ICE Shot a 21-Year-Old in the Eye and Blinded Him

Summary

Bulwark Takes – "ICE Shot a 21-Year-Old in the Eye and Blinded Him"

Host: Tim Miller (The Bulwark)
Date: January 15, 2026

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Overview

This episode of Bulwark Takes dives deep into recent disturbing incidents involving ICE and CBP in Minneapolis and Santa Ana. Host Tim Miller examines multiple viral videos depicting harsh and violent methods used by federal agents, prompting national outrage and shifting public opinion. Through firsthand video accounts, political reactions, and analysis, the episode scrutinizes the humanitarian, political, and social implications of these crackdowns. The discussion also highlights the rhetoric used by both federal agents and Republican leaders, suggesting an atmosphere of intimidation towards ordinary citizens and protesters.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Power of Sunlight: Why Show the Videos?

• Transparency as Defense: Tim Miller stresses the need for publicizing these events to counter government narratives and foster accountability.
  • “I think Sunlight is our best answer here.” [01:29]
• Shifting Public Opinion: Miller cites alarming poll numbers showing ICE approval ratings have dropped 30 points, influenced by “mass thugs bullying people” on video.
  • Polls now indicate public sentiment is turning against ICE’s deportation campaign and tactics. [~01:40–02:30]

Minneapolis: The Case of the Woman in Her Car

• Incident Recap: Miller describes a now-viral video of ICE forcibly removing an autistic woman from her car as she pleads, “I’m going to the doctor.”
  • “She’s surrounded by about a dozen agents as she shouts multiple times, I’m going to the doctor.” [02:44]
• Questioning Necessity: Miller finds the show of force baffling and unwarranted for a nonviolent individual.
  • “Why are there 12 agents detaining this woman? Like, is she a threat? Is she a violent criminal?” [04:22]
• Alternative Approaches Ignored: Miller calls for more humane immigration enforcement policies.
  • Suggests citations or voluntary compliance, not “state violence.” [04:45]
• Dehumanizing Motives: He argues this is more about intimidating the community than enforcing laws.
  • “The only point of it is for the show to try to intimidate, try to scare people. And that’s why they have these thugs…” [05:01]

Notable Quote:

Tim Miller: “It’s just all this big cosplay that is inhumane and wrong.” [05:46]

Republican Response and Political Rhetoric

• Congresswoman’s Reaction: Miller shares a Republican lawmaker’s dismissive take:
  • “If she is here illegally and she’s on her way to the doctor and she’s resisting arrest, who cares?” [05:56–06:18]
• Counter-argument: Miller calls out the false economy of taxpayer concern, pointing out the relative costs and hypocrisy.
  • “What is gonna cost more? This doctor appointment that she’s going to or having 12 thugs deployed to Minneapolis to follow her out?” [06:36]

Santa Ana: Shooting a 21-Year-Old Protester

• Brutal Crowd Control: Miller introduces footage of a 21-year-old protester in California, shot in the face with a “non-lethal” round, blinding him in one eye.
  • “Doctors found shards of plastic, glass and metal embedded in his eyes and around his face... Doctor said he’s permanently blind in his left eye.” [09:18]
• Aftermath: Video includes agents dragging and choking the wounded protester, highlighting apparent impunity and aggression.
  • Quote from a bystander: “Hey, you’re just fucking choking that person. What are you doing? … Why you drag off. What was that for?” [10:26]
• State-Sanctioned Force: Miller criticizes a culture in which officers feel immune from consequences—a direct result, he says, of signals from the Trump administration.
  • “Guys who feel like they are immune because they’ve been told they’re immune by the Vice President and by Trump’s chief thug and by Trump himself.” [10:39]
• Reflection on Public Service: Miller offers a sharp reminder of what it means to be a public servant.
  • “This is not, it’s not a draft. We didn’t force anybody to take these jobs, okay?” [10:49]

Notable Quote:

Tim Miller: “It’s a free country. You should be able to protest and shout and complain about government action without worrying that some lunatic is going to pop you in the eye…” [10:39–10:53]

Harassment of Monitoring Citizens in Minneapolis

• Intimidation Tactics: Miller describes a Minneapolis resident who observed ICE activity and was threatened by agents.
  • ICE Agent: “Sir, this is your warning. You are impeding operations.” [12:34]
  • “Go to church.” “Go home to your kids.” [12:46–12:48]
• Chilling Threats: Agents invoke “what just happened with Renegade” as an ominous warning, referencing the recent fatal shooting of protester Renee Goode.
  • “Do you not learn from what just happened. … You’re not going to like the outcome.” [14:08]
• Interpretation: Miller reads such language as menacing attempts to quash dissent.
  • “That is a threat. That is a threat from a public servant against a US Citizen. We should not be threatened by our government.” [14:19]

Notable Quote:

Tim Miller: “It seems to me it’s quite revealing... if you protest a little too aggressively, if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, if you speak up too loudly, then one of our guys might just shoot you in the face.” [14:51]

• Contradictory Narratives: Miller dismantles the official story about “self-defense” in the Renee Goode shooting, arguing instead it’s being used to justify further acts of intimidation.

