{"id":141202,"date":"2026-01-07T16:45:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T00:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/07\/ice-kills-a-woman-in-minneapolis-and-will-probably-get-away-with-it\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T16:45:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T00:45:58","slug":"ice-kills-a-woman-in-minneapolis-and-will-probably-get-away-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/07\/ice-kills-a-woman-in-minneapolis-and-will-probably-get-away-with-it\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE Kills A Woman In Minneapolis And Will Probably Get Away With It"},"content":{"rendered":"

This morning, ICE agents shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis. The agents, part of a Minnesota surge designed by the administration to harass the local Somali immigrant population and, by extension, keep media focus on a day care scandal that conservatives recently \u201cuncovered\u201d even though the mainstream media had covered the case for over a year<\/a>. This political theater has now cost a woman her life and, because \u201cbeing law enforcement means legally<\/em> never having to say you\u2019re sorry,\u201d there will likely be no consequences for this.<\/p>\n

Masked ICE officers approach a Honda Pilot stopped on Portland Avenue. The driver was a 37-year-old U.S. citizen working as a legal observer. She was not the target of any law enforcement investigation or activity<\/a>, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n

Video of the incident<\/a> shows one officer tell the driver to \u201cget out of the f*cking car\u201d and trying to open the door. Another seems to be ordering her to leave. The driver then backs up and as she drives away<\/em> from the officers, an officer fires three shots. The woman slumped over in her seat and was later pronounced dead at Hennepin Healthcare.<\/p>\n

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the woman \u201cweaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.\u201d Homeland Security Secretary and dog murderer<\/a> Kristi Noem called it \u201can act of domestic terrorism,\u201d a wild claim to make about a slowly departing SUV on the day after\u2026 JANUARY 6. The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mayor Jacob Frey, who had actually watched the video, described the DHS press spin succinctly. \u201cThat is bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right, not that it will end up mattering.<\/p>\n

It was also the inevitable result of a government lowering its standards to the bottom of the ocean<\/a> to arm any aspiring Dirty Harry with a pulse and a burning desire to harass and beat anyone based on race. They don\u2019t even have to pretend it\u2019s not just about race thanks to Brett Kavanaugh!<\/a> We\u2019ve been treated to video of ICE agents fumbling their guns and waving them at innocent bystanders<\/a> and running over people with their cars<\/a>. The agency has struggled so badly to meet Trump\u2019s hiring goals that it eliminated age requirements entirely (18-year-olds welcome!). Reports indicate that one-third of recruits at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center failed a modest physical fitness test. Half failed an open-book, open-notes test on immigration and constitutional law.<\/p>\n

Who fails an open-book, open-notes exam?<\/p>\n

The administration will make sure the man who killed this woman in cold-blood this morning won\u2019t face criminal prosecution. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says she\u2019s pushing for a local investigation. The FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are supposedly looking into it. But federal agents enjoy broad protections from state prosecution, and this<\/em> Justice Department under this<\/em> administration isn\u2019t exactly eager to hold ICE accountable for anything. <\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, Trump\u2019s post includes a video clip of the shooting where the ICE agent who is \u201chard to believe he is alive\u201d got up next to her car after backing up and beginning to go the other way<\/em>. It\u2019s in super-duper slow mo in order to obscure the fact that the car was inching forward when the agent was so grievously\u2026 near it. <\/p>\n

Yeah, Trump\u2019s going to give the guy a medal at his pardoning ceremony. Probably the Purple Bone Spur or something.<\/p>\n

But even a civil<\/em> effort to discourage dangerous \u2014 and in this case, deadly \u2014 incompetence or abuse must deal with qualified immunity, the court-invented doctrine shielding government officials from the law unless they violate \u201cclearly established\u201d constitutional rights. And if you\u2019re wondering what qualifies as \u201cclearly established,\u201d the answer is: basically nothing!<\/p>\n

Because the courts have come to a dangerously dystopian consensus that the law does not \u201cclearly establish\u201d rights if the exact<\/em> scenario of police misconduct has never been ruled on before\u2026 which means they can\u2019t rule on it now! It\u2019s a situation that Kafka would dismiss as too over-the-top.<\/p>\n

Courts have held that qualified immunity protects officers who arrested someone over satirical Facebook posts<\/a>. It protects officers who tased a man covered in gasoline, setting him on fire<\/a>. It protects officers who shot unarmed 10-year-olds in their front lawn while aiming for a \u201cnon-threatening\u201d dog<\/a>. All because no one had ever committed those precise abuses before.<\/p>\n

