One feature of human nature is that if you give anyone unquestioned power over another human being, they will be strongly tempted to abuse it and become sadistic tormentors. This is true of parents, teachers, priests, nuns, boy scout leaders, military officers, you name it. The chances get even worse if the abusers have anonymity since the shame of exposure is removed, giving them an even greater sense freedom to exercise their vicious fantasies.

This is what we have been seeing with the ICE thugs. These people, many reportedly poorly-trained, poorly vetted, and ignorant, the kind of people who could not get proper jobs in regular life, have suddenly found themselves given powerful weaponry, allowed to wear masks and other disguises, cover themselves with body armor to prevent any harm to themselves, remove any identifying markers, and promised the full backing of the government so that they are free of fear of any repercussions for whatever they do. Is it any surprise that they have turned into roaming bands of goons who feel that they can harass and threaten ordinary people and even injure and kill them for little or no reason?

Since most people cannot fight back with equal levels of force, the public has resorted to the kind of resistance that is available to them, which is develop techniques using social media and even old-fashioned ones like whistles, to quickly gather en masse whenever and wherever ICE appears to document the abuses and to identify them. They also tag and follow their vehicles and create protests wherever they happen to be staying or eating, even preventing them from using gas-station restrooms. This has had the effect of turning much of public opinion against ICE

But perhaps the most potent weapon is the unmasking of ICE agents. One groups of Antifa activists, that used to expose neo-Nazis, has now shifted its focus to identifying the ICE thugs.

Last week a photographer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune filmed a border patrol agent approach a protester, lying prone in the street, and aim a canister of pepper spray at his eyes. The protester was already detained, three other agents pressing his body into the pavement, but the agent can nevertheless be seen spraying the orange chemical irritant, which causes excruciating pain, at point-blank range.

The agent probably thought he would enjoy anonymity for this bit of brutality. The federal police terrorizing Minneapolis remain largely nameless as they dole out horrifying – and in two cases, fatal – violence against anyone opposing Operation Metro Surge. But within two hours of the Star Tribune posting the footage to social media, a group called Pacific Antifascist Research Collective claimed to have identified him.

The collective – which days earlier promised in a post to “identify ICE terrorists until ICE’s campaign of terror is stopped and the armed thugs and their leadership are held accountable” – made flyers of the agent’s face for people to share online, or to print out and tape to telephone poles and buildings across Minneapolis.

“TYLER GRAMLIN”, screamed the text on the flyers in English, Spanish, Hmong, Somali and Tagalog. “SUSPECTED KIDNAPPER/TERRORIST”.

The Pacific Antifascist Research Collective did not publicly share the methods it used to identify Gramlin, but I know its research to be reliable. Its activists follow exacting editorial standards, a tendency born from the desire to be trusted by their communities; any missteps can destroy the credibility of the whole project. 
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A longtime antifa activist we’ll call Riley, whose real name they asked be withheld for their protection, is currently involved in researching the identities of ICE and CBP agents. Riley told me these agents often wear masks because they know most Americans “hate” the havoc they are wreaking across the country.

“They want to go about their lives and to enjoy life without being recognized as kidnappers and abusers in their community,” Riley said. “We identify ICE and DHS agents for the same reasons we identify any violent, dangerous people intent on doing harm. They have chosen to prey on the community.” [My emphasis-MS]
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“These traveling terrorists need a place to sleep,” Riley said of agents who send immigrants – some of them young children – to these centers, which experts have argued can reasonably be called concentration camps. “They need to get coffee, eat, go to the bathroom, go to the gym, get gas, rent a car like anyone else. Predators should not be able to enjoy anonymity.”
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“Antifa is not an organization,” Riley told me. “Antifascism is a natural response to state terror. Antifascist action belongs to the people. Anyone can do it.
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Riley, the antifascist, has a message for agents like Gramlin: you might feel invincible now, but the people are turning against you, and the people will win.

This effort has gone global, since the rest of the world is seeing what a hell-hole the US has become.

There is also ICE List, a website run by Dominick Skinner, a 32-year-old Irishman living in the Netherlands, which cobbles together tips about the identities of immigration agents. Skinner told the Irish Times he started the website after seeing the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, threaten to arrest Americans who identified ICE agents online. “So I just reshared that and said: ‘That’s cool, I’m not in the US – so send them to me and I’ll do it,’” Skinner told the paper. Skinner claims to have since received the names of ICE agents from bartenders who check their IDs, and from hotel workers where the agents check in as guests.

ProPublica has has also exposed the thugs who murdered Alex Pretti.

The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.
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Ochoa, who goes by Jesse, graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a degree in criminal justice, according to his ex-wife, Angelica Ochoa. A longtime resident of the Rio Grande Valley, Ochoa had for years dreamed of working for the Border Patrol and finally landed a job there, she said. By the time the couple split in 2021, he had become a gun enthusiast with about 25 rifles, pistols and shotguns, Angelica Ochoa said.

This is the kind of person attracted to ICE. Someone with a gun fixation who jumps at the chance to freely use them against people.

The Intercept reports that the thugs are also targeting journalists and other witesses who cover them, actively seeking them out and assaulting them.

LESS THAN 40 MINUTES after federal immigration agents shot and killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti on Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis, Clayton Kelly was thrown face-first onto the sidewalk, tasting snow and street grime as a federal agent’s knee drove into his back.

The incident, a video of which The Intercept reviewed and corroborated with an independent eyewitness, occurred not long after Kelly and his wife arrived in the area where Pretti was killed. With protesters amassing and agents from Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooding the area, the couple told The Intercept, they just wanted to observe the scene. 

“All of a sudden,” Kelly said, a federal agent “started running toward me, pointing and yelling, ‘That’s him. Get him.’” 
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An independent eyewitness who said they did not know Kelly or his wife said they were standing nearby when agents rushed Kelly, tackled him to the ground, and deployed pepper spray, corroborating Kelly’s account of the arrest. After Kelly and Ericson were gone, the witness remained near Nicollet Avenue as federal agents continued clearing the area.
Moments later, the witness said they were grabbed from behind, thrown to the pavement, and sprayed in the face. Medical records from Hennepin County Medical Center reviewed by The Intercept show the witness sustained a fractured shoulder. According to the documentation, the injury will require surgery and months of physical therapy.
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[Shauna Kieffer, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who is now representing Kelly] described instances in Minneapolis in which attorneys and civilian observers reported being followed by federal vehicles after monitoring immigration enforcement activity, and in some cases later saw federal agents parked outside their homes. One attorney shared video of ICE agents following him and parking outside his house with The Intercept.

In Kieffer’s view, the sheer number of people taken into custody while observing or documenting federal activity has made Minneapolis stand out.

Adam Conover says that these protest actions that we are witnessing in Minnesota, with the people fighting back in increasingly large numbers, are working. ICE CBP, DHS and Kristi Noem are lashing out because they know they are losing the battle for public opinion.