By Benny Schaft
January 29, 2026

Once again, the repressive state has committed another crime against the people. This time, it was the recorded execution of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse in Minneapolis, on Jan. 24, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation storm troopers.

These forces have taken it upon themselves, with the full approval of the repressive state, to terrorize the people — mainly people of color — who have faced the full brunt of these attacks by these goons of the capitalist class.

Like Cerberus, the multiple-headed dog of Greek mythology, ICE has another  head on its body, one that existed long before ICE, which also serves as an armed wing of the state at the disposal of the capitalist class.

That head, of course, is the police who, like ICE and the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Patrol (C.P.B.), have a history rooted in both upholding the rule of capital and enforcing the white supremacist hierarchy of the United States. As communists and Marxists, we don’t just observe this; we analyze it through historical materialism in addition to dialectical materialism as well.

ICE, C.B.P and the police did not appear out of nowhere but are outgrowths of class relations in different forms. They attempt to justify their murders and kidnappings of class siblings by doing their “job,” as if they are like other workers, which they are not.

Origins of the police

Starting in the early 1700s in the U.S., slave patrols were organized to terrorize and even kidnap Black people who attempted to escape from chattel slavery. Members of these patrols would be paid a handsome bounty for each person caught by individual enslavers and Confederate governments. Over time, these slave patrols evolved into the modern day police force we know today to protect the private interests of the capitalist class.

As stated earlier, both ICE and the police exist to uphold the structures of white supremacy. Funding for ICE comes from the federal government, more specifically the Department of Homeland Security. It is the largest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, with $85 billion approved by Congress. Local and state governments fund their individual police departments.

Both capitalist parties, whether Democrats or Republicans — regardless of their differences around tactics — fundamentally support the repressive roles of both the police and ICE, as do the other two entities of the capitalist government, the executive and judicial wings.

No-knock executions 

Just recently, a federal judge gave a stamp of approval to ICE agents entering a person’s home without showing a search warrant, reinforcing its racial profiling policy. This no-knock policy gives these storm troopers the green light to murder and oppress the Black, Latine and Indigenous communities with little to no accountability. The shooting of a Venezuelan migrant as well as the kidnapping of a five-year-old and his father are some of the most recent victims of this no-knock edict in Minneapolis.

Of course, looking at the history, the no-knock policy can and has led to legal lynchings. This was shown in the case of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black EMT worker. The Louisville, Kentucky, police tried to justify her murder on March 13, 2020, by alleging there were drugs in her apartment when they used a no-knock warrant. They shot her multiple times as she slept. It is not unusual for the police to demonize people of color as drug dealers to justify their deadly actions.

Another no-knock victim was Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man, killed by a Minneapolis police officer on Feb. 2, 2022, in his home. Fred Hampton, chairperson of the Illinois chapter of Black Panther Party, was assassinated on Dec. 4, 1969, when the Chicago police broke into his apartment.

The only way to confront the two-headed monster of the police and ICE is to continue to organize the people, be in class solidarity with the people and know that in the words of the late Imam Jamil Al-Amin (aka H. Rap Brown), “The laws that keep them up keep you down.”

Monica Moorehead contributed to this article.