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LEAKED SECURITY MEMO: “DE-ESCALATION IS KEY”  
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Ken Klippenstein
January 16, 2026
KlipNews
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_ Before Renee Good’s killing, immigration authorities sent agents
a warning: “For safe and effective vehicle extractions,
de-escalation is key.” It was signed by the head of the agency’s
compliance directorate. _

ICE agent reaches into Renee Good’s vehicle,

 

Weeks before an ICE agent shot Renee Good dead in Minneapolis, the
Department of Homeland Security in Washington warned about the dangers
of confronting suspects in vehicles, according to a November memo
leaked to me.

“For safe and effective vehicle extractions, de-escalation is
key,” cautioned an internal Customs and Border Patrol guidance,
signed by the head of the agency’s compliance directorate. Titled
“Guidance on Safe and Legally Compliant Vehicle Extraction
Operations,” the memo is referring to the same operation at the
heart of the Renee Good killing: a vehicle extraction operation.
That’s what the ICE agents were trying to carry out and why they
approached her vehicle in the first place, with one agent even
reaching through the window and grabbing the car door.

The term vehicle extraction normally refers to rescuing trapped
occupants from a damaged vehicle. But DHS has its own belligerent
definition: forcibly removing a suspect from their vehicle. To bolster
its view that protestors are “weaponizing” vehicles, the
Department has spun itself into crisis and confrontation mode, a
contributing factor in Good’s death and the spate of other incidents
where federal law enforcement agents and officers have attempted
vehicle extractions.

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Leaked memo

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Leaked memo

(I’ve looked around and astoundingly, homeland security has no
formal definition or policy for vehicle extraction. So much for
“training” its officers on dangerous situations it might face. In
her hasty press conference following Good’s death, Secretary Kristi
Noem justified the shooting by claiming: “Our officer followed his
training, did exactly what he’s been taught to do in that
situation.”)

To understand homeland security’s frenzy about vehicles, one does
not have to look very deep. Just a day after Good’s death, DHS shot
off a fiery press release about the vehicle threat to its law
enforcement officers. It alleges a “3,200% increase in vehicular
attacks” over the past year.

“Dangerous criminals … are turning their vehicles into weapons to
attack ICE and CBP,” declared another homeland security press
release
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from late last year, adding that “DHS will not be deterred,”
striking a defiant tone.

Despite this swaggering rhetoric, in private, sources tell me that
immigration authorities have been worried for some time about officer
and public safety in vehicle extractions and were aware that something
like the Good shooting was likely to happen eventually. Done
incorrectly, the leaked memo suggests, vehicle extractions are a
dangerous practice.

Had the ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, heeded this kind of advice, Good
would still be alive today. The guidance specifically instructs
officers to avoid “unsafe positioning” near other vehicles. Ross
did not do this, having stepped out in front of Good’s car — the
whole basis for the administration’s claims that he was acting in
necessary self-defense. (See for yourself in the frames below, with
Ross highlighted for visibility.)

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ICE Agent Jonathan Ross highlighted

Now compare what Ross did to homeland security’s guidance memo,
which instructs officers: “Safely block the target vehicle with
other vehicles, ensuring officers/agents avoid unsafe positioning.”

That Ross did not heed this doesn’t mean he’ll be arrested or even
found responsible. ICE’s use of force policy all but rubber stamps
the killing, as I’ve written
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But instead of any sort of introspection about what went wrong here
and how it can be prevented from happening again, homeland security
political leadership is dumping rhetorical gasoline on the already
combustible situation.

“These vehicle rammings are domestic acts of terrorism,” Noem said
on the day of Good’s death.

Then a day after Good’s death, homeland’s assistant secretary
Tricia McLaughlin issued a press release, blaming “sanctuary
politicians” and “the media” for encouraging violent attacks on
ICE.

“This unprecedented increase in violence against law enforcement is
a direct result of sanctuary politicians and the media creating an
environment that demonizes our law enforcement and encourages rampant
assaults against them,” McLaughlin said.

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DHS press release

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara has a different view, that
“in law enforcement, you know, we expect our officers to be training
and trying to do everything they can to de-escalate situations and
avoid the use of force and certainly avoid the use — the loss of
human life whenever possible.”

More than training and guidance, though, the real problem is that ICE
is acting like they’re at war because many of them have been told
they are and believe it.

ICE is at war with America. So it any surprise they see cars as
weapons?

_KEN KLIPPENSTEIN is an American journalist who previously worked at
The Intercept before __announcing his decision_
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go independent, believing the move necessary in order to report
critically on national security. Soon after going independent,
Klippenstein published the JD Vance Dossier, a hacked document
numerous major media organizations — the very ecosystem he just left
— refused to publish. Before The Intercept, Klippenstein was The
Nation magazine's DC correspondent. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin._

_KLIPNEWS is an American news organization dedicated to revealing
what the national security state is actually up to. Founded in 2024 by
corporate media defectors Ken Klippenstein and William M. Arkin,
KlipNews is a response to the utter failure of the major media to
tell the truth about the national security state's creeping influence
— even as it fails to make us any safer. __Subscribe to get regular
updates and to support the work of KlipNews._
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