The ICE-Holes Are Back

When a government cries wolf too many times, trust collapses, bullets answer doubt, and Americans are left questioning whether federal power protects lives; or endangers them.

Guest article by Michael Cohen

Every child knows the story of the boy who cried wolf. It’s one of those bedtime parables we absorb before we can spell the word “consequence.” Lie enough times, exaggerate enough threats, and when the real danger comes, no one believes you. Help doesn’t arrive. Trust evaporates. And people get hurt.

That story is no longer a fable. It’s federal policy.

Because once again, under this Trump administration, ICE agents have shot and wounded civilians; this time two people in Portland, Oregon, outside a hospital. And once again, we’re handed a press-release morality play starring the same tired villain: a Venezuelan “illegal alien,” allegedly tied to the ever-convenient boogeyman, Tren de Aragua. Once again, we’re told the agents “feared for their lives.” Once again, the administration demands we take them at their word.

Here’s the problem: they’ve cried wolf too many times.

Just one day earlier, Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an immigration officer in Minnesota. In previous incidents, video evidence didn’t just poke holes in the official story; it shredded it. Each time, the narrative came first, the facts limped in later, and accountability never showed up at all. So when the Department of Homeland Security rushes out a statement claiming the driver tried to run agents over and the passenger was a gang-affiliated criminal mastermind, the public response is no longer shock. It’s skepticism.

And that skepticism isn’t cynicism. It’s earned.

Because this administration has weaponized fear as a governing strategy. Migrants aren’t people; they’re props. Cities aren’t communities; they’re “war zones.” And ICE agents, increasingly militarized and unleashed into civilian spaces, are treated less like law enforcement officers and more like ideological foot soldiers. Portland, in particular, has been cast as a stage for Trump’s strongman fantasies; somewhere he can threaten “full force,” float National Guard deployments, and punish a city for the crime of not worshipping him.

So when shots ring out near a hospital, when two people are left bleeding in a residential neighborhood, and when local police confirm the injuries came from federal agents, the story isn’t about a “targeted vehicle stop.” It’s about erosion; erosion of trust, of credibility, of constitutional protections.

Listen to the words of Portland’s mayor: “There was a time we could take them at their word. That time is long past.” That’s not radical rhetoric. That’s what happens when leadership lies reflexively and governs through paranoia. Even Oregon’s attorney general is now investigating whether federal officers acted outside their lawful authority. City officials are demanding ICE halt operations altogether. State legislators are telling federal agents to get the hell out.

That’s not hysteria. That’s a breakdown in legitimacy.

And here’s the cruel irony: if there is real danger, if there are bad actors hiding among desperate migrants, this administration has ensured we won’t know it when we see it. Because when every encounter is framed as a near-death ambush, when every brown immigrant is described as a cartel soldier or gang affiliate, the warnings become noise. The wolf is always at the door. Until the door is kicked in and someone ends up dead.

This is the cost of performative cruelty. This is what happens when you replace community-based public safety with federal militarization and propaganda. ICE becomes less accountable, cities become more volatile, and ordinary people; citizens and immigrants alike, are caught in the crossfire.

The protests that followed in Portland weren’t about chaos. They were about clarity. People want answers. They want transparency. They want to know why armed, masked federal agents are operating in their neighborhoods with such impunity, and why every incident is immediately wrapped in a narrative that conveniently absolves power.

Even Senator Jeff Merkley warned protesters not to “take the bait.” He’s right. Trump wants unrest. He wants images of fire and fury so he can justify more force, more crackdowns, more lies. The boy who cried wolf doesn’t stop yelling because he’s afraid. He stops because the village is burning and no one trusts him anymore.

I don’t need a press release to recognize this pattern. I lived inside it. Trump’s method never changed: deny facts, deflect blame, demonize critics, repeat until exhaustion masqueraded as belief. In that world, truth was expendable, loyalty was enforced, and accountability never flowed upward.

But here’s the thing about the fable they don’t teach kids: when trust is gone, everyone loses. Not just the villagers. Not just the sheep. Everyone.

And right now, under this administration, trust is bleeding out on the pavement; right alongside the people they keep shooting, while crying wolf.

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