Intentionally or not, the PBS News Hour exhibited a liberal double standard in descriptions in a story by Liz Landers from Minneapolis, where residents are apparently being persecuted under ICE.
A long 13-minute Thursday segment, which was capped with two guests, one from the Trump administration and one from the Obama administration, twice underlined that anti-ICE protester Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, but the November murder of another federal law officer in Washington, D.C. was downgraded to a mere “shooting.”
The story did lead with a strong statement from Vice President J.D. Vance from on the ground in Minneapolis.
PBS News Hour co-anchor Amna Nawaz: Vice President J.D. Vance was in Minneapolis today, as federal agents continue to clash with protesters two weeks after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renee Good. Vance had this message for city residents:
Vice President J.D. Vance: Do we want these things to happen? Do we want these arrests to be so chaotic? No, we don't. These guys want it least of all. But if we had a little cooperation from local and federal -- or -- excuse me -- from local and state officials, I think the chaos would go way down in this community.
The inconsistent labeling came in standard liberal criticism of Trump’s move to cut both legal and illegal immigration. While Renee Good was “killed,” the two members of the National Guard targeted for assassination by an Afghan national were merely shot, even though one of them, Sarah Beckstrom, died a day later from her injuries.
Landers: In total, more than 8,000 student visas revoked in the past year, the State Department says. The Trump administration has also moved to narrow pathways for legal immigration, using executive orders to institute travel bans in June, revoke humanitarian programs that shielded migrants from deportation and cut refugee admissions to record lows. The shooting of the two National Guardspeople in the nation's capital in November prompted a further tightening of visas. Also this year, the administration began a controversial rollout of deportation operations in major sanctuary cities across the country, with agents often masked arresting immigrants at workplaces, courthouses, even Home Depot parking lots. In June, fiery protests in Los Angeles caused President Trump to send in National Guard troops.
Later, Landers also emphasized an ICE officer had killed “unarmed woman” Renee Good.
Landers: In the aftermath of the killing of an unarmed woman, Renee Good, by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, protests flared again….
A transcript is available, click "Expand.
PBS News Hour
1/22/26
7:19:25 p.m. (ET)
Amna Nawaz: Vice President J.D. Vance was in Minneapolis today, as federal agents continue to clash with protesters two weeks after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renee Good.
Vance had this message for city residents:
Vice President J.D. Vance: Do we want these things to happen? Do we want these arrests to be so chaotic? No, we don't. These guys want it least of all. But if we had a little cooperation from local and federal -- or -- excuse me -- from local and state officials, I think the chaos would go way down in this community.
Amna Nawaz: This is just the latest development in what's been a turbulent year as President Trump has carried out his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
Liz Landers takes a closer look.
President Donald Trump: First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border.
(Applause)
Liz Landers: President Donald Trump wasted no time following through on his campaign promise to crack down on immigration, signing executive orders his first day in office designed to expedite removal and reinterpret the Citizenship Clause of the Constitution.
Border crossings began to drop soon after and are down dramatically year to date, a 93 percent reduction, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The agency estimates 1.9 million self-deportations and 622,000 deportations have taken place in the last year.
President Donald Trump: This was an invasion. This wasn't people coming in. This was an invasion of our country.
Liz Landers: But the administration quickly ran into legal challenges with some deportation measures when it deported more than 200 Venezuelan men to a notorious Salvadoran prison.
President Donald Trump: These were bad people. That was a bad group of, as I say, hombres.
Liz Landers: The president invoking the little used Alien Enemies Act of 1798, claiming the men were part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, among them Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man with no criminal record, deported despite a court order barring his removal.
Abrego Garcia was eventually returned to the U.S. and is now challenging efforts to deport him to a third country. A ruling is expected next month. The arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian activist, signaled a crackdown on international student visas in early March.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio: We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses.
Liz Landers: In total, more than 8,000 student visas revoked in the past year, the State Department says.
The Trump administration has also moved to narrow pathways for legal immigration, using executive orders to institute travel bans in June, revoke humanitarian programs that shielded migrants from deportation and cut refugee admissions to record lows.
The shooting of the two National Guardspeople in the nation's capital in November prompted a further tightening of visas. Also this year, the administration began a controversial rollout of deportation operations in major sanctuary cities across the country, with agents often masked arresting immigrants at workplaces, courthouses, even Home Depot parking lots.
In June, fiery protests in Los Angeles caused President Trump to send in National Guard troops.
President Donald Trump: These are paid insurrectionists. These are paid troublemakers.
Liz Landers: Prompting the president to float the idea of using the Insurrection Act, which would allow the president to use the military in a domestic setting. It's a threat he's continued to make into the new year.
Kristi Noem, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary: We did discuss the Insurrection Act. He certainly has the constitutional authority to utilize that.
Liz Landers: Those targeted operations spread nationwide to Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and, just this week, Maine, all this bolstered by a surge in funding after the president's signature tax and spending bill passed in the summer, tripling the annual budget for ICE.
The administration faced significant legal pushback in Chicago, when a federal judge there determined Customs and Border Patrol official Greg Bovino was overstepping his authority in handling protesters.
Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol Commander: The use of force that I have seen has been exemplary, and, by exemplary, I would say, the least amount of force necessary to accomplish the mission.
Liz Landers: In the aftermath of the killing of an unarmed woman, Renee Good, by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, protests flared again.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller with this message to ICE officers:
Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties, and anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony.
Liz Landers: But Democrats are hoping to use the latest incidents to reduce funding or force changes to immigration enforcement if they do well in the midterm elections.
