From The Streets to Your Home: ICE’s Erosion of the 4th Amendment.

Author’s Note: This is a commentary piece examining recent ICE actions and the killing of Renee Good through a civil-libertarian and constitutional lens. It reflects the author’s analysis and opinions, not a claim of neutral or comprehensive reporting. Where practical, the author has cited source material.
The January 7, 2026 shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and the accompanying fervor over ICE operations in big cities to small towns all throughout our Republic has been a galvanizing event in American discourse and looms large as a sort of ‘litmus test’ for those who espouse the cause of liberty, such as Libertarians like us.
Upon first blush, it seems like what law enforcement would consider a justified shooting or euphemistically, ‘a good shoot’: Mrs. Good, while disrupting ICE during Operation Metro Surge was blocking part of the street. After Good was ordered out of her vehicle, she did not comply and then attempted to use that vehicle as a weapon. This action caused the agent in front of the vehicle to fear for his and other agents’ lives and he then fired 3 rounds at close range to eliminate the threat. Killing Good in the process… Simple, right?
However, when digging just below the surface we learn that Good’s last words to the agent who was at the time filming the interaction with a cell phone (if that device was personal or ICE issued is not known at the time of writing) was “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Meanwhile, the masked agent (whose name I will not utter) immediately after firing those 3 shots had a far less genial response of “F**kin’ b*tch.” While post-shooting verbal outbursts can occur under extreme stress, the contrast between these statements is nonetheless striking. It has also been alleged that the ICE agent may have violated standard Law Enforcement Officer practice and his own agencies policy by walking in front of Good’s vehicle, potentially placing himself in imminent danger.
We now know of the Department of Homeland Security Memo dated September 7, 2018 (Policy Statement 044-05 (Revision 01 [1]) that the Use of Force Standard is clearly defined: “Deadly force shall not be used solely to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect” and “DHS LEOs are prohibited from discharging firearms at the operator of a moving vehicle…” As well as the DOJ stating in its own Justice Manual that “firearms may not be discharged at a moving vehicle unless… the vehicle is operated in a manner that threatens to cause death or serious physical injury to the officer or others, and no other objectively reasonable means of defense appear to exist, which includes moving out of the path of the vehicle.[2]” Which is especially of note in the shooting of Renee Good, as all available video evidence does seem to show that the shooter would have been able to move out of the way of Good’s vehicle quite easily.
Opinions vary on both sides and certainly more information will be released in the upcoming days and weeks. However, it will not be coming from the DOJ. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has said it will not open a criminal civil rights investigation into the shooting, though the FBI continues its investigation [3]. However, given what we know about events like Waco and Ruby Ridge, my hopes are not high. Beyond the streets, ICE’s tactics raise deeper constitutional alarms.
This brings me to the crux of this issue in my mind: “Is ICE a necessary force for good in America?”
Amendment IV – The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects…
But the potential overreach isn’t limited to the street. Apart from the Minneapolis shooting in reading this AP article [4] and the accompanying leaked document [5] from May 12, 2025, but not released until January 2026, I am quite simply appalled at the sheer audacity of the DHS and ICE to blatantly disregard one of the most basic and easily understandable protections of the Constitution. A Constitution that ALL ICE, DHS and LEO’s swear an oath to protect and defend. Everyone, from the President down to your local sheriff and deputies swears this oath. And yet, here is what appears to be a clear violation of that oath. The 4th Amendment does not differentiate between a natural born citizen, a naturalized citizen, legal alien or any other residency classification. It is clear in its wording “The right of the people…” The People. Full stop.
What is troubling to me as a Libertarian (and someone with a small amount of basic empathy for my fellow human beings) is the ease with which a substantial percentage of Americans are willing to abandon such a basic right. The loudest and most ardent supporters of this violation are the same people who were just recently decrying the abusive governmental overreach during the COVID Lockdowns. The same folks who will vehemently decry any infringement of the Second Amendment. Usually while sporting a Gadsden flag. And somehow, also a “Back the Blue” bumper sticker. I wonder what they will say if/when an agent comes to their door for a suddenly “illegal” firearm? Will they be willing to then say, “just comply?”
The justification for this egregious support of violating a sacred right seems to be ‘They’re here illegally! They’re criminals!!’ And while I cede the point that crossing a border without following the arduous and oftentimes untenable rules and regulations is a crime under Title 8 U.S.C. § 1325 [6], it is subject to a civil penalty. Meaning that, technically a criminal misdemeanor, it is not felonious or violent. It does not create emergencies or exigent circumstances which would negate the protection of the 4th Amendment. I am not absolving those that commit actual crimes, things that create actual victims, no matter the residency status. Many times, what we see is that enforcement, detention and subsequent arrest isn’t based on reasonable suspicion or probable cause. The victims of these raids and arrests are not always “illegals.” We see multiple reports of American citizens being swept up in these dragnets and forced to produce proof of citizenship [7] [8] even before the more recent immigration enforcement push. I can’t help but think I have seen these tactics before, and the outcome is never more liberty or safety.
From a Libertarian perspective, I can think of nothing more antithetical to freedom and liberty than being forced to prove one’s innocence to a masked and fully ‘kitted out’ agent who has been granted virtual immunity by their agency, lauded by the administration and has much of the populace praising them as ‘heroes.’ To think that these agents have, though unenforced policy or lack of accountability and oversight, potentially been granted discretionary power that effectively collapses the separation between enforcement, adjudication, and punishment on our streets and in our homes should outrage even the most passive civil libertarian. I know I am particularly troubled by this. Masked federal agents, armed and outfitted for war, making arrests without a warrant signed by a judge and without probable cause seems to go against “…no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” I also believe this to be a trajectory toward violations of the 6th Amendment, which guarantees in part “to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.” Yet, we, as a nation, are not only allowing these transgressions to occur but they are also funded by our tax dollars and celebrated by the sitting administration. Silently consenting to this is a shameful dereliction of our moral obligation to create a better world for our progeny. It does not promote our mission to advance libertarian principles and facilitate the political and cultural movement to a voluntary society based on individual sovereignty and is a violation of the NAP that we all agreed to that we do not believe in or advocate the initiation of force or fraud as a means of achieving political or social goals. Additionally, it spits in the face of the very Constitution that we hold so dearly and that constrains what the government can legally do to WE, THE PEOPLE.
So, I ask you, fellow Libertarians and LP brethren: “Is ICE a necessary force for good in America?” I know what my answer is.

Citations:
[1] https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/mgmt/law-enforcement/mgmt-dir_044-05-department-policy-on-the-use-of-force.pdf
[2] https://www.justice.gov/jm/1-16000-department-justice-policy-use-force#1-16.200
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/18/justice-department-ice-renee-good-george-floyd-minneapolis
[4] https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrests-warrants-minneapolis-trump-00d0ab0338e82341fd91b160758aeb2d
[5] https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/26499371-dhs-ice-memo-1-21-26
[6] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1325
[7] https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c3dm0p2ddgmo
[8] https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/118180/documents/HMKP-119-JU00-20250430-SD003.pdf