Coppercloud

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ICE apparently attempted to raid the consulate of Ecuador today. It did not go well. I'll try and dig up an official news link.

https://www.reuters.com/world/ameri...tried-enter-consulate-minneapolis-2026-01-28/
Saw a video on this. Not sure on the implications of closing embassies/consulates are as I'm sure they're needed for citizens of those countries living in the US. So I struggle to say it'd be nice if they all just closed up. But if there's anything they can do to put pressure on the US for being colossal asshats with ice... man I think we'd appreciate it.
 

Observer

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Really Patty, really?

Apparently my Senator is arguing that we shouldn't shut down the government because it wouldn't affect ICE. For some reason, she thinks that ICE funding is outside the normal budget process*. Worse, she claims that all it would do is relive them of the restrictions that a budget bill would impose (restrictions which, one should note, do not include being forbidden from arresting and detaining US citizens. Because Steven Miller really wants ICE able to arrest and detain US citizens).

* apparently she thinks the OBBB means they already have the money... which, of course, simply isn't how appropriations work. They either have to be passed annually for the entire year or they don't. Pick one.

View: https://x.com/TrackAIPAC/status/1771633173539016714


It's this Patty right?
 
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Diabolical

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Really Patty, really?

Apparently my Senator is arguing that we shouldn't shut down the government because it wouldn't affect ICE. For some reason, she thinks that ICE funding is outside the normal budget process*. Worse, she claims that all it would do is relive them of the restrictions that a budget bill would impose (restrictions which, one should note, do not include being forbidden from arresting and detaining US citizens. Because Steven Miller really wants ICE able to arrest and detain US citizens).

* apparently she thinks the OBBB means they already have the money... which, of course, simply isn't how appropriations work. They either have to be passed annually for the entire year or they don't. Pick one.

Question:

Do you want to be angry about this, or do you want some context?

The former is fine and fully justified! And as you noted in a later post, the vast majority of Democratic senators (including Senator Murray) are on the side of not funding the DHS at all right now. At least that is what they are saying in public, for all that means. I wouldn't want to put money on it, for instance.


Or perhaps some context? Mostly because going over this more than once and in more detail is, frankly, exhausting - not your fault, but I've had this same conversation a couple of times in real life in the past day or so. But there are some things to her original statements that make more sense once you dig into it.
  • ICE will remain operational in the event of a shutdown - you can guarantee they'll be made excepted and be "required" to work for "national security" reasons/*/. They were last time, and they will this time.
  • They will have some funding anyway from the OBBBA reconciliation package; critically, for EXACTLY the kind of shit they have been doing.
  • Even now, while they still have funding from the previous CR? They are finding ways to "use" OBBBA provided funds to enact some new bookmaking fuckery (latest example is by "using OBBBA funds" to prevent Democrats from visiting ICE facilities, circumventing a court injunction because that injunction is in reference to a rule put in place with appropriations law that doesn't address the existence of OBBBA funds because... Yep, they didn't exist at the time! Damn, this crap from the Administration is just eye-rollingly stupid (edit: not the right word, but I can't think of one that fits right now) sometimes).
  • In the event of a lapse in funding or a CR, ICE will continue to operate in the exact same way it is acting now unless language is inserted to change that - good luck getting that passed.
  • The only way to Congressionally curtail actions is by passing a new appropriations package (which the new one specifically addresses controls on those same OBBBA funds) or specific laws making adjustments to Title 6 of US Code. Appropriations law is much, MUCH more likely to pass than changing the Homeland Authorization Act of 2002.
  • To put it simply; no new appropriations package? No changes in ICE operations, at least in the relatively short term.
  • The new package (the one passed by the House largely on party lines) did add some new constraints and limits. Are these limits necessary? Shit yes they are! Are they enough? Fuck no, they are not! What's even worse is what little oversight exists to ICE now? Is cut in the new bill! So how Congress would ensure/verify that instructions/restrictions are being followed is an even more open question than it already is.
They are an abominable organization that should have never been established. Unfortunately, that is just my opinion and it's not Personally, I'd like them to zero out the agencies funding and make them close up shop. Or at least make the damned attempt. But the new measures aren't exactly nothing, either.



