It was entirely foreseeable and now it has happened. Yesterday an ICE agent shot an unarmed woman in Minneapolis as she was trying to drive away in her car. No matter where you fit in politically, this is a tragedy and we owe the women and her family a thorough investigation into what exactly happened and how it can be prevented in the future.

Not so for Donald Trump. He saw this as an opportunity for some heavy-handed propaganda. On his “Truth Social” he posted:

“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis,” he said in a social media post. “They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE.”

No news here, this sort of dishonestly twisting of the facts and evidence free propaganda is what we have come to expect from Trump.

His Secretary of Homeland Security went even further. At a press conference in Texas, she appeared in a cowboy hat (see the screenshot from FOX News on the left) and claimed that the woman was shot because she “viciously and intentionally” tried to run over the ICE agent with her car.

None of the various videos circulating in the press and on social networks support this version of events. In an effort to protect her employee, ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Cowgirl is resorting to the oldest trick in the book: Blame the victim.

Before being installed as Secretary of Homeland Security, Noem was known nationally for two things. She was sued because she publicly endorsed “Smile Texas”, a cosmetic dental clinic. Since she was a public official at the time, she was the Governor of South Dakota, this was a violation of the Hatch Act. She also garnered some pushback after she bragged in her memoirs that she shot her puppy dog Cricket because she was unable to train him.

Kristi Noem is obviously in favor of using deadly force. But police manuals and training view the use of deadly force only as a last resort, if the officer’s life is in immediate danger and no other option exists. Furthermore, officers are strictly forbidden to shoot a driver of a moving car, because one cannot know what could happen if the driver is incapacitated. Just image the carnage if instead of two parked cars and an electric pole, there had been kids waiting for the school bus or other innocent bystanders in the way of the victim’s car as it ran out of control after the driver was shot.

We don’t know all the facts yet, but so far, the evidence that is available does not support Noem’s version of events. The Minnesota Office of Criminal Apprehension has opened an investigation into the event. Legally it is a state matter and federal agents do not have a license to kill in Minnesota. The federal government, i.e. Trump, cannot pre-empt the investigation and the possible indictment and trial of those responsible for the killing of the unarmed woman in Minnesota.

That Kristi Cowgirl is pushing out a false version of the vents is understandable. As Secretary of Homeland Security, she is ultimately responsible for what ICE does. Under Trump ICE has received a budget of roughly USD 75 billion, a sevenfold increase over previous years. That is more than three times as much as is budgeted for disaster relief (USD 22.7 billion).

To justify this largesse, Noem must show results, i.e. she must expel as many people as possible. If ICE were to concentrate on arresting only illegal immigrants with a criminal record, which is what Trump and Noem claim they are doing, they could never reach the targets set by the White House Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller. They have no choice but to resort to wide drag-net operations such as they are currently executing in Minneapolis. Such operations aim to sweep up as many people as possible. But arresting willy-nilly people who might be in the country illegally is bound to lead to the arrest of large numbers of people that are not “criminal domestic terrorist.” The available data suggests that between 80 and 90 percent of those arrested by ICE do not have a criminal record, and some of them are even US citizens.

Kristi Noem’s policies do not enhance “Homeland Security.” ICE agents are the true domestic terrorists. They terrorize the civilian population and ultimately increase insecurity. Noem is a clear and present danger not only to the rule of law, but also to the security of everybody in the United States. She should be impeached.