The White House wanted an ICE spectacle. It backfired.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/01/19/ice-immigration-enforcement-minneapolis-protests/

Donald Trump likes visual proof of his influence and legacy. In the business world, this meant putting his name on the towers he built (or selling his name to adorn some he didn’t) and making cameo appearances in movies filmed on his properties. In government, it has also meant putting his name on things, like the Kennedy Center and the TrumpRx website, which is supposed to connect patients to cheaper drug options.

According to a YouGov/Economist poll of U.S. adults, almost 70 percent of respondents say they have seen a video of Good’s shooting. In a poll conducted that day, a majority of Americans already thought ICE’s tactics were “too forceful.” Since the shooting, they say ICE is making the country less safe — 47 percent, compared with 34 percent saying more safe — and that they would support “abolishing ICE” altogether, 46 percent to 43 percent. This marks a fast and notable change: Last summer, just 27 percent of respondents supported abolishing the agency.

This is not a government strategy so much as it is a spectacle — one that has little to do with the president’s promise to deport violent criminals. The performance starts at the recruitment stage. “America has been invaded by criminals and predators. We need YOU to get them out” reads the current ICE sign-up page. “CHOOSE YOUR MISSION.” Deportation operations are being treated like a video game — one that comes with a signing bonus of up to $50,000, significantly scaled-back training and the federal government’s full backing.

Many Americans see something different. They see masked agents, armed to the hilt, demanding passersby provide proof of citizenship. That ICE agents are not supposed to target U.S. citizens no longer seems to matter. Agents appear emboldened, so much so that they are going door to door, car to car, abandoning both their remit and the law as they demand papers, please.

The closing of the southern border to illegal immigrants has been Trump’s great victory in the eyes of voters since he returned to office. Yet the more he shows off his deportation strategy, the more the public becomes wary. The president has succeeded in drawing national attention to what his federal forces are doing, and millions of Americans are horrified by what they see.