In the wake of the most recent killing of an American citizen in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the second fatality in the state from the administration’s aggressive operations to round up undocumented immigrants, there have been nationwide protests. and even calls to abolish ICE—even though it was allegedly agents of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) who killed 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti on January 24, 2026. Like the January 7 killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent, though, there are more questions than answers about what actually happened, and video recordings of the incidents appear to contradict the official government versions of events. In both cases, government officials have painted the victims as the aggressors, justifying the use of deadly force by the agents. In Good’s case, an agent fired three rounds at her as she attempted to drive away, and in Pretti’s case, several agents fired ten shots at him after a legal handgun had been taken from him.
While the federal government’s actions after each of these tragic events have provoked anger, grief, and a sense of unease, now is not the time to surrender to such emotions, no matter how justifiable they might be. Now is the time to take a deep breath and analyze the totality of events, both before and after, to better inform ourselves and our elected representatives about how this imperils our democratic form of government. This is not dissimilar to what those of us who spent most of our adult lives as national security professionals have done on numerous occasions in other countries where democracy was under threat. And mark my words, democracy in the United States is currently under threat. The use of violence as a tool to intimidate the population and force it into submission is a standard tool of authoritarian governments. And there are indicators that foretell violence that need to be aired in support of our finding that we have moved farther down the slippery slope toward an autocracy.
One such indicator that is only now being paid attention to is the fact that many ICE and CBP officers don’t wear body cameras, which would be an additional tool for accountability. During the Biden administration, body cameras were required for all federal law enforcement officers, but after Trump began his second term, the policy was rescinded. In February 2025, CBP stopped using body cameras, and while ICE has a policy for using body cameras, it is not universally applied. A Washington Post article of January 25, 2026, ‘’DHS had sought to slash ICE body cams,’ stated that the White House recently opposed House legislation that would make the use of body cameras mandatory. No reason was given for the opposition.
ICE is currently the largest federal law enforcement agency in the United States, with funding of about $150 billion through 2029. giving it more funding than the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined. Its budget is, in fact, larger than most militaries worldwide, raising the question of why it can’t afford body cameras for all its agents in the field, particularly those involved in highly visible and controversial operations like the one in Minneapolis. As an analyst, if this were a foreign country and I had to speculate, I would conclude that one reason is to avoid dealing with camera recordings of operations where there are allegations of agent misconduct. Taken in conjunction with ICE and BPS reactions to their actions being filmed by bystanders, this is, in my professional opinion, a credible assumption. There could be other reasons, but until DHS and the administration are more forthcoming, I’ll stand by my interpretation.
This same process should be applied to other actions of all parties involved. Anger is understandable, but unless it is supported with objective analysis, it’s counterproductive. It’s time to put the administration and all of its immigration agencies and operations under a microscope. Flood the zone with hardheaded analysis of their actions and force them to justify what they do.