How ICE Became the Enforcement Arm of the Patriarchy (trigger warning)
(a lengthy, disturbing, unsurprising read)
How ICE Became the Enforcement Arm of the Patriarchy (trigger warning)
PUBLISHED 5/4/2026 by Camille Hahn
Loretta Ross and Jackson Katz—two feminist academics with decidedly different backgrounds and identities—discuss how U.S. federal agents became the enforcement arm of the nation’s racism and misogyny.
Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 16, 2026. (Jerome Gilles / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Speaking in early February, while the nation was still reeling from the killings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, Jackson Katz, a leading voice in gender violence prevention and masculinity studies, and Loretta Ross, a celebrated Black feminist scholar and cofounder of SisterSong, examined the deadly ways misogyny and racism intersect in Donald Trump’s America. The two of them had a nuanced exploration of how government institutions, cultural narratives and political movements shape—and weaponize—issues of gender and race. Their candid exchange critiques the forces behind U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and right-wing populism, and challenges us to rethink empathy, identity and our strategies for building a more inclusive feminist movement.
This article originally appears in the Spring 2026 print issue of Ms. The following is an excerpt of their conversation. To read the interview in full, along with more fearless feminist journalism, join the Ms. community today and get every issue delivered straight to your mailbox.
Spring 2026 issue of Ms. (Art by Brandi Phipps)
Camille Hahn, Ms.: At colleges like Texas A&M and Kennesaw State University, we’re witnessing the elimination of women’s and gender studies and Black studies programs at a time when they’re crucial to explain what’s going on—to put current events into a historical context. One example is the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by U.S. federal agents. I’m wondering, how would you explain their deaths to your students?
Loretta Ross: I tend to see ICE as a well-financed, government-funded Ku Klux Klan, because this is the best dream the Klan ever had, which was to get government support and funding to go around terrorizing people. I don’t know how else to describe it.
Daiane Gomes Pereira, center, watches from the doorway as her husband João Paulo Gomes Pereira, foreground, embraces their son Marcelo Gomes da Silva outside their home on June 5, 2025, after Marcelo’s release from ICE detention. (Erin Clark / The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Jackson Katz: Right on. The attempt to dismantle the whole intellectual architecture and academic study of gender and race and American history in an honest way is all connected. Because studying feminism, intersectional feminism, gives us great insight into what’s going on. … If you don’t learn about it, you’re just jumping from one event to the next without understanding how they’re connected.
Ross: The only way [this administration] can successfully manipulate people is to keep them ill-educated and scare them into advanced compliance and obedience. … It is not an accident that they’re attacking all forms of education and knowledge that don’t fit their political agenda. It is necessary, it is vital that they do so.
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Messages of support on the front door of a Mexican restaurant in White Bear Lake, Minn. At the time, it was temporarily closed after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended on the area. (Roberto Schmidt / AFP via Getty Images)
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https://msmagazine.com/2026/05/04/trump-ice-immigration-officer-police-violence-patriarchy-jackson-katz-loretta-ross/