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “[Sunlight] is our best answer here.” – Tim Miller [01:29]
• “Why are there 12 agents detaining this woman?” – Tim Miller [04:22]
• “It’s just all this big cosplay that is inhumane and wrong.” – Tim Miller [05:46]
• “If she is here illegally and she’s on her way to the doctor and she’s resisting arrest, who cares?” – Unnamed Republican Congresswoman (paraphrased) [05:56]
• “What is gonna cost more? This doctor appointment... or having 12 thugs deployed to Minneapolis...?” – Tim Miller [06:36]
• “Hey, you’re just fucking choking that person. What the are you doing?” – Bystander in Santa Ana [10:26]
• “It’s a free country. You should be able to protest and shout and complain about government action without worrying that some lunatic is going to pop you in the eye...” – Tim Miller [10:39]
• “Do you not learn from what just happened?” – ICE Agent [14:08]
• “That is a threat from a public servant against a US Citizen. We should not be threatened by our government.” – Tim Miller [14:19]
• “...if you speak up too loudly, then one of our guys might just shoot you in the face.” – Tim Miller [14:51]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:29 — Tim Miller opens the discussion on Minneapolis ICE incidents and public opinion.
• 02:44 — Description and audio of the ICE agents forcibly removing the woman from her car.
• 05:56 — Republican congresswoman’s reaction to the viral video.
• 08:35 — Introduction to the Santa Ana shooting of a protester.
• 09:18–10:39 — Description and fallout of the protester shot and blinded by ICE.
• 12:34–14:19 — Minneapolis local threatened by ICE for monitoring them.
• 14:08–14:51 — Chilling ICE rhetoric and discussion of Renee Goode’s shooting as an intimidation tactic.

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Conclusion and Call to Action

Miller concludes by urging listeners to pay attention, submit real tips, and support The Bulwark’s efforts to document and expose state violence and overreach. He emphasizes the importance of transparency and continued vigilance, affirming,

“This is not how things work in a free country. Watch out. That’s pretty ominous stuff.” [15:16]

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For more information and ongoing updates, visit thebulwark.com/tips.

Transcript

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[D]

Hey everybody, it's Tim Miller from the Bulwark. We're continuing to cover these just really grotesque scenes out of Minneapolis and the confrontations between ICE and CBP agents there and the folks that are just trying to live their lives in the city. We put out a call for some feedback on that. And so we're going through both video we've been provided as well as stuff that's out there in the public space so you guys can get a sense of what is happening. Because I think Sunlight is our best answer here. And I guess just to say, part of the reason why I believe Sunlight is our best answer here is that the polling on this looks horrible and not like, oh, well, the polls in the past said that Hillary is going to win or that Kamala and Trump was a toss up, then he won. And maybe not that. Not a close call. I mean, the ice numbers have tanked down 30 points in their approval. There have been some extensive research done by Folks who do very. Who do really serious data analysis, they've done these deep dives. And what they're. What they're finding is that when people see these videos of these mass thugs bullying people, it is having a persuasive effect. They're changing their mind. It's changing their view on the deportation campaign, on ice, on Trump's management of this. And so I just think from both a humanitarian and a journalistic and a political standpoint, it's important that people see what's happening. So I want to start here with this video on Tuesday from the middle of a street in Minneapolis where ICE is cutting this woman out of her seatbelt and pulling her from her car. She's surrounded by about a dozen agents as she shouts multiple times, I'm going to the doctor. Let's watch. Put that knife away.

[B]

Jesus christ.

[D]

Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up.

[B]

Back up. Back up. Get out.

[D]

Get back. You can hear there. I'm autistic. I'm trying to go to the doctor. We can see a little bit more of that in another video taken by NPR News. Let's watch that as well. Injury.

[B]

Put me down. I was just trying to get to the doctor, and I'm autistic. It takes me a second to understand. Step back. Step back now, you creep.

