ICE agents are overwhelming the police force in parts of the US, an expert has warned, as the agency begins "targeting anybody trying to help."
Lisa Erbes, a co-leader for the grassroots organization Indivisible Twin Cities, warned the Immigration and Customs Enforcement team are overstepping in parts of the country. Worries over what ICE will do in future were aired by political commentators following the death of Renee Good. The 37-year-old mother was shot and killed by an enforcement officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Erbes, speaking with Salon, warned ICE are starting to become overbearing on parts of the country and even the local police force are struggling to push back.
She said, "These agents are out of control. They’re untrained, they’re trigger-happy. They want to bash heads. I don’t know where they’re finding these guys, but they’re dangerous."
The Indivisible Twin Cities co-leader went on to suggest police departments in Minneapolis are being "overwhelmed by calls." Immigration agents were found to have used banned chokeholds and other moves in the field.
An agent in Houston put a teenage citizen into a chokehold, wrapping his arm around the boy’s neck, choking him so hard that his neck had red welts hours later. Another incident saw a black-masked agent in Los Angeles press his knee into a woman’s neck while she was handcuffed; she then appeared to pass out.
Drew Harmon, an organizer, with Minnesota 50501 believes another ICE shooting is "going to happen again" and that the enforcement team are treating Minneapolis like a "war zone".
Worries over the police for in Minneapolis becoming overwhelmed comes after a political analyst warned the shooting sets a dangerous precedent for the future.
Sabrina Haake wrote, "ICE agent [Jonathan] Ross who shot Renee Good three times should, and likely will, be tried for murder. If he is not, ICE will become Trump’s paramilitary force, moving us a giant step backward towards Trump/Vance/Miller’s Neanderthalic rule by club, and Good’s murder will surely become precedent for more."
Haake went on to say Trump officials who are claiming ICE agents have immunity from the law are "lying". She explained, "Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine created by the U.S. Supreme Court that protects immigration officers from civil liability, but not when they knowingly violate the law."