Qualified immunity also asks whether a \u201creasonable officer\u201d would have known their conduct was unlawful. But what counts as \u201creasonable\u201d for officers barely passing open book con law exams?<\/p>\n

So now you have a rapidly recruited and questionably vetted force, built off warlike recruiting pitches, promised cushy federal protections plus<\/em> a doctrine that says, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, you\u2019ll never face civil liability unless someone somewhere has already litigated a situation just like this one.\u201d Even if the agents didn\u2019t kill anyone today, this is a noxious combination that incentivizes reckless action \u2014 killing an innocent bystander was an inevitability.<\/p>\n

Usually, these cases deal with state law enforcement avoiding federal civil rights laws based on qualified immunity \u2014 a doctrine that stems from a clerical error<\/a>. As Cardozo Law professor Alexander Reinert uncovered<\/a>, the original text of Section 1983 \u2014 the civil rights statute at issue \u2014 specifically stated that officials couldn\u2019t hide behind any state common law protections for law enforcement. Which makes sense because what would be the point of a federal civil rights law, passed during Reconstruction, if it didn\u2019t supersede state law. But when someone compiled the federal statutes in 1874, they just\u2026 left that part out. Oops. <\/p>\n

Here we have a federal law enforcement officer killing a woman, so it should be<\/em> an easier question: of course the federal Congress who passed this law did not intend to render it inapplicable to the federal government. Yet, the Supreme Court went ahead and applied the whole rickety qualified immunity doctrine to federal agents. So here we are with a scriveners error creating a nonsense doctrine to protect state law enforcement that\u2019s now clumsily bolted onto federal agents. Not that Bivens<\/em> \u2014 the basis of a citizen\u2019s recourse against federal actors \u2014 has much juice left in it anyway, but that\u2019s another legal and moral failing of this Supreme Court. Based on what\u2019s been happening with Bivens<\/em>, it\u2019s arguable that victims have a better chance holding a state officer accountable.<\/p>\n

Congress could get rid of this protection for ICE agents \u2014 there was a bill to do just that last year<\/a> \u2014 but Congress has its hands full keeping the Epstein files from getting out.<\/p>\n

No one in a position to address this injustice will do anything about it. Because \u201claw and order\u201d politicians like their law enforcement unfettered by accountability. And so officers keep shooting and courts keep shrugging. Even while families have to bury their loved ones killed over this doctrine.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post ICE Kills A Woman In Minneapolis And Will Probably Get Away With It<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This morning, ICE agents shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis. The agents, part of a Minnesota surge designed by the administration to harass the local Somali immigrant population and, by extension, keep media focus on a day care scandal that conservatives recently \u201cuncovered\u201d even though the mainstream media had covered the case for over a year<\/a>. This political theater has now cost a woman her life and, because \u201cbeing law enforcement means legally<\/em> never having to say you\u2019re sorry,\u201d there will likely be no consequences for this.<\/p>\n

Masked ICE officers approach a Honda Pilot stopped on Portland Avenue. The driver was a 37-year-old U.S. citizen working as a legal observer. She was not the target of any law enforcement investigation or activity<\/a>, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n

Video of the incident<\/a> shows one officer tell the driver to \u201cget out of the f*cking car\u201d and trying to open the door. Another seems to be ordering her to leave. The driver then backs up and as she drives away<\/em> from the officers, an officer fires three shots. The woman slumped over in her seat and was later pronounced dead at Hennepin Healthcare.<\/p>\n

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the woman \u201cweaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.\u201d Homeland Security Secretary and dog murderer<\/a> Kristi Noem called it \u201can act of domestic terrorism,\u201d a wild claim to make about a slowly departing SUV on the day after\u2026 JANUARY 6. The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mayor Jacob Frey, who had actually watched the video, described the DHS press spin succinctly. \u201cThat is bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right, not that it will end up mattering.<\/p>\n

It was also the inevitable result of a government lowering its standards to the bottom of the ocean<\/a> to arm any aspiring Dirty Harry with a pulse and a burning desire to harass and beat anyone based on race. They don\u2019t even have to pretend it\u2019s not just about race thanks to Brett Kavanaugh!<\/a> We\u2019ve been treated to video of ICE agents fumbling their guns and waving them at innocent bystanders<\/a> and running over people with their cars<\/a>. The agency has struggled so badly to meet Trump\u2019s hiring goals that it eliminated age requirements entirely (18-year-olds welcome!). Reports indicate that one-third of recruits at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center failed a modest physical fitness test. Half failed an open-book, open-notes test on immigration and constitutional law.<\/p>\n

