Top of Mind Thursday – January, 29, 2026: Cold as ICE

America was hit by two major storms last week.

A huge winter weather front caused severe snow and ice conditions throughout much of the Midwest and the Eastern part of the country—even deep into the Southeast—snarling air travel and causing disruptions to schools and businesses that continued for days.

Another storm hit Minneapolis at about the same time: Clashes between Immigration & Customers Enforcement (ICE) agents and people protesting ICE tactics, resulting in the deaths of two US citizens.

ICE has been brought by the president into cities like Minneapolis to enforce federal immigration laws. However, their tactics are too often extremely rough and strong-handed—capturing legal residents and citizens who protest ICE actions, as well as undocumented individuals.

In the first incident, the protester killed appears to have been trying to obstruct ICE efforts and may have attempted to use her car to hit the ICE agent who shot her. Perhaps she should have been arrested, but she didn’t deserve to be shot and killed.

In the second, an ICU nurse was shot 10 times after trying to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground by ICE. Video footage shows him already subdued by a handful of agents when at least 2 ICE agents pumped a full array of bullets into him.

Individuals have the right to protest, and federal agents have the right to arrest people who prevent them from doing their job. However, when tempers flare and situations escalate, doubling down on an already bad situation doesn’t help either side.

Today, it appears that the ICE commander who has been leading the Minnesota deployment has been replaced with someone less confrontational. The two agents who shot nurse Alex Pretti have been removed from duty and will likely face discipline or even criminal charges. Border czar Tom Homan has been sent to Minnesota to try and calm tensions. He admits there’s “room for improvement” in ICE operations—which is a move in the right direction.

We seem to forget that two things can be true at once: Most Americans don’t want an open border, and most also don’t want US citizens, green card holders, and undocumented individuals who are not causing trouble rounded up and deported as criminals—or shot by federal agents.

What’s been happening the last few weeks isn’t helping anyone. It’s time for both sides to take a step back and come up with a solution that doesn’t leave anyone out in the cold.

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