Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said that the Tennessee Democratic Party’s expletive-laden social media post attacking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is not an isolated outburst, but part of a broader political narrative that encourages resistance to federal immigration enforcement.
On Wednesday, hours after 37-year old Renee Nicole Good struck an ICE agent with her car in Minneapolis and was fatally shot while trying to flee arrest, the Tennessee Democratic Party posted on social media, “ICE shot and killed a woman today. Plain and simple, no matter how Trump & Republicans try to spin it.”
“This doesn’t make our communities safer. From Minneapolis to TN, the federal government under Trump’s command is provoking chaos & violence in our towns, cities, & communities,” the party added, in addition to a photo of text that says, “We want to make one thing crystal clear: F*** ICE.”
By portraying ICE actions as inherently violent and illegitimate, Pappert said such statements help normalize hostility toward agents carrying out lawful duties and signal approval for defiance rather than cooperation with federal law.
“This is a phenomenon that seems to be emerging in every city in the country,” Pappert said on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
He contended that such rhetoric aligns closely with sanctuary-city policies, particularly in Minneapolis, where local law enforcement is instructed not to cooperate with ICE.
“Minneapolis is one of these sanctuaries where local law enforcement does not cooperate with ICE in any way, shape or form, so that means that if a violent criminal is arrested and they are found out to be an illegal immigrant, but a magistrate judge wants to give them bond, they’ll go ahead and release that person even if the federal government is saying we need to get this person out of the country,” Pappert explained.
As a result, Pappert explained how federal agents are forced to operate alone, without police support, even when targeting individuals accused of serious crimes. He emphasized that this isolation increases risk and instability during enforcement operations, as seen on Wednesday as ICE agents were confronted by activists who blocked their path.
“Yesterday, everything that we saw happened because ICE was on their own. They didn’t have local police or sheriffs escorting them through the city. One of their vehicles got stuck in the snow, they had to exit the vehicle and push it out by hand, and while this happened, a group of…rioters parked their vehicles to block the ice vehicles,” Pappert said.
“That, in my mind, is all downstream from the police refusing to assist federal law enforcement when it comes to immigration,” he added.
Pappert further argued that the incident reflects an emerging nationwide strategy as groups such as the Immigration Defense Network, he noted, conduct trainings, operate hotlines, and mobilize rapid-response activists to interfere with ICE operations.
He pointed to similar organizations in cities like Memphis as evidence that this model is spreading across the country.
“It stands to reason…that someone somewhere, whether it’s this group or another one, is telling these, frankly, middle-aged women without much else to do with their lives to go out and obstruct law enforcement,” Pappert said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