/*/Shit, so will I. So will a bunch of other people that have nothing to do with them.
 

drogin

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Hmm, but does it matter that the shutdown would affect ICE's ability to operate directly?

Don't you think by exerting financial pressure in other areas that it can become a negotiable item?

If nothing else, it should people that there is resistance in every way that there can be resistance. Effective or otherwise.
 
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Wow….

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/politics/stephen-miller-alex-pretti-trump

From the article:

Top White House aide Stephen Miller said Tuesday that officials were evaluating why the Customs and Border Protection team in Minneapolis “may not have been following” proper protocol before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti — a remarkable acknowledgment of possible wrongdoing from one of the Trump administration’s most influential and hardline operators on immigration enforcement.

never thought they’d go this close to admitting wrongdoing….
 

zakael19

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Wow….

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/27/politics/stephen-miller-alex-pretti-trump

From the article:



never thought they’d go this close to admitting wrongdoing….

I think they've realized that a) killing American citizens on the street is something that pretty much everybody who isn't a red-hat wearer hates and b) they're trying really hard to toss chaff out there to prevent Dem Senators from holding up the remaining appropriations until substantive DHS/ICE controls are included in the appropriations bills.
 

Wheels Of Confusion

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Killing white American citizens.
Specifically killing armed white male American citizens.
Renee Good's murder didn't spark this kind of pushback, and plenty of people joined in the Trumpist narrative about her using her car as a weapon by trying to drive away.
 
Specifically killing armed white male American citizens.
Renee Good's murder didn't spark this kind of pushback, and plenty of people joined in the Trumpist narrative about her using her car as a weapon by trying to drive away.

Yeah this also confuses me. It’s not a competition, they were IMHO both summarly executed / murdered. But the white woman still got less outrage than the white concealed carry man.

We should repeat Trump’s “you can’t have guns” constantly all the time.
 

BigVince

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Specifically killing armed white male American citizens.
Renee Good's murder didn't spark this kind of pushback, and plenty of people joined in the Trumpist narrative about her using her car as a weapon by trying to drive away.
its this. It wasn't until a white woman and white man got murdered by ICE that there was any of that kind of push back. ICE murdered an undocumented man, Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez in Chicago in a very similar situation to Renee Goods murder this past summer and no one seems to remember that now. I do remember since I am constantly reminded of that by the roadside memorial that i drive past every morning on my way to work since that happed 1 block from my house.
 

flere-imsaho

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It's difficult to keep your White Power supporters on board when you're killing white people on the streets. You can see they attempted to get away with it by painting both Good & Pretti in as negative a light as possible, but apparently it didn't work (this time).

So we'll get some walk backs and some fall guys, and probably an unofficial directive to be a little more careful with white people in the future, but little else will change.
 

Sajuuk

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It's difficult to keep your White Power supporters on board when you're killing white people on the streets. You can see they attempted to get away with it by painting both Good & Pretti in as negative a light as possible, but apparently it didn't work (this time).

So we'll get some walk backs and some fall guys, and probably an unofficial directive to be a little more careful with white people in the future, but little else will change.
The genuine White Power supporters also genuinely support killing race traitors and deviants, which is anyone protesting their ethnic cleansing campaign.

It's the soft white power supporters who are now confused about exactly what kind of project they signed on with.
 

Stern

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It's difficult to keep your White Power supporters on board when you're killing white people on the streets. You can see they attempted to get away with it by painting both Good & Pretti in as negative a light as possible, but apparently it didn't work (this time).
Because Pretti was murdered carrying a concealed gun. Their whole lives they've been taught that the gubmint is coming to take them away, any day now, so it's something they think could actually affect them. They're neither immigrants nor lesbians so who cares what happens to those people?
 

DarthSlack

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Technarch

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It's difficult to keep your White Power supporters on board when you're killing white people on the streets. You can see they attempted to get away with it by painting both Good & Pretti in as negative a light as possible, but apparently it didn't work (this time).

