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    Cities and states must hold ICE accountable for violence. The feds won’t | Kristy Parker and Samantha Trepel

    As former federal prosecutors, we know an incident like the Minneapolis shooting must be followed by a credible inquiryLast Wednesday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old American mother. Already, the federal investigation into the killing raises serious concerns, which is why the parallel investigation Minnesota officials are conducting is vital.Mere hours after Good’s death, the Trump administration prejudged the case before any investigation could begin. The administration was swift to blame the victim, with the president and the DHS secretary making disparaging, accusatory, and prejudicial statements about her motives and conduct; Donald Trump said she was a “professional agitator” who had “viciously” run over the officer, while Kristi Noem accused her of “domestic terrorism”. Additionally, JD Vance, the vice-president, incorrectly claimed the shooter had “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution by state officials. And the FBI has shut state investigators out. Continue reading… More

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    Minneapolis mayor urges FBI to include state officials in Renee Good inquiry

    Jacob Frey says Trump administration is ‘so quick to jump on a narrative’ over the truth after ICE fatally shot womanKristi Noem vows to send ‘hundreds’ more agents to Minneapolis as protests erupt across USMinneapolis mayor Jacob Frey called on Sunday for the federal government to allow his state to become involved in the investigation of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, saying that the Trump administration had been “so quick to jump on a narrative as opposed to the truth”.Frey and others have expressed concerns about whether the Trump administration’s investigation into Good’s death would be fair and impartial because, among other reasons, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, immediately described Good’s actions as “domestic terrorism” when significant questions remained about Good’s intent while driving after an ICE officer attempted to remove her from her car. Continue reading… More

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    Homeland security sends more agents to Minneapolis as protests erupt in US

    After killing of Renee Nicole Good, city braces for what the agency describes as its largest enforcement operation yetMinneapolis mayor urges FBI to include state officials in Renee Good inquiryMinneapolis protesters – already outraged by Wednesday’s fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration officer – braced for a new onslaught as the Department of Homeland Security sent more agents in to the area, carried out what it called its largest enforcement operation ever.On Sunday, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, had pledged the agency would send “hundreds more” federal agents to the city. As door-to-door raids began, protesters screamed at heavily armed federal agents and honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt their operations in one Minneapolis neighborhood filled with single-family homes. Continue reading… More

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    A congresswoman wants to impeach Kristi Noem. She’s right to do so | Jan-Werner Müller

    It may be tempting to dismiss the move as hopeless – but it interrupts the Trump administration’s promise of impunityIn the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good, Congresswoman Robin Kelly has announced the filing of three articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary. Predictably, reactions have been muted at best: with the GOP holding both the Senate and the House, impeachment can be dismissed as purely performative, a helpless response to an in and of itself understandable moral imperative of “just do something!”But such dismissals are too quick: this administration has been running on a promise of impunity at all levels, and Democrats have to start signaling that actions have consequences. They also need to break out of a fateful dynamic: during Trump 2.0, misdeeds and scandals are following each other in such rapid succession that neither the press nor the public ever seem to get to focus on one. Impeachment can concentrate minds and slow down political time.Jan-Werner Müller is a Guardian US columnist and a professor of politics at Princeton University Continue reading… More

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    Trump is marching into 2026 with the worst cabinet in history | Austin Sarat

    From RFK Jr to Pete Hegseth, the president’s top aides have been disastrous. We shouldn’t be surprisedAs 2024 ended and Donald Trump’s cabinet picks were rolled out, commentators scrambled to decide which one was the worst. Was it Matt Gaetz for attorney general? Or Pete Hegseth, for secretary of defense? Or maybe Robert F Kennedy Jr to lead the Department of Health and Human Services?Soon after, the White House crowed that Trump had assembled “the greatest cabinet of all time”.Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America’s Death Penalty Continue reading… More

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    Venezuelans under TPS can apply for refugee status, Kristi Noem says

    Homeland security secretary says Venezuelan leader needs to protect America against drug trafficking and terroristsKristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, said on Sunday that the US wants a leader in Venezuela who will be “a partner that understands that we’re going to protect America” to stop drug trafficking and “terrorists from coming into our country”.Noem indicated in an interview on Fox News Sunday that the immigration status of Venezuelan nationals living in the US under temporary protected status (TPS) was part of an administration-wide decision-making process that her department would follow. Continue reading… More