ICE And The Kent State Moment

The inevitable inevitably happened.  A year of escalating attacks on immigration enforcement agents stirred by incendiary political rhetoric ignited an ugly incident in Minneapolis.  A protestor impeding agents was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.  

This may be the Kent State moment for the immigration issue.  More than 55 years ago four students were killed and nine others wounded when several Ohio National Guard soldiers opened fire during a Vietnam War protest on the campus.  In the aftermath, protests surged with escalating confrontations.  

Minneapolis erupted in the wake of the shooting, egged on by the governor and mayor.  In the chaos, an ICE agent was ambushed while attempting a traffic stop.  Two illegal immigrants pummeled the agent with a shovel and broom handle.  An agent fired his weapon, wounding an immigrant. 

Then Sunday a mob of anarchists intruded on a church service, claiming an ICE agent was a pastor at the house of worship.  Parishioners feared for their lives as dissidents harassed the worshipers.  Angry instigators bullied parishioners and videoed their terrorizing of innocent churchgoers.  

While there are disputed versions about the deadly shooting, there is no disagreement that anti-ICE activists have escalated attacks on law enforcement officers. Since January, 2025, there have been 238 reported assaults on officers, a 1,150% increase over 2024 when 19 cases were documented.  

ICE agents have been pelted with rocks.  Injured by bricks. Hit with projectiles, including water bottles. Sprayed with chemicals. Dodged concrete cinder blocks tossed from buildings.  Been shoved by agitators. Cursed and spit upon.  Hit with pyrotechnics.  Activists cars have blocked federal agents path.  

Some radicals have clutched the hoods of law enforcement vehicles, daring agents to run them over.  From January 21 of last year until January 7 this year, there have been 66 vehicular attacks on agents. There were only two in 2024.  This represents a 3,200% hike in vehicular skirmishes.

In San Antonio, an illegal immigrant rammed his car into two unmarked ICE vehicles, injuring one agent, who was hospitalized.  A news report said an agent had ordered the immigrant to exit his vehicle.  The man refused and crashed into two vehicles.  The assailant was arrested.  

This vehicular escalation is deliberatively provocative.  Dissidents are trained on kindling confrontations. They covet a belligerent ICE reaction that could be captured on a cell phone and posted online.  Instigators' goal is to prevent arrests, including illegal immigrants with criminal records.

In Minnesota, a loose coalition of groups called ICE Watch, offers training, a manual and support for agitators.  The group published its goals online in 2024, calling for revolutionaries to interfere with law enforcement officers performing their duties.

Among the tactics ICE Watch endorses is "pushing and pulling" an agent off someone arrested.  The collective recommends "totally surrounding" officers and "blocking them and/or their vehicles." Interfering with law enforcement operations is a crime, both at the federal, state and local level.  

An app, ICE Block, was developed by activists to track ICE agents and vehicles with the aim to alert illegal immigrants of an impending raid. The administration took down the app but others have sprouted in its place to thwart the efforts of ICE to arrest illegal immigrants criminals.

Other factions supporting the war on ICE include socialist and communist protest organizations.  Those comprise the Democratic Socialists of America, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, The Peoples Forum and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.  There are too many others to list 

ICE Agents have not been the only target.  Members of groups use cell phones to identify agents. Troublemakers have doxxed agents families, engaging in cyberbullying, releasing information on agents' home addresses and minor children's schools.  Is it any wonder that ICE agents wear masks? 

Clearly, the aim is to stop the enforcement of immigration law, including the deportation of criminals and terrorists who live among law-abiding illegal immigrant community.  While protests spiraled out of control in Minneapolis, ICE arrested numbers of murderers, robbers, child molesters and rapists.  

Minneapolis is a symptom of an epidemic of lawlessness.  Last summer assailants ambushed officers at an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas.  Shots were fired, hitting one agent in the neck.  Three days later, a man unleashed a barrage of gunfire at a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, sending three law enforcement officers to the hospital. 

