I’m a writer who comes from an evangelical background that the New York Times once described as “evangelical royalty”—a world I fled, left, departed from, escaped from more than forty years ago. Ever since then, in books like my memoir Crazy for God, I’ve been warning that the evangelical far right, the Christian nationalist movement, and all the rest of them would eventually become the enemies of ordinary Americans, as they tried to establish a race-based, Christian nationalist, white movement in this country.
When I talked about this over the years, many people said, “Oh, well, this is extreme. This is exaggerated.” And I have one answer for you: Stephen Miller—and what’s going on with ICE. But I also have a question.
What happened to all those white, armed militia groups that, dating all the way back to Ruby Ridge and before, were supposedly going to defend ordinary Americans? Where are all these defenders of democracy who said the reason they owned guns—what gun manufacturers and the NRA kept drumming into all of us—was to protect our freedoms against an oppressive federal government?
Because now, in our streets—not just in Minneapolis, but all over the country—we have armed people who don’t wear name tags, who mask themselves, who wear sunglasses or other face coverings. They wear flak jackets. They carry military-grade weapons. They gas, arrest, beat, shoot, and lie about American citizens in ways that make Ruby Ridge look like a minor incident.
So I want to take a minute to talk about some facts.
The premise underpinning what I’ll call the Vance–Stephen Miller–Trump view of ICE is that it’s acting legally and in the service of legitimate immigration goals. Let me add something here. I personally think it was a huge mistake by leaders in this country—both Democratic and Republican—to have allowed a very lax, open border policy at our southern border. That needed to be tightened up. One of the reasons Trump was elected is that a lot of people agreed with him on that.
So far, so good.
But ICE’s assumption doesn’t square with what’s happening on the ground. They’re not defending the southern border. They’re not keeping it closed. They’re attacking Americans in American cities. That’s a completely different picture, and most Americans oppose this.
The shooting death of Renee Nicole Good is the most high-profile incident so far, but it’s not the only one. The Wall Street Journal found that the episode shares many characteristics with others. Agents all over the country have been boxing in vehicles, trying to remove individuals, blocking attempts to flee, and even using children as bait—sending kids to knock on their parents’ doors to lure people out for arrest. These tactics violate the law and basic law-enforcement principles followed by ordinary police and the FBI.
The New York Times reported on a couple driving home from a basketball game who were attacked with tear gas. The Associated Press found footage of agents brutalizing a man pinned to the ground. One man was choked to death, and ICE agents claimed he committed suicide. The autopsy says he was murdered. A group of local police chiefs reported that off-duty officers—Black policemen—were stopped with guns drawn solely because of their skin color. After a toy-store owner criticized ICE on television, agents raided his store and conducted an audit. Multiple attorneys say their clients are being held incommunicado, in plain violation of American law.
The Vance–Trump–Miller administration’s account of ICE actions has repeatedly proven to be outright lies—a “trust us, not your own eyes” strategy that’s now become the new normal.
In the Good case, the administration claimed she drove her car directly into an ICE agent, forcing him to shoot her multiple times. But multiple analyses of video footage, including by The New York Times, show that her car was steered away from the agent, and that the agent fired from a safe distance, even from the side, hitting her multiple times.
Just a week later, agents in Minneapolis shot a Venezuelan man in the leg. Again, the administration claimed he assaulted ICE agents with a deadly weapon. Again, the video evidence completely contradicted the claim.
Yet Miller, Vance, and Trump continue to stand by these lies.
One judge reviewing evidence of ICE’s misconduct concluded that ICE has made—and will continue to make—a common practice of conduct that chills observers’ and protesters’ First Amendment rights. Another judge wrote that Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino was “outright lying” under oath.
So why am I bringing this up—beyond the sheer horror of it all?
Because I want to ask: where are the right-wing armed defenders who said they were stockpiling weapons to protect our rights? Where are the people who said they needed guns to defend the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Amendments against tyranny?
The context behind all of this is a barely disguised desire to reverse the demographic changes of the last half-century. The Department of Homeland Security has shared white nationalist—not just Christian nationalist—memes. Trump has described countries like Somalia as filthy and disgusting, and its people as low-IQ. He’s done this for years.
Today, right-wing armed militias aren’t opposing ICE. Some of them want to join ICE.
They stormed the Capitol to keep their guy in office, claiming they were defending democracy because the election was “stolen.” But now there’s been a shift. They’re not standing up to ICE because their racial and Christian nationalist interests align with the Trump–Vance–Miller agenda.
These armed groups now see themselves as allies of federal law enforcement—not defenders of ordinary Americans. They’re on the side of the shooters, not the people being shot, even when that person is a white, middle-class mother of three.
That alignment tells us something crucial: they were lying all along.
Groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters claimed their mission was patriotic. The NRA said the same thing. Guns weren’t just about home defense—they were about protecting America from dictatorship, from federal tyranny.
Ruby Ridge and Waco radicalized these movements. They rallied around Randy Weaver. They claimed firearms were necessary to stop exactly this kind of federal abuse.
But now, pro-ICE militias are becoming the norm. New groups are forming to “defend” ICE from ordinary Americans. In Maine, a group calling itself the Pine Guard says it exists to counter “far-left socialists”—which now apparently means anyone who doesn’t think ICE agents should shoot people in the face or arrest five-year-olds.
Right-wing figures embed with ICE to create propaganda videos. Armed groups act as auxiliary surveillance for federal agents. Instead of confronting tyranny, they’re enforcing it.
And let me say again: I supported closing the southern border. That needed to happen. But this is not about border enforcement. This is about ICE invading our neighborhoods, smashing windows, hauling people out of cars and homes, and intimidating anyone who protests.
These gun-rights advocates have betrayed everything they claimed to stand for over the last fifty years. They are now openly on the side of the oppressor.
How long before they join in the killing?
Stephen Miller has told ICE agents they have immunity. He said it publicly on Fox News, and the Department of Homeland Security shared it on their official account. That makes it official U.S. government policy.
He said no city official, no state official, no “leftist agitator,” no one can stop ICE. Anyone who opposes them is now a domestic insurrectionist. Anyone filming abuse, bearing witness, or objecting to murder is the enemy.
Miller went further. He said elected officials who oppose ICE could face prosecution for criminal conspiracy against the United States. That’s anyone who isn’t on Trump’s side.
And the armed right-wing groups have chosen their side.
They say they defend America by helping carry out Miller’s wishes—based on racism, xenophobia, lies, and fear. Not closing the border, but arresting children and shooting women in the face.
If you oppose this, you’re the insurrectionist.
All that’s missing now is the fascist salute.
And in case this doesn’t play well politically, Vance has reportedly secured renewed financial backing from Elon Musk to tilt the midterms. Intimidation in the streets. Money at the top. Lies everywhere.
The armed militias who claimed their entire purpose was to stop this kind of federal violence are nowhere to be found—because they are the federal agents now.
