Once upon a time, in 2013, an independent review of Customs and Border Protection took a hard look at how agents used deadly force and accidentally reinvented the concept of irony.
The review found a pattern in which agents placed themselves directly in front of moving vehicles and then treated the vehicle’s movement as justification to fire their weapons. Most of the people shot, according to the review, were not violent criminals, they were drivers whose primary threat was attempting to leave. The recommendation was almost childlike in its simplicity, do not stand in front of cars.
This brings us to Minnesota, where federal immigration enforcement recently demonstrated that institutional memory is apparently stored on a Post-it note that gets thrown away every budget cycle. During an ICE operation, agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old American citizen, as she attempted to drive away. Accounts indicate Ross positioned himself in front of her vehicle and then fired when the car moved. Federal officials described the shooting as self-defense. Critics described it as a case study straight out of that 2013 report, now with higher resolution video.
Here is where the GOP talking point enters, right on cue. As Donald Trump famously declared during his presidency, “I am the law and order president.” It is a simple slogan, sturdy, repeatable, and extremely flexible, especially when law enforcement ignores its own warnings and someone ends up dead. Law and order, in this version, does not mean careful policy or accountability. It means whatever just happened was justified because someone with a badge was involved.
Republican leaders warn relentlessly that limiting federal agents would invite chaos, criminality, and open borders. Yet the limitation being ignored here was not ideological. It was tactical. The federal government already knew this scenario was dangerous. It wrote it down. It warned against it. And then it watched it happen again.
The takeaway is uncomfortable but clear. Law and order does not mean blind loyalty to bad practices, and small government does not mean zero oversight when federal agents pull the trigger. When GOP leaders defend outcomes that were explicitly warned against years earlier, they are not defending safety. They are defending a slogan, one that sounds tough right up until it becomes an epitaph.
References
[PERF] Police Executive Research Forum, “U.S. Customs and Border Protection Use of Force Review,” 2013.
[AP] Associated Press, reporting on the Minnesota ICE shooting involving Renee Good, Jan. 2026.
[MPR] Minnesota Public Radio, reporting on the ICE operation and subsequent investigation, Jan. 2026.