ICE offcials cite politicians' inflammatory rhetoric for fueling the violence.  Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has vilified ICE as the "modern day Gestapo."  The Gestapo operated as the state secret police during the Nazi regime in Germany.  They employed notoriously brutal methods to suppress opposition.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal called ICE agents "deranged" and advocated the obstruction of immigration enforcement. Rep. LaMonica McIver declared "we are at war" with ICE. Represenative Stephen Lynch smeared ICE agents as "nondescript thugs." Rep. Becca Balint referred to agents as "vigilantes."

There are dozens of examples of other Democrats dehumanizing ICE with Nazi terms, including their favorite, Gestapo.  Comparing law enforcement to Nazi Germany murders is deliberately egregious, emboldening disrupters to adopt the mantle of heroes, saving the country from Hitlerism.

The turmoil, rebellion and demagogic language are ripped from the Democrat playbook for the midterm elections. The party and its loosely affiliated groups are fomenting chaos in communities in an effort to defund and get rid ICE to cripple enforcement of immigration law.

Democrats allege law abiding citizens and legal immigrants are being unfairly targeted, often with no evidence.  The party also refuses to acknowledge that ICE has the authority to apprehend and detain noncitizens who violate immigration laws.

If Democrats disagree with the law, they should lead an effort to change it instead of demonizing ICE agents. They haven't done so because it is politically unpopular nationally. Democrats during President Obama's term supported ICE's efforts to remove illegal immigrants. 

If local police in Democrat-run sanctuary cities assisted ICE, it would eliminate the need for a large law enforcement present on the streets. For instance, just honoring ICE detention orders, would allow for the orderly transfer of illegal immigrant criminals in local jails to federal custody.

However, this is not just a controversy over sanctuary city policies. There is a political calculation for Democrats.  In the U.S. Census, every person is counted in the population, not just citizens.  The population figure is used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives.

Non-partisan Pew Research ran the 2020 Census numbers and conservatively estimated that six primarily Democrat states would lose a seat in the house if illegal immigrants were excluded.  Those include Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia. 

Texas would gain two instead of three seats, if illegal immigrants were subtracted from the total population.  California would lose two seats and Florida would gain two instead of three seats.  In summary, Democrats have more seats at risk if illegal immigrants are not counted in the census.

For the record, Democrats and their sycophant media have contested they would lose house seats, citing left wing studies. Pew Research is the gold standard for nonpartisanship. 

As Minnesota politicians have demonstrated, it is anathema for Democrats to cooperate with federal law enforcement on removing illegal immigrants, including those with criminal records.  This may energize the Democrat base, but it promotes lawlessness in America that will certainly beget more crime.    

Top 12 Predictions For 2026

Every year this scribe's annual predictions generate copious sneers, ridicule and the occasional thumbs up. Now the legion of doubters and the trifling believers have an opportunity to test their prognostication mettle.  You can now wager on almost any verifiable future event, including many of this year's forecasts.

For the uninitiated, an outfit called Polymarket operates the world's largest prediction market.  Using a blockchain-based platform, Polymarket allows bettering on future events.  For instance, you can place a wager on this future event: "Will a ceasefire be called in Ukraine in 2026?" Just select "Yes" or "No."

Don't worry about the affordability crisis.  Transactions on Polymarket are conducted using USDC stablecoin, cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar. It's not like it's real money! You can bet on just about everything from politics and sports to pop culture and finance.  

Before you dash to the Polymarket website, let's raise the curtain on the safest predictions for 2026:

1. Power and water supply concerns coupled with local politics trip up massive data center expansion plans.  The blistering pace of construction for hubs that power AI hit a snag, delaying the costly deployment plans of chip makers and cloud-computing firms. The development negatively impacts AI stocks, but the Magnificent Seven still finish 2026 on an upswing. 

2. Congress gets in the act of trying to rein in AI's ability to perform jobs with legislation to protect entry level positions.  AI is already replacing data entry positions, software engineers, computer programmers, paralegals, research analysts and content writers.  In an election year, Congress can't resist grandstanding to protect jobs, authoring several bills that disapear into the legislative ether after the midterms.    

