At this point, you may think you know everything you need to know in the wake of ICE Agent Jonathan Ross’s murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on January 7th. But I’ve uncovered information which paints a startling picture.
Connecting the dots
-•-•- Self-defense
Video evidence shows Ross walking counter-clockwise around Good’s vehicle before the shooting, in close proximity. As he moves to the front driver’s-side corner, Good turns her wheels toward the passenger side to leave the area. Ross appears to be in the path of the car for a moment before shooting Good.
“Not walking close to cars and only approaching from the side is a forty-year-old concept in law enforcement,” states Jenn Budd, whom I interviewed for this article. Budd is a former senior Border Patrol agent and the author of the book “Against the Wall”. She continued, “[That] tells me he had no fear for his life in that moment.”
Forensic video analysis from The Washington Post and The New York Times shows that Ross was NOT in the path of Good’s car when he fired all three shots.
For context, in 2014, an internal review of Border Patrol (BP) showed that border agents intentionally stepped in front of moving vehicles to justify shooting the driver and declaring self-defense. Ross served in Border Patrol (BP) from 2007–2015 before joining ICE. This is not an indictment but does raise questions.
-•-•- Agent injury
DHS claimed Ross was hit by Good’s vehicle and suffered internal bleeding – yet a fraction of a second later, he was able to fire three rounds at Good. To date, video evidence has not established Good’s vehicle made contact with Ross, who left the scene with no signs of injury. Skeptics state that “internal bleeding” is vague terminology indicating injuries ranging from a bruise to organ damage – requiring a hospital stay. To date, there has been no confirmed evidence of Ross’s injuries.
-•-•- Physician aid
ICE agents did not offer medical aid to Good. Minnesota’s Good Samaritan Law includes a “Duty to Assist” clause, requiring physicians to offer emergency aid. A physician at the scene pleaded to attend to Good; ICE agents refused, stating their medics were on the way – but witnesses saw no medics until six long minutes later.
Preserving human life supersedes securing a scene and preserving evidence. Apparent danger was over; and medics moved Good to the sidewalk to administer CPR. She had one bullet wound through her arm, possibly a defensive wound, as the bullet also contacted her head near her left ear, and two entry wounds near her right shoulder. Good still had a pulse.
-•-•- Motive
Video evidence from Ross’s phone shows Good cheerfully state, “I’m not mad at you.” But within less than a minute, Ross fires three fatal shots. Within seconds of murdering Good, Ross mutters, “Fucking bitch.”
Attorney and author of “Qualified,” Shari Dunn, explains that Ross’s post-shooting words are, in legal terms, an “excited utterance,” or words that a perpetrator utters before internal censorship, thus more likely to indicate motive. “The first thing out of his mouth tells us WHY he did what he did,” says Dunn. “He killed her because she was a ‘fucking bitch,’” not because he feared for his life.
-•-•- Law
Budd clarified during my interview that DHS oversees three immigration-enforcement agencies:
- CBP (Customs & Border Protection) handles ports of entry;
- BP (a subset of CBP) manages the area within the 100-Mile Border Zone (100-MBZ);
- ICE manages the entire country.
Unfortunately, the 100-MBZ expands agents’ powers, like reducing the 4th Amendment requisites for unreasonable search and seizure; and Minneapolis is in this zone – even though it is 150 air miles from a sea port. But videos show agents ignoring even limited constitutional rights with impunity.
Eyewitnesses state that Good was given conflicting instructions by ICE agents: Get out of the car! and Get out of the way! Legally, Good did NOT have to comply with the order to leave her vehicle, unless the agent had “reasonable suspicion” Good was the subject of their operation, a judicial warrant, or witnessed her committing a felony.
Moreover, it is NOT illegal to warn others of agents’ presence, says Budd, as long as they do not impede their work. Plus, CBP/ICE is not law enforcement: “ICE does not have the authority to stop, detain, or arrest U.S. citizens for traffic violations,” she adds.
-•-•- ICE culture and rules
CBP/BP/ICE training and culture are highly intertwined; the Trump administration replaced nearly half of ICE leadership with people from BP, an agency the ACLU characterizes as a “culture of cruelty” with “abusive, unconstitutional conduct.” Greg Bovino had been a senior officer for BP and is now “Commander-at-Large” for ICE and BP; he is seen endorsing brutality in bystander videos; he has encouraged excessive force against protesters.
The Southern Border Communities Coalition describes this same culture of violence. Melissa del Bosque, author of “Bloodlines“ and border journalist, explains that agents are trained as paramilitary, not law enforcement. “They’re trained like soldiers to kill and NOT to interact with U.S. citizens, and not to be under the same restraints and training that police officers are under,” del Bosque says. “There’s no oversight, and they’re pretending like they’re in a war zone. And now we’re seeing that unleashed in the interior of the country.”
The Trump Regime has unofficially set immigrant arrest quotas to 3,000 per day. And the 2025 OBBB Act massively increased immigration-enforcement agencies’ budgets. Thus ICE is recruiting at a breakneck pace, often foregoing basic screenings and background checks. Budd reports that BP has routinely hired people with criminal records.
Interestingly, Budd notes that these agencies embody not only a white supremacist component (of course) but also a Christian Nationalist component, in both recruitment and culture. The Bible passage Isaiah 6:8 is ubiquitous, with a recruitment video on Bovino’s Facebook page showing him alongside agents, while a narrator reads then interprets the passage, conflated to mean that agents should accept the calling to do God’s work. Border churches laud agents as heroes, compounding an above-the-law mentality.
