Law Enforcement and Public Safety

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said firing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem would be "a start" but "not enough," calling DHS under the Trump administration a "killing machine" after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis and other recent vehicle‑related encounters (including a Portland shooting), and laying out demands — warrants for arrests, bans on masks, mandatory body cameras and criminal accountability — before Democrats will back the GOP DHS funding bill. The Minneapolis killing, disputed by local officials and captured on bystander video, has spurred nationwide "ICE Out For Good" protests, intensified calls for oversight and hearings, and prompted many Democrats to threaten to withhold funding unless statutory guardrails are enacted.

Virginia Commonwealth University Health says it has placed a nurse on administrative leave and barred her from patient contact while VCU Police investigate a series of viral TikTok videos in which she discussed 'resistance' tactics against federal immigration agents. In clips reposted by LibsOfTikTok, the nurse — using the handle Redheadredemption — urged medical workers to fill syringes with saline or the paralytic succinylcholine as a 'sabotage' or scare tactic, suggested spraying people with poison ivy or oak water, and told single women to date ICE agents and slip Ex‑Lax into their drinks to sideline them from duty. VCU called the videos 'highly inappropriate' and said they do not reflect the health system’s values, stressing that it 'prioritizes the health and safety of anyone who comes to us for care.' The case comes amid intense national backlash and protests over Trump‑era immigration crackdowns, especially in Minnesota, and feeds broader online debates over how far anti‑ICE activism can go before it crosses into criminal incitement or professional misconduct. Legal and medical‑ethics experts on social media are already noting that even if framed as 'jokes,' such public statements can trigger licensure, employment and potentially criminal consequences when they describe methods of assaulting or poisoning law‑enforcement officers.

DHS says a Cuban entrant rammed ICE vehicles during an arrest in San Antonio, and video released by law enforcement shows officers subduing the suspect after he allegedly nearly ran over an officer. Officials and conservative outlets have framed the episode as part of a broader rise in hostile encounters with immigration agents — citing separate Minnesota incidents where agents were pelted and spat on — and some coverage links these clashes to Trump-era rhetoric about “paid agitators,” prompting pushback from Minnesota leaders who accuse the White House of politicizing enforcement.

Austin David Thompson pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, two counts each of attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of assaulting an officer with a gun for the Oct. 13, 2022 Raleigh rampage that prosecutors say began with the shooting and repeated stabbing of his brother James inside the family home and continued in the Hedingham neighborhood and a nearby greenway, killing neighbors Nicole Connors, Mary Marshall and Susan Karnatz and Officer Gabriel Torres while wounding another neighbor and Officer Casey Clark; officers fired roughly 23 rounds before his arrest. Judge Paul Ridgeway accepted the plea, set a multi-day sentencing hearing for Feb. 2, and prosecutors say there is no plea deal — Thompson, who was a juvenile at the time and thus ineligible for the death penalty, faces the possibility of life without parole while his defense has said a self-inflicted gunshot before arrest caused significant brain damage that delayed proceedings.

A Cuban national identified as Robyn Argote Brooks was arrested and indicted after Department of Homeland Security and ICE released video showing him allegedly ramming two ICE vehicles in a San Antonio parking lot during a targeted stop, nearly striking an agent before being pulled from the car; one agent was treated for neck injuries and Brooks is in ICE custody. DHS said Brooks entered the U.S. in 2024 via the CBP One app and cited the case while reporting 66 vehicular attacks on ICE officers between Jan. 21, 2025 and Jan. 7, 2026 (versus two in the same period a year earlier) and asserting a more than 1,300% increase in overall assaults, while characterizing CBP One as having allowed over a million "unvetted" migrants.