Homeland Security Gestapo agents declare open season on legal gun owners

The United States Department of Homeland Security has declared open hunting season on legal gun owners, who are now routinely labeled domestic terrorists without justification—a designation that has cost two Americans their lives and left a third permanently wounded, unable to close her hand or cross her legs without pain.

All were citizens. All were legally armed or unarmed. And all were shot by federal agents acting with the full backing of the Trump administration.

The first shot was fired in Chicago on Oct. 4. Marimar Martinez, a 31-year-old Latina and American citizen, was driving in the Brighton Park neighborhood when she encountered a convoy of federal agents.

She did what many locals have done: she honked her horn and yelled “la migra” to warn others. When she pulled her Nissan Rogue alongside a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum, the vehicles made contact.

What happened next, according to newly released evidence, was a lie told by the federal government and repeated from the chain of command all the way to the White House.

DHS initially claimed Martinez “rammed” the federal vehicle.

Body camera footage and diagrams released by the U.S. Attorney’s office tell a different story. Audio from the scene captures agents in the Tahoe saying, “It’s time to be aggressive” and “We’re going to make contact.”

Exum appears to turn his wheel into Martinez’s car. After the collision, Exum exited his vehicle and fired five shots into Martinez’s car.

“I fired five rounds, and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys,” Exum texted a friend the next day, bragging about the shooting. Hours after the shooting, his superiors offered to extend his retirement “in light of [his] excellent service in Chicago.” Martinez survived, but just barely.

Months later, she remains in constant pain. The bullets shattered bones and tore through muscle and nerve. She cannot close her right hand. She cannot cross her legs. Simple tasks—writing, driving, sitting comfortably—are now measured against the memory of Agent Exum’s service weapon.

Her lawyers are pursuing damages from the federal government, but no amount of money will restore what was taken on that October afternoon.

The federal government initially charged her with assault, then dropped the case in November. But to this day, officials continue to refer to her as a domestic terrorist. Her case now stands as the opening chapter in a growing list of violent encounters with federal immigration agents.

Just over three months later, the rhetoric turned lethal again.

On Jan. 7 in Minneapolis, Renee Good, a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, was sitting in her Honda Pilot when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed the area.

Frightened when agents approached to open her door, Good attempted to drive away. An agent opened fire, striking her multiple times, including a fatal shot to the head.

The agent claimed self-defense, saying he feared Good would run him over with her vehicle. But newly released 911 transcripts and incident reports from Minneapolis police show that Good was unarmed, and the “weapon” she allegedly wielded was her car—a claim that local officials have vehemently disputed. The shooting marked the first recorded homicide in Minneapolis for the year 2026. White House officials nonetheless described the killing as justified and labeled Good an insurgent.

The bloodshed continued on Jan. 24.

Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was recording federal agents on his cellphone as they conducted an enforcement operation. According to his family and video footage of the incident, Pretti was attempting to protect two women who were being shoved by agents. At no point did he display his legally owned handgun, which was holstered and concealed.

Agents pepper-sprayed him, wrestled him to the ground, and beat him. During the scuffle, they took his holstered pistol. Then they shot him dead.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement claiming Pretti “approached officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun” and “violently persisted” in resisting arrest. Video evidence contradicts this entirely. Pretti can be seen holding his phone in one hand, his other hand raised, as he is swarmed by agents. His parents issued a blistering statement rejecting the “sickening lies” told by the administration, calling the agents “Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.”

Despite the evidence, a former federal prosecutor appearing on Fox News dismissed Pretti’s death as “essentially a suicide by cop type of scenario,” arguing that resisting federal agents is a “death wish.” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin went further, suggesting Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

No evidence supports that claim. Pretti was a nurse. He cared for veterans. He had no criminal record.

What connects these three shootings is not just the violence, but the label. Marimar Martinez, Renee Good, and Alex Jeffrey Pretti have all been officially designated by the Trump administration as domestic terrorists or insurgents without justification. This classification is not incidental. It fits squarely within a federal framework that critics say has deliberately expanded the definition of terrorism to include legal gun owners and political dissenters.

A declassified 2021 Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism, released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in April 2025, reveals a multi-agency strategy to monitor and disrupt threats—including “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism.” But the plan conspicuously omits mention of gangs, cartels, or organized crime, focusing instead on behavioral indicators that civil liberties advocates argue can easily be applied to lawful gun owners and military veterans.

The document explicitly calls for actions against “non-criminal behavior,” including the use of extreme risk protection orders, bans on assault weapons, and enhanced surveillance of “disinformation.” In practice, critics say, this has created a permission structure for federal agents to treat legally armed citizens as presumptive threats.

In Chicago, Agent Exum texted a friend after shooting Martinez: “I’m up for another round of ‘f—k around and find out.'” The friend responded with a redacted message. Exum replied: “lmfao.”

In Minneapolis, the Jackson family found themselves caught in the crossfire of a protest following Pretti’s killing. Surrounded by federal agents, their car was rocked by a concussive blast that set off the airbags and left them gasping for air as tear gas filled the vehicle. Their 6-month-old baby briefly stopped breathing.

Gov. Tim Walz has activated the Minnesota National Guard. Mayor Jacob Frey has demanded federal agents leave the city. And the families of the dead are filing federal tort claims against the Department of Homeland Security. Martinez’s lawyers are pursuing a separate claim for damages, seeking accountability for a shooting that left a teacher permanently disabled.

But the administration shows no sign of retreat. And the reason is sitting in the United States Senate.

This week, as the Department of Homeland Security hurtled toward a funding deadline, Democrats in the Senate had leverage. They could have demanded real accountability—warrant requirements, body cameras, an end to masked agents operating without identification, a ban on racial profiling, prohibitions on enforcement at schools and hospitals . They could have used the power of the purse to force the administration to answer for the blood of citizens spilled in the streets.

Instead, they blocked a funding bill, then went home for recess .

The vote was 52-47, with nearly all Democrats opposed . They issued statements demanding “common-sense reforms” . They declared they would not support a “blank check for chaos” . They rejected a White House counteroffer as “unserious” and “half-measures” . And then they left Washington, all but guaranteeing a partial shutdown that will have little effect on the very agency they claim to want to rein in .

Because here is the truth they will not speak aloud: Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection will keep operating even without a funding bill. Congress handed them a $75 billion cash infusion last summer . The agents who shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti will continue to be paid. The body cameras Democrats demand remain optional. The masks stay on. The roving patrols continue.

What Democrats have done, in the end, is nothing. They have staged a fight they cannot win, demanded reforms they cannot enforce, and then boarded planes for a weeklong recess while the Department of Homeland Security continues its work. The administration sees this. It knows the opposition is performative. It knows there is no price to pay. And so it shows no sign of retreat.

President Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has described the protests as an “insurgency.” Stephen Miller, a top White House official, has labeled demonstrators an existential threat. And the agents keep shooting.

For the families of Marimar Martinez, Renee Good, and Alex Jeffrey Pretti, the message is clear: in the eyes of their government, they were never citizens. They were targets. And in the halls of Congress, the party that claims to oppose this bloodshed has proven, by its own inaction, that it lacks the will to stop it.