So we'll get some walk backs and some fall guys, and probably an unofficial directive to be a little more careful with white people in the future, but little else will change.


Did not help when they started talking bad about 2nd amendment rights.
 
This is just Miller throwing his goons under the bus, though not really unless he hands the shooters over to the MPD.

I agree, but it is still a change from “absolute immunity” to this. Even if it’s throwing underlings under the bus, the perception of someone being shot in the back and the administration shouting “domestic terrorist brandishing guns” live on tv while the video clearly shows a different reality, is still a rollback, a chink in the armor and a humiliation IMHO.

In the end, let’s not forget people died totally needlessly. :(.
 
If they're smart they'll throw a couple of people under the bus.

Exiling Bovino immediately shifted the tone to how things are improving, despite that not being reflected by reality.

The media wants nothing more than to claim a scalp of Miller or Noem, declare THE POWER OF THE FOURTH ESTATE HAS SOLVED THE PROBLEM YET AGAIN, give each other a nice handie, and then go back to DC/NYC and pretend Minneapolis is a fictional setting again.


Scratch that, if it was a fictional setting they would care more. I would wager they have more desire to write about Westeros than Minneapolis.
 

Coppercloud

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If they're smart they'll throw a couple of people under the bus.

Exiling Bovino immediately shifted the tone to how things are improving, despite that not being reflected by reality.

The media wants nothing more than to claim a scalp of Miller or Noem, declare THE POWER OF THE FOURTH ESTATE HAS SOLVED THE PROBLEM YET AGAIN, give each other a nice handie, and then go back to DC/NYC and pretend Minneapolis is a fictional setting again.

Worse than just throwing a few people under the bus and declaring there has been much change while not actually changing anything is moving from the inner city to the burbs and greater MN where the population density is lower and people are less able to get out in larger numbers in neighborhoods so there is less monitoring, then claiming that they've reduced activity when they've just spread it out.
 

wrylachlan

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If they're smart they'll throw a couple of people under the bus.

Exiling Bovino immediately shifted the tone to how things are improving, despite that not being reflected by reality.
Ish. No matter how much Holman says “stay the course”, the other ICE goons will see their peers getting thrown under the bus and that will have some amount of restraining effect. So while I don’t expect the rampant profiling, dragging people out of their houses and other general shitbaggery to change, I would expect the average ICE officer to be a bit less hair-triggery.

And of course if I’m wrong and there’s another high profile killing of an innocent American AFTER the leadership of the Minneapolis push is changed, then I think the story gets that much stronger that it’s not an issue of leadership so much as the whole thing is a quagmire.
 

wrylachlan

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Worse than just throwing a few people under the bus and declaring there has been much change while not actually changing anything is moving from the inner city to the burbs and greater MN where the population density is lower and people are less able to get out in larger numbers in neighborhoods so there is less monitoring, then claiming that they've reduced activity when they've just spread it out.
The problem for them is that it’s harder to hit your quota when you’re in less population dense areas. And if you thought independents and (some) Republicans were repulsed by Americans killed in a city, wait till you hear the uproar if ICE kills someone in the suburbs!
 
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poochyena

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ramases

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In 2006 the British Army created an analysis of Operation Banner, the deployment to Northern Ireland in support of local police forces during the Troubles. For whatever reason many stories of police and other law enforcement shootings from the US, especially when this and this or that and that officer felt threatened enough to shoot despite further review questioning the necessity, remind me of the following section of the review:

842. [...] For example, the CO of the first unit to come under fire went to great lengths in his post-operational report to stress the need not to return fire until the firing point could be positively identified. As a result his battalion did not return fire until one hour and 40 minutes after the first round had been fired at it.
 

ramases

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Saw a video on this. Not sure on the implications of closing embassies/consulates are as I'm sure they're needed for citizens of those countries living in the US. So I struggle to say it'd be nice if they all just closed up. But if there's anything they can do to put pressure on the US for being colossal asshats with ice... man I think we'd appreciate it.

The problem isn't Ecuador; or, at least, not Ecuador alone.