Who fails an open-book, open-notes exam?<\/p>\n

The administration will make sure the man who killed this woman in cold-blood this morning won\u2019t face criminal prosecution. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says she\u2019s pushing for a local investigation. The FBI and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are supposedly looking into it. But federal agents enjoy broad protections from state prosecution, and this<\/em> Justice Department under this<\/em> administration isn\u2019t exactly eager to hold ICE accountable for anything. <\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, Trump\u2019s post includes a video clip of the shooting where the ICE agent who is \u201chard to believe he is alive\u201d got up next to her car after backing up and beginning to go the other way<\/em>. It\u2019s in super-duper slow mo in order to obscure the fact that the car was inching forward when the agent was so grievously\u2026 near it. <\/p>\n

Yeah, Trump\u2019s going to give the guy a medal at his pardoning ceremony. Probably the Purple Bone Spur or something.<\/p>\n

But even a civil<\/em> effort to discourage dangerous \u2014 and in this case, deadly \u2014 incompetence or abuse must deal with qualified immunity, the court-invented doctrine shielding government officials from the law unless they violate \u201cclearly established\u201d constitutional rights. And if you\u2019re wondering what qualifies as \u201cclearly established,\u201d the answer is: basically nothing!<\/p>\n

Because the courts have come to a dangerously dystopian consensus that the law does not \u201cclearly establish\u201d rights if the exact<\/em> scenario of police misconduct has never been ruled on before\u2026 which means they can\u2019t rule on it now! It\u2019s a situation that Kafka would dismiss as too over-the-top.<\/p>\n

Courts have held that qualified immunity protects officers who arrested someone over satirical Facebook posts<\/a>. It protects officers who tased a man covered in gasoline, setting him on fire<\/a>. It protects officers who shot unarmed 10-year-olds in their front lawn while aiming for a \u201cnon-threatening\u201d dog<\/a>. All because no one had ever committed those precise abuses before.<\/p>\n

Qualified immunity also asks whether a \u201creasonable officer\u201d would have known their conduct was unlawful. But what counts as \u201creasonable\u201d for officers barely passing open book con law exams?<\/p>\n

So now you have a rapidly recruited and questionably vetted force, built off warlike recruiting pitches, promised cushy federal protections plus<\/em> a doctrine that says, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, you\u2019ll never face civil liability unless someone somewhere has already litigated a situation just like this one.\u201d Even if the agents didn\u2019t kill anyone today, this is a noxious combination that incentivizes reckless action \u2014 killing an innocent bystander was an inevitability.<\/p>\n

Usually, these cases deal with state law enforcement avoiding federal civil rights laws based on qualified immunity \u2014 a doctrine that stems from a clerical error<\/a>. As Cardozo Law professor Alexander Reinert uncovered<\/a>, the original text of Section 1983 \u2014 the civil rights statute at issue \u2014 specifically stated that officials couldn\u2019t hide behind any state common law protections for law enforcement. Which makes sense because what would be the point of a federal civil rights law, passed during Reconstruction, if it didn\u2019t supersede state law. But when someone compiled the federal statutes in 1874, they just\u2026 left that part out. Oops. <\/p>\n

Here we have a federal law enforcement officer killing a woman, so it should be<\/em> an easier question: of course the federal Congress who passed this law did not intend to render it inapplicable to the federal government. Yet, the Supreme Court went ahead and applied the whole rickety qualified immunity doctrine to federal agents. So here we are with a scriveners error creating a nonsense doctrine to protect state law enforcement that\u2019s now clumsily bolted onto federal agents. Not that Bivens<\/em> \u2014 the basis of a citizen\u2019s recourse against federal actors \u2014 has much juice left in it anyway, but that\u2019s another legal and moral failing of this Supreme Court. Based on what\u2019s been happening with Bivens<\/em>, it\u2019s arguable that victims have a better chance holding a state officer accountable.<\/p>\n

Congress could get rid of this protection for ICE agents \u2014 there was a bill to do just that last year<\/a> \u2014 but Congress has its hands full keeping the Epstein files from getting out.<\/p>\n

No one in a position to address this injustice will do anything about it. Because \u201claw and order\u201d politicians like their law enforcement unfettered by accountability. And so officers keep shooting and courts keep shrugging. Even while families have to bury their loved ones killed over this doctrine.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning, ICE agents shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis. The agents, part of a Minnesota surge designed by the administration to harass the local Somali immigrant population and, by extension, keep media focus on a day care scandal that conservatives recently \u201cuncovered\u201d even though the mainstream media had covered the case for over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Headshot-300x200-eyHM5k.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}