3. The stock market defies gravity and continues its upward march to record levels.  Strong corporate earnings, monetary policy easing by the Federal Reserve and the deployment of AI spur the S&P to a record close of 7,800. Risks include the danger of an AI bubble burst, sticky inflation and midterm election volatility. But investors keep plowing money into the market. 

4.  Forecasters continue to underestimate economic growth as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) exceeds expectations despite tepid job growth.  The GDP, a broad gauge of economic activity, finishes the year with an annualized growth rate of 2.8%. Consumer spending roars ahead as record IRS tax refunds boost household income.  Unemployment ends the year at 4.4% and the Federal Reserve's measurement of core inflation hits a low of 2.3%. Wage growth advances modestly, built on 19 states increasing minimum wage January 1 and a 3.6% hike in salaries in the new year.

5.  Home sales experience a modest increase as prices remain flat or fall in some areas.  Nationally, home prices will uptick 1.7% as existing sales remain lukewarm in many areas.  Total home sales will climb 3.3% nationally, topping 4 million homes.  Lower mortgage rates--averaging 6.1% on a 30-year loan--will drive sales.  However,  73% of homeowners have mortgages below 5%, convincing the majority of Americans to remain cacooned in their current residences.  

6.  When Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's term ends in May, the change in leadership supercharges the Fed's determination to lower interest rates.   President Trump names Kevin Hassett, the current chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, to succeed Powell, who remains on the Board of Governors until January, 2028. With a new chairman, the Fed lowers interest rates by 75 basis points by the end of the year. 

7.  The vast majority of the 435 House seats in the mid-term elections are not likely to change parties.   Political analysts currently rank 69 seats as up for grabs, but it is more likely that 30 races for the House will determine which party controls the lower chamber.  The party out of control normally picks up seats in the first term of a new president: Democrats win control of the House: 226-209. Democrats run more white women candidates to tap into a voting bloc that has turned decidedly true blue.

8.  A total of 35 Senate seats will be contested in the midterms with Republicans maintaining a majority.  Democrats (13) have more vulnerable seats to defend, such as those in Georgia, Michigan and North  Carolina, despite more Republicans (22) facing reelection. The red states favor Republicans but the Democrats still narrow the GOP majority to a razor-thin 51-47 with two Independents caucusing  with Dems. Campaign spending for the Senate and House break all records.

9.  Despite Trump's efforts to broker a peace, the war rages on between Russia and Ukraine in 2026.  Russia's Valdimir Putin keeps changing the goal posts for negotiations to end the war with Ukraine as his forces make progress inch-by-bloody-inch.  The autocrat has made the calculation that both Europe and the U.S. will eventually lose their resolve to prop up Ukraine militarily, emboldening Russia to take more territory.

10.  A New York federal judge issues a ruling compelling the Trump Administration to release Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.  A federal judge rules that Maduro has sovereign immunity as the duly elected leader of Venezuela, a fact the Trump Administration disputes.  However, that will not stop the court from ordering Maduro's release. Appeals reach the Supreme Court. 

11. The Supreme Court rules against the Trump Administration in the tariffs case.  In a 5-4 decision SCOTUS rules that the circumstances under which the president raised tariffs did not meet the 1977 International Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA) definition of an "emergency."  The decision also hangs on the definition of whether tariffs constitute a tax, which must be approved by Congress.  After the ruling, the House and Senate vote to allow the current tariffs to stand.  

12.  With affordability top of mind for voters, cities, counties and states adopt so-called pilot (temporary) programs for guaranteed income.  More than 100 cities have embraced pilot programs guaranteeing income for residents who meet certain conditions.  Cook County (Chicago) became the most recent to adopt a basic income program.  The movement spreads like a California wildfire to become a national issue in the mid-term elections.  

Don't believe the predictions? Wondering if your writer's crystal ball is broken?  Feel free to place your bets on Polymarket. You can use your winnings to purchase a little minced crow meat to feed to your journalist in 2027.