The Label “Domestic Terrorist”: How Security Rhetoric Justifies Force and Expands Control |
U.S. authorities are increasingly using the label “domestic terrorist” to justify lethal force, surveillance, and intimidation against protesters and civilians, particularly in clashes involving ICE.
Two U.S. citizens are dead, killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, and the official response has not been regret, restraint, or accountability—but branding the victims as “domestic terrorists.” We have heard all this before in American history dating back to the American Civil War; however, few have been paying close attention in recent generations. Times change, and so do labels, their implications, and how people react. The killing of civilians by federal agents is no longer a scandal but more a necessity. The body is barely cold before the narrative arrives, prepackaged and obedient, transforming the dead into real threats and the federal government, ICE, into both the innocent victim and the heroes of the hour.
Under Biden’s Justice Department, enforcement agencies were asked to investigate angry parents at PTA meetings as domestic terrorists; however, what is going on now with so-called “terrorist threats” in the US takes the proverbial cake. But there is method in madness. Those who show up at anti-ICE protests are having their pictures taken, and this information is allegedly entered into databases, and the claim is made that they will later flag them as potential domestic terrorists.
One exchange went like this, as captured by the news outlet, Reason:
“Because we have a nice little database, and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.” — a masked ICE agent telling a legal observer he was photographing her car for that reason.
The remark, delivered casually and without explanation, spread quickly online, making alarm bells go off among civil-liberties advocates. The question of what constitutes a “domestic terrorist” has become less an exercise in legal precision and more a mirror reflecting how the term is wielded — often to justify violence rather than describe it. I can relate, having been detained myself by ICE/HLS five years ago, upon arrival at a US airport as a native-born US citizen, just for publishing with the Russian media.
ICE is brewing up a perfect storm
In early January, Renée Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis........