This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: Over the past few weeks, ICE’s actions have gotten a lot of attention — and if you step back, a disturbing picture is starting to emerge.
What’s happening? In the just over two weeks since an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, we have seen the Trump administration:
Why does this matter? There’s a pattern to the many, many individual outrages perpetrated by ICE and other federal immigration agents. As we wrote last week, what ICE is doing in Minneapolis already doesn’t look like immigration enforcement so much as a military occupation. But as it expands, and as the Justice Department is used to target peaceful protesters — and even Good’s widow — while refusing to investigate her killer, the more apt comparison may be a lawless security state that is feeling increasingly emboldened.
A memo shared with the AP by a whistleblower this week, instructing ICE agents that they are allowed to enter homes without a judicial warrant to carry out immigration arrests — seemingly in defiance of the Constitution — gives further credence to that image.
What’s the big picture? We’re not there yet, but in the unchecked federal power on display in Minneapolis, the outlines of Trump’s nascent MAGA police state are coming into focus.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
It’s almost time for the Winter Olympics — and if you’re like me, that means it’s time to start getting up to speed on sports and storylines that you might not follow outside of a four-year cycle. I’ve really enjoyed Kathryn Xu’s figure skating coverage over at Defector, including these great pieces on Amber Glenn and the “Quad God” Ilia Malinin.
As always, thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!