hit people who were merely trying to document what was happening. Authorities speak of the “largest enforcement campaign in Minnesota in decades.” More than 2,000 people have been arrested since December. ICE defends the approach. It claims to be acting because cities are not cooperating. But that argument collapses. When a federal agent fills out a form and thereby grants himself the right to enter other people’s homes, it is no longer the rule of law that prevails, but the agency itself standing above the law. Such conduct does not resemble modern democracies, but authoritarian systems.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Senator Tina Smith are now demanding that the fatal shooting of Renee Good not be investigated by the federal government alone. Both point out that the Department of Homeland Security has already publicly defined the narrative - before investigations were completed. The claim that Good used her vehicle as a weapon is supported by no independent expert assessment. On the contrary, the police chief publicly contradicted it and emphasized that no one other than Good was injured.

The protests continue. Our desks are collapsing under the weight of cases. What we are witnessing again is a systematic approach, targeted intimidation, home raids without legal basis - 1933, there is no other way to describe it anymore. What is happening in America is more than that. Most European media, but also American media, are competing in the self-destruction of journalism, right-wing populism is being downplayed, or the victims’ side barely gets a voice. Trust in many institutions is severely damaged. Not because laws are being enforced - but because they are being broken. And with the signatures of the perpetrators themselves.