[D]

I just, like, what is the point of this? Why are there 12 agents detaining this woman? Like, is she a threat? Is she a violent criminal? Are people worried about her? Is she gonna ram somebody with her car like this? It's just. It's just ridiculous to use this type of manpower and these type of tactics to detain this person. Sometimes I like to just look at this in this perspective of what if they're doing a responsible campaign to crack down on people here illegally? I would be. Again, I'm extremely liberal on immigration policy, and I would think that, you know, there'd be certainly ways to handle this differently, but just kind of imagine what it could look like. The lady says she's going to the doctor. Like, you know, they could go to the hospital. They could go to her house. You can, you know, give her a citation that says that she has an order for removal. Give her a chance to remove herself voluntarily. She doesn't, within a certain period of time, go back to the house. There's no need for violence. There's no need for state violence. The only point of it is for the show to try to intimidate, try to scare people. And that's why they have these thugs pushing People that are monitoring it and trying to be tough guys in the street. It's just all this big cosplay that is inhumane and wrong. Some Republicans in the Hill disagree with that, though. And I want to play one Republican congresswoman's response to that video.

[E]

She's here illegally. She's probably getting free health care taxpayers are paying for if she truly isn't illegal. I just now am seeing this. I've been busy all day, so I have not seen this. I don't know the background. The truth will come out like it always does. But if she is here illegally and she's on her way to the doctor and she's resisting arrest, who cares?

[D]

Okay. I mean, for starters, is she resisting arrest? I don't know if that's clear. She's being manhandled. They're cutting her out of the car. I love that we're falling into this like the taxpayers. This administration is really concerned about judicious use of taxpayer dollars. Really? Like, what do you think? Who the hell knows what healthcare this woman is on? But let's say she's on government healthcare. What is gonna cost more? This doctor appointment that she's going to or having 12 thugs deployed to Minneapolis to follow her out? You know, I mean, we spent an absolutely ludicrous amount of money to coup the leader of Venezuela the other week. Okay. I didn't hear Mary Miller out there saying, why are taxpayers paying for us to move an aircraft carrier into the Caribbean and, you know, and put together a plan for a invasion of Caracas? Because, let me tell you, a lot more. The cost of that was significantly higher than this lady's doctor's appointment. So, you know, it's just. It's totally heartless. And I do think that there's going to be a backlash. And we're already seeing the signs of a backlash against that attitude from Republican leaders. Okay, I want to move on. There's one other video that's been getting a lot of attention, that one to flag that is not out of Minneapolis. This one's out of Santa Ana. And I thought Jacob Soborov was really good on this on the pod the other day. It's kind of reminding that a lot of these other places, these activities are still going on where the focus is on Minneapolis. Luckily, here in New Orleans, it has been tamped down quite a bit because most, if not all of the folks that have deployed here haven't redirected to Minneapolis. So we still have kind of our baseline number. But in a lot of these other places, There still are resources and ICE is out there recruiting more and more people every day. So I want to play this one. I do want to warn you, the footage here is pretty tough to watch, but this is a video of a 21 year old in California who is protesting ICE who was shot in the face with a non lethal round. So I want to watch that and then a little bit of the aftermath. So y', all, we got. This is different. You heard the shooting there. Now you can see his face. He looks like a child. So yeah, you heard the, the, the shooting there and then you could see his bloodied face. His family told the LA Times they had to go under six hours of surgery. Wonder what if the taxpayers paid for that. Mary Miller Wonder if you thought about that. He went under six hours of surgery. Doctors found shards of plastic, glass and metal embedded in his eyes and around his face. He has a fractured skull around his eye and nose. Doctor said he's permanently blind in his left eye and lucky it's just the left eye. This is not the end of it, though. After they shot him in the face with that non lethal round at point blank range. You saw them drag him there and then, and then look at what they were doing to him once they had detained him.

[B]

Hey, you're just fucking choking that person. What the are you doing? Why are you joking? What the are you talking for? He's on his back. He's on his back. Why you drag off. What was that for?