Countries tend to really dislike violations of inviolability of consular premises under the Vienna Convention. Some countries host US embassies that don't like the intelligence gathering that is based out of them, or don't like the US as a matter of general principle, or both. However they all put up with it and respect the inviolability of US consulates because in return they get to do the same shit in the US, with the US playing along.

However, should the US decide to no longer want to honor this convention ... well, why should they continue to put up with the shit the US embassies and consulates do in their own countries?

It is hard to see what could be found inside that consulate that could ever be worth that risk to US intelligence gathering.
 

Gizmoh

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In 2006 the British Army created an analysis of Operation Banner, the deployment to Northern Ireland in support of local police forces during the Troubles. For whatever reason many stories of police and other law enforcement shootings from the US, especially when this and this or that and that officer felt threatened enough to shoot despite further review questioning the necessity, remind me of the following section of the review:
Yeah but the brits have their stiff upper lip to hold them together, ICE goons are threatened by a cellphone, imagine what seeing a gun did to them.
 

Matisaro

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Also I disagree with the notion that ridiculing them is effective. Trump and most of his sycophants and cronies have been the subject of ridicule for years and they are largely still here and still very much in power.

There is only 2 ways of dealing with a bully. You punch the bully or you make the bully the butt of everyone's jokes.
We do not have the capacity to punch our bully so jokes will have to do while we train with mr miyagi.
 

BigLan

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@Coppercloud they do provide very important services, one among them is issuing passports to their citizens when theirs expire.
They might be an exception, but UK passports are renewed online and processed in the UK rather than using the local Embassy/consulate.

I'm not even sure if the embassy in DC would do anything to help replace a lost passport or get an emergency travel document other than refer you to the website.
 

Matisaro

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In news not related to lecturing everyone how we're doing it wrong here's an article from the Minnesota Star tribune visualizing how detainees are shuffled around the country almost immediately upon arrest. The multiple moves appear designed by nature to ensure people get lost in the system until whatever time based limits to challenge their detention expire or the detainees just gives up rather continue to fight their arrest.
https://www.startribune.com/how-imm...ved-around-minnesota-and-the-nation/601542372

I am sure they have billed out the air travel to some "ally" of the admin too, run up a huge bill moving them place to place.
 
They might be an exception, but UK passports are renewed online and processed in the UK rather than using the local Embassy/consulate.

I'm not even sure if the embassy in DC would do anything to help replace a lost passport or get an emergency travel document other than refer you to the website.
My father-in-law recently went to the consulate in Seattle to have his expiring passport renewed, since his country of citizenship does not renew passports online. We also registered the birth of our daughters there so they would have dual citizenship. It is very helpful having the consulate nearby.
 

Megalodon

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There is only 2 ways of dealing with a bully. You punch the bully or you make the bully the butt of everyone's jokes.

The thing is the you actually have to be good at it and come at them from a perspective that matters to them. If Harris does it, it doesn't matter because she's not inculcated in the online culture they've all been brewing in. But when SomethingAwful-veteran god-tier shitposters do it it hits them where it hurts, particularly when the memes are successful enough to go viral on multiple platforms.

They wouldn't be ransacking people's phones in customs for JD Vance memes and banning people from the country if it didn't matter to them.
 

Crolis

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I think it’s important to consider the fact that we are winning this war. I’m a pessimist by trade but every single thing I’m reading is that Trump and his goons are in retreat. Is the war over? Unfortunately not even close however this should give people hope that despite the fact that the casualties have been on our side, they are in retreat. At this juncture at least standing up to ICE
is possible.

I realize this is from fiction and make fun of me if you want but to me it resonates.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this: Try.

Always remember that we are dealing with brittle cowards.
 

Megalodon

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I think it’s important to consider the fact that we are winning this war. I’m a pessimist by trade but every single thing I’m reading is that Trump and his goons are in retreat. Is the war over? Unfortunately not even close however this should give people hope that despite the fact that the casualties have been on our side, they are in retreat. At this juncture at least standing up to ICE
is possible.

The only thing I'm not optimistic about right now is that Dems, particularly Senate Dems, are scrambling to reach some sort of accommodation with the regime that avoids real reforms.