The truth about ICE and the violence of illegal immigration
While social media feeds may currently be flooded with an onslaught of false empathy and virtue signaling, most celebrities or wino mom accounts fail to understand the gravity and seriousness of the immigration catastrophe in America
Opinion-editorial by Summer Lane | January 26, 2026
In 2024, 20-year-old Laken Riley was brutally murdered by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant. She had been out for a morning jog at the University of Georgia. Her life was abruptly and violently ended, devastating her family and friends.
Just a few months later, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray encountered two illegal aliens, both from Venezuela, who repeatedly raped her and then strangled her to death, leaving her body discarded in a shallow creek in Texas.
On January 16 in North Carolina, an illegal alien from Mexico drove a vehicle in Rowan County while impaired. He allegedly crossed a double yellow line and collided with another oncoming car, which killed 20-year-old Fletcher Harris and 19-year-old Skylar Provenza.
In December 2025, a criminal illegal alien driving under the influence caused a deadly collision in the San Diego, California, region. The crash caused the death of an innocent eight-year-old girl.
This month, ICE lodged detainers on three illegal aliens and MS-13 gang members accused of horrifically murdering a 14-year-old boy in College Park, Maryland. Gang members allegedly lured the boy to the park and murdered him last August.
Stories like these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the unmitigated and unthinkable savage violence unleashed upon the American people, thanks to the presence of illegal criminal aliens.
And yet, despite this avalanche of carnage unfolding around the country, the media – and soft-minded intellectual defuncts on social media – will cry crocodile tears over the deaths of anti-ICE agitators like Renee Nicole Good and supposed do-gooder Alex Pretti.
Minnesota operations
In Minnesota, ICE has been working overtime to lock up some of the absolute worst of the worst illegal criminal aliens on the ground. Last week, DHS announced the arrest of a slate of pedophiles, sex predators, and drug traffickers in Operation Metro Surge.
Federal agents are literally saving lives by removing these violent offenders from Minnesota, yet people treat ICE as if they are demonic spawn, encouraging violence and aggression against them.
According to the agency, car attacks have spiked over 3,200 percent against ICE officers since last year, and general attacks on ICE are up over 1,300 percent. “Violent rhetoric and radical left sanctuary city policies only embolden these dangerous actions, putting our ICE officers and agents at greater risk and undermining public safety,” the agency stated on social media.
Federal law enforcement is facing more extreme violence than ever before, simply for doing their jobs and protecting the American public from rapists, murderers, and human traffickers.
False empathy and virtue signaling
Over the weekend, social media exploded with a bevy of celebrities and influencers attempting to virtue-signal their distaste with ICE officers and immigration enforcement by condemning the ICE-related shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.
Pretti became involved in a heated confrontation with officers on the ground. He was carrying a gun, according to social media footage of the incident online. It’s unclear how Pretti got shot, but DHS Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a briefing that Pretti was indeed carrying a 9mm semi-automatic handgun when he approached Border Patrol agents.
“The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted,” she said in a statement. “Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots.”
There is controversy online about whether Pretti was shot after or before he was disarmed.
Regardless, as the situation unfolds, it begs the question as to why Pretti would approach U.S. Border Patrol officers while armed during federal law enforcement operations. What good could come of that?
While any death is a tragedy, it begs another question: where was the national outrage after Laken Riley was murdered? Where was the Instagram virtue signaling after Jocelyn Nungary was tortured, raped, and then strangled to death? Why didn’t influencers or celebrities use their voices to cry out for justice for the eight-year-old child who lost her life because an illegal alien was driving drunk on a California road?
There are no words pejorative enough to describe the depths of duplicity for this kind of hypocrisy. While the acting world and the influencer sphere rally to spit in the face of federal law enforcement, siding with illegal aliens who murder and rape children and women, there is one cardinal truth: this is about far more than simple politics.
A complex insurgency operation is unfolding in Minneapolis in terms of the rioters and agitators who are on the ground. White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Stephen Miller confirmed as much in early January.
He described Minneapolis as a hotbed for “a sophisticated insurgency involving a large number of radicalized, extremist, violent left-wing operators stoked by the Democrat Party.”
Famed undercover journalist James O’Keefe has been on the ground in Minneapolis, as well, and he also related the sophistication of the so-called “chaos” on the ground.
“I’ve interacted with the Cartel and have witnessed some crazy things in the desert in ‘24. But what strikes me is how organized these agitators in Minneapolis are,” he said. “They have spotters everywhere in the city and suburbs, on street corners, even 30 minutes away from downtown. They have people at hotels that work with them and signal to them which made it making it difficult for us to lose our tail once my cover was blown. Usually I lose a tail. Not this time. We switched locations THREE times.”
What’s happening in Minneapolis, and in other sanctuary states or cities, is dangerous. Joe Biden’s open border disaster was not a “disaster” at all. It was a carefully staged invasion effort meant to let loose criminals into the United States and weaken this country from within.
ICE officers and federal law enforcement are simply working to make communities safer. Still, unfortunately, the average low-information voter believes that immigration authorities are little more than the new Gestapo, deporting grandmothers clutching their knitting needles.
This is factually untrue when one examines the list of arrestees and deportations made available by the Department of Homeland Security.
But for many, this isn’t about the facts. It’s about the feeling of false empathy and the praise and adulation one accrues in the comments section when they purport to mourn the life of Alex Pretti or Renee Nicole Good.
These individuals are nowhere to be found when a child is murdered or a young woman is raped by an illegal criminal alien.
“They have created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border,” said Vice President J.D. Vance on Sunday, slamming Minnesota authorities for stoking the violence.
He added, “The solution is staring everyone in the face. I hope authorities in Minneapolis stop this madness.”
It is madness indeed, because Laken, Jocelyn, and so many others deserve the same righteous justice that these protesters are demanding for Alex Pretti.
Photo: Adobe Stock
