There is an undeclared civil war in America now. Trump and his administration have weaponized and mobilized the federal government in one initiative after another against people in the United States. Seeing himself as having unlimited powers and enabling his administration to ignore the law and deal brutally with opponents, whether protestors, citizen observers, or immigrants. It feels unbelievable to say this, but in the wake of one episode after another in Minneapolis, it is impossible to ignore that the administration is starting a civil war.

First, there was the killing of Renee Good, a white woman and mother, in her car. Now two weeks later, Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse for the Veterans Administration, also 37 years old, was murdered in cold blood by ICE agents shooting him ten times after they had restrained him while he was acting as a citizen observer, filming their activity. Trying to justify the bloodshed and murder, administration people have labeled simple protest and the people who were part of the community warning system and resistance as “domestic terrorists” in an attempt to rationalize their actions, rather than explain why they have empowered their agents to be so trigger happy. It’s the old Richard Pryor line where they are trying to demand that we believe them rather than “our lying eyes.”

The shooting incidents by ICE agents have not ended up in charges against DHS personnel. The administration has blocked any independent investigations which would normally be handled by local police and public safety authorities in cooperation with federal authorities. Claiming that the FBI was investigating the killings rings hollow when the supervisor of the local FBI office has now resigned after being blocked from doing so. This level of government sanctioned impunity made it inevitable that this would end in innocent deaths. How do we not understand that this is Iran, only distinguished by degree?

There are reports as well of Attorney General Bondi, who has the responsibility for the Justice Department and the FBI, trying to leverage this kind of aggressive and law-breaking immigration enforcement as a tool to attack state controls of voting records and privacy restrictions on welfare rolls and force state compliance. The administration seems to recognize no boundaries or limitations, whether legal, ethical, or moral. Even if they may not be instigating civil war; they seem to wear fascism like a glove.

Finally, the blood has provoked sufficient backlash, that forced Trump to take his eyes off Europe and Greenland, to pay attention to his government’s abuse. The ground commander is being cashiered out of Minneapolis. The head of Customs is now in charge. The president met with Kristi Noem and her chief deputy at Homeland Security for two hours, ostensibly about changing strategy. The President finally called Governor Walz, and both claimed the conversation was productive. The FBI has said they are looking at the bodycams and the administration has assured authorities that they are not destroying evidence. Republican senators including from Louisiana and Texas have asked for a change of tactics and investigations. Gun rights groups are up in arms, pardon the pun, about the administration having claimed that Pretti having a holstered gun was asking to be shot and represented a threat while exercising his hallowed Second Amendment rights. The hardcore anti-immigrant border bully, Texas Governor Abbott has called for a change in ICE tactics. Democrats are threatening to block funding for ICE without reform. The chief federal judge in Minnesota in frustration has summoned the acting head of ICE to a hearing on contempt for not having obeyed the judge’s orders to change their enforcement tactics.

These are reactions to the horror Americans are generally expressing in polling about their diminished confidence in the administration because of its actions in Minneapolis, but most of it is political posturing and maneuvering. This is a step back for sure, but that’s not the same as a change in policy or even an apology. This is perhaps a momentary cease fire, but not the full retreat that we need to demand in order to eliminate the specter of civil war in masked and armed agents, dead bodies, and children being captured and deported. The advocates of these policies and actions have to go. Kristi Noem and the FBI’s Patel need to be fired. Stephen Miller needs to be booted out of government. Change needs to be broad and deep. All of this has to be done before it’s too late to save the country and what’s left of our democracy.