The New Dark Age

Jan. 24 — Early Saturday morning in south Minneapolis, masked ICE paramilitaries surrounded Alex Pretti outside Glam Doll Donuts, wrestled him to the ground, and beat him. Then, while he lay motionless beneath them, one agent stood up and fired his pistol repeatedly — more than 10 shots over five seconds. Pretti died at a hospital.

He was a 37-year-old U.S. citizen who worked as an ICU nurse at the VA hospital. The final act of his life was trying to help a woman who was being physically assaulted by the masked agents, who would then kill him.

It had been just over two weeks since ICE agents killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, in the same city. Less than 24 hours earlier, tens of thousands of workers, community members, and youth had flooded downtown Minneapolis to protest the federal occupation of their city.

In the same city, five-year-old Liam Ramos was seized from his home and allegedly used as bait to lure other family members out into the open. He ended up at a detention camp in Dilley, Texas.

A 79-year-old citizen had his ribs broken by ICE agents. A pregnant woman was tased.

This is what nearly a trillion dollars buys. Congress approved it. Both parties voted yes.

The numbers tell the story

The scale of what’s happening is difficult to grasp. In 2025, ICE doubled in size from 10,000 to 22,000 agents, offering $50,000 signing bonuses to new recruits. Training was slashed to just eight weeks. Some agents were deployed before their background checks were even completed.

The results: 2.5 million people have left the country, including 605,000 deportations. Arrests exceeded 595,000. Detention capacity has increased 83%, with more than 73,000 people held on any given day. Thirty-two people died in ICE custody — the highest number since 2004.

The administration plans to expand further, aiming for 120,000 to 150,000 detention beds using converted warehouses and military bases. Around 100 new detention facilities were built in 2025.

This expansion didn’t happen by executive fiat alone. Congress provided the money.

The bipartisan consensus

The defense spending bill passed the House 341-88, providing $839 billion — $8.4 billion more than the administration even requested. Nearly two-thirds of House Democrats voted for it. A separate bill allocated $64.4 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, with roughly $10 billion for ICE.

The 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” added another $75 billion for ICE over four years. The administration is now publicly demanding a $1.5 trillion military budget for 2027.

Where does this money go? The $839 billion defense allocation prioritizes nuclear modernization and high-tech weapons: $27.2 billion for 17 warships, including nuclear ballistic missile submarines. Another $7.6 billion for 47 F-35 fighter jets and $3 billion for the sixth-generation F-47. Full funding for the Sentinel ICBM. And $4.5 billion for hypersonic weapons.

Democrats didn’t just fail to stop this. They voted for it.

Inside the secret detention sites

Investigative reporters have documented what happens inside the detention system that this money built.

At the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minnesota, agents reportedly take “trophy pictures” with shackled detainees. Women have been forced to use toilets while male agents watch. Detainees with life-threatening skull fractures and contagious conditions like scabies have been denied medical care. U.S. citizens have allegedly been held in secret cells.

Judges have issued court orders to prevent ICE from removing certain detainees from their jurisdictions. ICE has defied those orders.

In Florida, a facility workers have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” holds people in chain-link cages under extreme heat, with mosquito infestations and lights that never turn off.

The administration has also sought to move detention offshore.

The global dimension

The domestic crackdown is one front in a broader offensive. The U.S. military kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, who remain hostages — prisoners of war — and seized the country’s oil resources. A carrier group has been redeployed toward Iran following the 2025 bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities. The administration has publicly demanded the annexation of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), a territory of NATO ally Denmark.

Trump calls it “America First.” But what’s being built is a military machine that projects force across the planet while turning that same force against people inside the United States.

Resistance is growing

Within hours of Saturday’s killing, a large crowd gathered at the scene demanding the agent be arrested and all ICE personnel leave the city. Residents began blocking streets with dumpsters and furniture. Police responded with tear gas. The confrontation follows Friday’s march of tens of thousands through downtown Minneapolis — one of the largest demonstrations against federal immigration enforcement in U.S. history.

Nationally, more than 1,000 protest actions have taken place since Renee Nicole Good’s killing.

What Minneapolis makes unmistakably clear is this: ICE’s deployment is not an accident and not a local exception. It is funded, authorized, and politically shielded by both Republicans and Democrats. Ending it will require movements that match that scale — rooted in workplaces, in communities, and in sustained mass resistance capable of breaking the bipartisan consensus for militarized enforcement, detention, and deportation.