Watch the ICE Panic Melt in Real Time

I called it on November 7, 2025, when the Panicans were losing their minds over the push to nuke the filibuster during the Democrat-caused shutdown fiasco. President Trump urged Senate Republicans to scrap the 60-vote rule and force through DHS funding and ACA fixes past Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s blockade. Weak sisters wrung their hands, warned of permanent damage, and begged for restraint. I said the Democrats were overreaching, they would cave first, and the base would stand firm. By mid-November, eight Senate Democrats crossed over, the longest shutdown in history ended on our terms, and the “Schumer Shutdown” label stuck. The Panicans looked gutless. History doesn’t rhyme-it repeats. I was right then, and I’m right now.

Monday, the conventional wisdom will roll in hard: Operation Metro Surge is a federal disaster. ICE and Border Patrol agents cast as trigger-happy stormtroopers, gunning down innocents like ICU nurse Alex Pretti and Renée Good, zip-tying children, hauling elderly people out in freezing weather, terrorizing communities, triggering a general strike, business closures, and protests turning the Twin Cities into a war zone. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are portrayed as the brave defenders of the vulnerable, Representative Ro Khanna and the progressive squad puff up with defund demands, and even some Republicans hedge.

Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) calls the Pretti shooting “incredibly disturbing” and says ICE’s credibility is “at stake.” Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt tells CNN that Trump is getting “bad advice” and questions whether the goal is just deporting every non-citizen. It’s all optics panic and media-fueled hysteria stoking swing-voter anxiety engineered to force a pullback. The narrative leans heavily on viral videos of confrontations, memorials at shooting sites, and claims of indiscriminate raids that scoop up non-criminals and even U.S. citizens. Outlets amplify stories of community trauma-schoolchildren scared, businesses shuttered in solidarity, thousands marching in sub-zero cold-framing the surge as a human rights catastrophe rather than targeted enforcement.

Exhibit A: The New York Post editorial from Sunday, “What Trump’s next move needs to be in Minneapolis.” Textbook Panicanism. They support the mission-targeting the “worst of the worst” criminals and fraudsters in a state soaked in corruption and sanctuary policies. No backing away from deporting criminal aliens; they call it essential law-and-order enforcement amid Minnesota’s documented issues with fraud networks and non-cooperation from local authorities. But then they go soft. The “scenes” are “horrifying” for swing voters-Hispanics and independents recoiling at U.S. citizens dying at federal agents’ hands. Viral videos risk manufacturing more “martyrs” for cynical Democrats. Skip the Insurrection Act-it would “backfire even worse.” Urge de-escalation, tone down the combative messaging, and push an “impartial investigation” the “broad center” can accept-not Governor Walz’s one-sided inquisition. Even a reliably pro-Trump outlet swallows the Democrat-pushed martyr narrative, amplifies the very images designed to incite outrage and sedition-lite, and hedges with calls to “change course.” Classic weak sister behavior, prioritizing perceived optics over the underlying facts.

This narrative collapses quickly. Tall boots are required-the bullshit drains faster than a Panican under scrutiny.

First, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law in mid-2025, locked in massive supplemental funding for ICE through September 30, 2029-over $75 billion in multi-year dollars for enforcement, detention, hiring, and operations (with some estimates putting ICE’s total enhanced allocation closer to $100 billion by decade’s end when including related provisions). Democrats puffed up Saturday with shutdown threats over annual DHS appropriations to stop the surge. Then the facts landed: ICE operations continue uninterrupted on OBBBA money, which isn’t subject to yearly appropriations fights. A lapse would cripple TSA at airports, FEMA disaster response, and the Coast Guard-right in the middle of a catastrophic winter storm burying half the country from Texas to New England in heavy snow, sleet, freezing rain, and ice accumulations that threaten power outages, travel paralysis, and emergencies across millions. Turning off federal aid while people freeze, roads ice over, and power grids strain? Political suicide for Democrats. The bluff died in a day. No defunding. No halt. The leverage they thought they had simply doesn’t exist.

Second, journalist Cam Higby’s Signal chat infiltration is the kill shot. Leaks from “MN ICE Watch” groups-networks of 200–300 members-expose organized doxxing of federal agents, license-plate tracking, real-time tailing of vehicles, harassment patrols, and coordinated ambush responses to ICE actions. High-profile names appear in the chats: Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan participating directly, Walz campaign strategist Amanda Koehler driving much of the organizational effort, and other local Democrats contributing to building databases intended for future “prosecutions” or harassment of agents. Alex Pretti wasn’t an innocent bystander caught in crossfire-he was active in these obstruction networks, tracking federal movements and likely participating in the kind of interference that escalated confrontations. The same dynamics almost certainly apply to Renée Good. This inverts the entire story: Not heroic community resistance to unprovoked brutality, but state-level coordination of interference that turned routine enforcement into fatal standoffs. DOJ probes for obstruction of justice, potential sedition, or even RICO-level organized activity become far more plausible. The so-called “martyrs” were participants in the chaos Democratic leaders helped orchestrate, not random victims of rogue agents.

Third, the ground truth undercuts the hysteria. DHS and ICE consistently emphasize that the surge targets criminal aliens-murderers, child abusers, rapists, drug traffickers, repeat deportees, and those with serious violent records. Early arrest data from the operation, which has netted thousands nationwide and hundreds in Minnesota, shows the overwhelming majority fit that profile, not families or low-level offenders swept up indiscriminately. Bodycam footage, when released, will reveal split-second decisions amid threats and non-compliance, not premeditated executions. The protest and “general strike” hype will deflate under real economic pressure as businesses reopen, schools resume without verified widespread trauma, and the cold reality of winter sets in. Viral outrage fades when detailed breakdowns arrive-arrest stats, investigative timelines, and witness corroboration that complicate the simple “brutality” storyline.

The Panicans-Senator Bill Cassidy, Governor Kevin Stitt, the New York Post editorial board-will hedge under the pressure (“disturbing,” “optics are killing us,” “we need probes”), then pivot or disappear when reality sets in: “See? We called for investigation-accountability delivered!” The base sees folding while Trump delivers on deporting criminal illegal aliens (polls consistently show 60%+ public support for removing those with serious convictions). They don’t have the sand to stay the course when media heat turns up.

I was right on the filibuster bluff. I’m right on ICE. The pattern is clear: Democrat overreach backfires spectacularly, manufactured hysteria peaks with viral images and selective framing, Panicans fold at the first sign of trouble, and truth cuts through the lies. Expect retractions, buried corrections, and narrative pivots in days-not weeks-as leaks spread, footage drops, and probes advance. Stock those tall boots. The flood recedes fast, and the weak sisters are left standing in the muck. Stay the course. No retreat on rule of law. Stay the course. America first.