[D]

Just the gratuitous use of force here. Guys who feel like they are immune because they've been told they're immune by the Vice President and by Trump's chief thug and by Trump himself. And, and so they're just going to, you know, take out their own issues on other people. Truly just horrifying. It's a free country. You should be able to protest and shout and complain about government action without worrying that some lunatic is going to pop you in the eye like, sorry, what's the in the JBL like to use about the police? This is not, it's not a draft. We didn't force anybody to take these jobs, okay? Part of the job of being a public servant in the public eye is that you take criticism, people yell at you, sometimes people are unhappy. That's because you serve the public. If you don't want to have a job like that, then don't take one. But these guys signed up for this. They're protesters out there exercising their First Amendment rights and they're doing severe medical damage to Them injuring them. So it's really, really gross. I want to now turn back to Minneapolis. There on Sunday, there's a local that noticed ICE officers were in his neighborhood. And he told us that he saw them turned down an alleyway. So you see he's monitoring that and suddenly he was surrounded by ICE officers banging on his window. And you can see the video of that here.

[B]

Sir, this is your warning. This is your warning.

[D]

For what?

[B]

Stop following us. You are impeding operations. This is the United States federal government over here. I got to get. This is your warning.

[D]

Got to get to the house.

[B]

Go home to your kids.

[D]

Go to church.

[B]

Go to home to your kids. This is your last warning. I serve the Lord. Go rescue you.

[D]

Okay, like, dude needs to take a chill pill. What are you doing? Like, B. This is. This is happening all over the place. And we keep seeing these images, just how aggressive they are in dealing with cars. And obviously the Rene Good shooting. But just time and again, I'm seeing these pictures of like, guys with their car window bashed in by these guys. You can just see the way they're menacing somebody. This person lives in the neighborhood. They're not impeding operations. Okay? You can drive around your neighborhood. You can tell people in your neighborhood that they're ICE agents in your neighborhood. This isn't China. That is allowed here. Okay? This is a free person executing his constitutional rights in his own vehicle. And some masked goons are surrounding his car and menacing him. That's bad. And this is not cherry picked. We are seeing this all over the place. But we just had this video firsthand as a representative example that that wasn't the end. I just want to play the end of his exchange there. It's the same car. God bless. Let these people go to church. Let these people serve the Lord and worship. Let people.

[B]

Let the people do that. I guarantee you're not going to like the outcome. Go home to your children. It's Sunday.

[D]

Yeah, go. Exactly. Let people go to church.

[B]

Do not learn from what just happened.

[A]

Go home.

[D]

Learn what? Do you not learn from what just happened? This is, I think the third different ICE agent I've seen in videos saying some version of that. Do you not learn from what just happened with Renee? Good. And that is a threat. That is a threat from a public servant against a US Citizen. We should not be threatened by our government. They should not be threatening us with violence. And it also belies the reality of the shooting of Renegade because simultaneously, the state, the Trump administration, J.D. vance want us to think that this was a domestic terrorist who endangered the life of a police officer, and so he felt he had no choice but to kill her to defend himself. That's the story they're telling. Okay, so if that's the story they're telling, how does that match up with ICE agents threatening other people who are not trying to kill them and saying to them, do you see what just happened? Do you not learn from what just happened? You're not going to like the outcome. I thought what we were supposed to learn from what just happened was that you shouldn't, from their point of view, is that you shouldn't try to ram your car at an agent or then they'll shoot you. Were we supposed to learn something else? It seems to me it's quite revealing. It's quite revealing when the agents are saying, you're not going to like the outcome of this. Did you not learn from what just happened? They're saying that, like, if you protest a little too aggressively, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, if you speak up too loudly, then one of our guys might just shoot you in the face. And to me, that confirms the obvious story that all of us have been telling, which is that the shooting of Renee Goode was a crackdown on a protester that they felt was too mouthy. And so I killed her, even though she was turning away, because otherwise that argument doesn't make sense. Right. Like the argument of, do you not see what just happened? It doesn't make sense if. If you're saying, well, you know, because this guy obviously in the car wasn't trying to kill them. So what would he have to learn from that situation if the story was that they. That they shoot somebody if they try to kill them in self defense? Right. I think it's extremely revealing that these guys are using that tragic killing of Renee Good. And they're saying, yeah, we might do it too. Watch out. As a way to try to get regular citizens of Minnesota to not speak out, to shut up, to stay in their home. And that is not how things work in a free country. Watch out. That's pretty ominous stuff. Pretty ominous stuff. So we're going to keep monitoring that. I appreciate you guys for sending us anything. The bulwark.com tips. Please be judicious. They're real people who are doing real work out there, kind of going through stuff. So, you know, only send us a tip if it's a real tip, and then if so, we'd really appreciate it and shout out to those gremlins going through all the stuff, our producers, et cetera. They're really doing the Lord's work here to make sure we're getting you information that's vetted and accurate as well as outrageous and horrifying. So subscribe to the feed right here. Tell your friends, give us a like comment. We'll see you soon.

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