To increase deployment numbers, training has been cut approximately in half, from 5 months to 2, with some recruits insufficiently trained. Ross, however, is an experienced agent and trainer; but he did NOT follow basic protocols, says Michael Fanone, former DC Metro Police officer and January 6 survivor, like filming with his cell phone because it “put him at a tactical disadvantage.” “Regardless of whatever police department or federal agency you’re a part of,” Fanone asserts, “your first rule is to de-escalate the situation whenever possible.”
Fanone refers to CBP/ICE regulations: Deadly force may not be used to prevent the fleeing of a suspect. Also, a firearm cannot be discharged at a moving vehicle, unless the occupant is threatening deadly force by other means than the vehicle, like brandishing a weapon.
An injured driver or damaged vehicle creates an unpredictable moving threat to officers and bystanders. After Good was shot, her vehicle accelerated down the street, smashing into a car and pole.
“Currently the majority of people being apprehended have committed only a civil immigration infraction,” emphasizes Budd, “but we are treating them as enemy combatants and deporting them with no hearings.”
-•-•- The investigation
Following Good’s murder, Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) stated it would coordinate with the FBI on the investigation. Shortly after, DHS announced that the FBI would take over and not share evidence. But within days, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division announced they were closing the investigation into Ross, instead focusing upon Renee and wife Rebecca Good. Seven personnel resigned in protest.
Fortunately, Minnesota’s AG Keith Ellison states that there is no statute of limitations on murder. Nor is their “absolute immunity” for ICE agents, says Harvard Law professor Noah Feldman. The obstacle is MN BCA’s inability to access evidence.
Typically the feds cooperate with state and local law enforcement, says Fanone, because they have deep expertise, raising public confidence. But immediately following the shooting, evidence collection became complicated. Officers/agents involved in a crime should be tested for drugs/alcohol, asserts Budd, although that isn't standard practice; however, witnesses would be questioned. Instead, DHS exonerated Ross and gave no information about testing; and ICE got into a violent altercation with protesters. Local law enforcement arrived and forced ICE to leave; agents sprayed chemical agents while departing, forcing witnesses to leave.
Budd sees a familiar pattern: BP’s culture of cover-ups. BP has a long history of agent corruption and criminal activity. But when it comes to murder, no agent has been successfully prosecuted for on-duty murder in over a century, reports Budd. During one period, groups tasked with destroying or contaminating evidence were dubbed “Critical Incident Teams.” Although they were disbanded, there is evidence and concern that the practice continues.
Budd began hearing reports of CBP/ICE ramming vehicles, then saying that suspects rammed agents’ vehicles. In October, 2025, BP agent Charles Exum accused Marimar Martinez of ramming his vehicle, before he shot her five times; she survived, and video evidence shows Exum sideswiping Martinez. After reviewing evidence, a federal judge dropped charges against Martinez. Exum’s vehicle was repaired by a CBP mechanic, after the FBI released it; Martinez’s attorney accused CBP of altering evidence.
Now Rodney Scott, who was involved in previous BP cover-ups, is head of CBP. Budd and Scott are cited in HBO’s 2025 documentary, “Critical Incident.”
-•-•- Domestic terrorists
Budd asked herself, “What changed? Why has ICE started shooting at people...?” The answer slipped under many people’s radar: Trump’s September 2025 Presidential Memorandum (PM) “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” Note the term “organized” furthers Trump’s narrative about protestors.
Budd explains that this PM defines who federal agents should consider “domestic terrorists,” including people who demonstrate: anti-fascism, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.
So, this tells CBP/ICE that “those [people] are your enemies. Those are now domestic terrorists ... and that’s why they feel emboldened,” Budd explains. Plus, anyone who follows, taunts, or protests their actions is considered a domestic terrorist. Del Bosque articulates that this presidential memo “essentially lists Constitutional rights to protest and monitor government actions as domestic terrorism.”
-•-•- White House insider
Lev Parnas, author of “Shadow Diplomacy,” reveals that an inside source witnessed the Trump administration express disbelief and outrage ― not because a white woman was killed, a mother of three was dead, nor the country was hurting ― but because it would be harder to spin, because it didn’t fit their narrative that immigrants, that black and brown people, are the real threat.
They didn’t discuss American citizens, nor accountability, nor Unity, says Parnas. Instead, they openly discussed a plan to manufacture fear and outrage, to steer the narrative toward chaos. They want riots and violence – because that gives them permission to justify emergency powers. “Chaos is how they convince Americans to trade freedom for order,” Parnas says.
-•-•- Escalation
Approximately 2,000 ICE agents had been deployed to Minneapolis. After Good’s murder, VP Vance incorrectly stated that ICE agents have “absolute immunity,” plus Trump deployed another 1,000 agents to the area, further escalating tensions and violence. Video accounts show ICE verbally and physically assaulting citizens and non-citizens, smashing car windows with impunity, and using chemical agents and flash bombs without cause – violating constitutional rights. Agents use Good’s murder as a threat: Didn’t you learn from what just happened?
Trump called protesters insurrectionists and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which increases military presence and gives troops authority to conduct law enforcement and quell civil disobedience.
-•-•- Fascism
For the first time in her six years of writing her non-partisan newsletter, “Letters From an American,” Boston college history professor and author Dr. Heather Cox Richardson declares, “I identified this week as the week that the United States government formally embraced Fascism. ... The shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota, and crucially ... the attempt by the government to gaslight us all by suggesting that SHE was the aggressor … It’s unbelievably dangerous ...”
The Riddle
So, in light of all the above, here is the riddle:
WHO are the actual domestic terrorists?
--30--
Thoughts on this? Leave them in the comments below.
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