I Was A Combat Soldier In Iraq. Here’s The 1 Question Everyone Should Be Asking About ICE Right Now.

When armed agents act without real legal restraint, they stop being public servants in any meaningful sense. They become something far more dangerous.

We need to be honest about what is happening with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota. This is not a series of random mistakes or isolated incidents. It looks and feels like a mission being carried out, whether it is officially declared or not. Anyone who has served in combat knows this distinction. Missions reveal themselves through patterns, outcomes, and tolerance for harm.

I recognize that pattern because I lived it. In just a matter of weeks, ICE and Border Patrol operations in Minneapolis have ended the lives of two Minnesotans. During more than a full year deployed in Iraq, my battalion of 500 soldiers did not kill a single person. That contrast should stop every American in their tracks.

We spent 397 days in a war zone. We were fired upon. We lived with constant fear. Snipers hid among crowds. Roads were lined with improvised explosive devices we were ordered to clear. Yet even under those conditions, we were forbidden from using lethal force unless very strict rules were met. We had to clearly identify the threat. Civilians could not be placed in danger. Deadly force was always the last option, never the first.

That restraint was not optional. It existed because our mission was not to dominate or punish. Our mission was to build infrastructure, secure supply routes, and protect civilian life. We were governed by the Rules of Engagement, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the War Crimes Act. If we violated those rules, we faced real consequences. Soldiers are held criminally accountable when we break the law, and that accountability is what separates professional armed service from lawless violence.

This is not a personal exception or a rare standard. It is the norm.

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara has stated publicly that in 2025, the Minneapolis Police Department recovered around 900 guns from the streets and arrested hundreds of violent offenders, yet did not kill a single person. Read that again. A full year of active policing in a major city, hundreds of dangerous encounters, and zero deaths caused by police.

If a city police department can operate with that level of restraint, and if a combat unit in a foreign war zone can operate for over a year without killing anyone, then Minnesotans and Americans everywhere have every right to ask why ICE and Border Patrol have killed two people in this state in just two weeks.

The answer is deeply unsettling. Either this outcome reflects their actual mission, or they are operating outside any meaningful system of accountability. There is no third option.

Minnesota is now demanding a full legal investigation into the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, including serious allegations that lifesaving medical care was delayed or denied. Asking for transparency and investigation is not political theater. It is a constitutional obligation. When the state refuses to investigate the use of deadly force, it is not a disagreement between parties. It is a failure of the rule of law.

I was deployed to Nasiriyah, Iraq, in 2003 with the Army’s 724 Engineer Battalion during the invasion of Iraq. I have seen what disciplined force looks like, and I have seen what happens when power is allowed to operate without restraint. History does not forgive the latter.

When armed agents operate beyond the reach of law, they are no longer public servants. They become something else entirely.

Mercenaries are not defined solely by who pays them. They are defined by the absence of accountability. Mercenaries answer to orders alone, not to law, ethics, or the public. That is exactly why soldiers and legitimate law enforcement cling so tightly to codes of conduct. Without those codes, uniforms stop being symbols of protection and start becoming disguises for abuse.

As a veteran, I will not accept mercenary behavior hiding behind federal badges on Minnesota soil. This is my home. Minnesota stands for liberty, justice, and due process. It does not stand for secrecy, immunity, or violence without consequence.

Changing personnel is not the same as accountability. Silence is not justice. Delayed justice is not justice at all.

Minnesotans are calling for a full, independent investigation under state law into the agents involved in these deaths. That demand is simple and non-negotiable. No one, federal or otherwise, stands above the law in this country.

If ICE and the Border Patrol cannot operate within the Constitution, with restraint, transparency, and accountability, then they are not fit to carry out their mission in Minnesota or anywhere else.

Because when force is cut loose from the law, freedom does not disappear all at once. It erodes quietly, until one day we realize it is already gone.