20 January – 4 February 2026 

In Minneapolis, the same city where George Floyd was murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin six years ago, two people have been killed in recent weeks by ICE agents during protests. Renée Good and Alex Pretti were both US citizens. These deaths point to a darker reality unfolding in the US, one marked by the open use of authoritarian and militarised power. It is a reality that should concern people everywhere. In 2025 alone, a record 32 people died in ICE custody.

The UK is not immune to this trajectory. Immigration raids have reached their highest level on record. Recent figures documented in our calendar of racism and resistance show a 77 per cent increase in raids, resulting in 83 per cent more arrests in the 18 months to the end of 2025. More than 17,400 raids were carried out across nail bars, car washes, takeaways and barbershops. While the government claims these operations target those undercutting ‘honest’ work, this framing ignores a basic economic truth – entire sectors depend on a racialised and migrant workforce whose exploitation drives down wages and conditions to maintain profitability.

Our report on paramilitary policing documents the connections between US policing tactics used against Black Lives Matter protests and the methods now deployed by border forces across Europe against migrants. Techniques once presented as exceptional are becoming normalised.

So, the warning is clear. What is happening in the US today could happen anywhere, and the UK is seeing its own increase in immigration raids. And political figures are openly celebrating violence at the border. Reform councillors Joseph Boam and Michael Squires recently tweeted ‘I stand with ICE’ and ‘100% chance of ICE forecast. Well done and a huge congratulations to ICE for their heroic work saving the United States of America’. This is not fringe rhetoric but reflects growing approval for militarised policing even if it leads to the deaths of migrants and racialised people.

Closer to home, Siobhan O’Neill, exploring three deaths in Greater Manchester, writes in the latest issue of Race & Class of the people’s campaign to end police pursuit killings. Police pursuits, that disproportionately target black and working-class teenagers for traffic offences and/or non-violent alleged offences, continue to claim lives, leaving families across the UK grieving losses and fighting for justice.

IRR News team