Trigger Warning: The article mentions details about violence.
CNN aired an intense on-air discussion after commentator Scott Jennings defended President Donald Trump and the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minnesota.
The protests and ICE raids intensified after the tragic shooting of Renee Good. She was a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7, 2026.
Amid this unrest, on Jan. 11, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced that “hundreds more” federal officers would be sent to the Twin Cities as protests continued. This happened during CNN’s NewsNight on Monday, January 19.
Later in the segment, gun control activist and Parkland school shooting survivor Cameron Kasky joined the panel to discuss the deployment of roughly 3,000 federal agents in the state.
This will go down as a defining moment for Scott Jennings on CNN.
25‑year‑old left‑wing activist Cameron Kasky tried to tell Jennings he couldn’t use the word “illegals” while discussing ICE operations in Minneapolis.
What followed was righteous indignation. @ScottJenningsKY… pic.twitter.com/5C6brtZELx
— Overton (@overton_news) January 20, 2026
According to The Irish Star, the argument ignited when Jennings referred to undocumented immigrants as “illegals.” This prompted an immediate comeback from Kasky. “You don’t get to say the word ‘illegals’ anymore,” Kasky said bluntly.
Scott Jennings responded,
“Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t say? I can say whatever I want. They’re illegal aliens — that’s what the law calls them, and that’s what I’m going to call them.”
Guest host John Berman was part of the segment. He gave the final chance to Kasky, who accused Jennings of intentionally misleading viewers and claimed his role on CNN required him to become “increasingly demented every single week.” Kasky said that ICE agents were targeting illegal immigrants and criminals, but also U.S.-born citizens at this point.
“That is a fact. You cannot deny that. I mean, you can on national television… You deny facts frequently.” Scott Jennings replied as the conversation intensified, prompting John Berman to go to a commercial break on the CNN show.
Following the broadcast, Jennings took to X (formerly Twitter) to repeat his claims. “That’s the thing about the left,” he wrote. “They believe they should decide who gets to speak and what everyone can and cannot say.”
The Trump administration initially claimed that ICE agents focus on removing criminals who are in the country illegally. However, multiple reports have documented cases in which individuals without criminal histories and their family members have been abruptly detained, abused, and wrongly deported. These actions have shattered families forever.
Despite the Trump administration and ICE agents receiving repeated threats and backlash for keeping detainees in unfair and deteriorating conditions in the detention centers, they do not seem to back down anytime soon.
A Nicaraguan immigrant was arrested by ICE in Minneapolis in January 2026 and later died while being held at an immigration detention facility in El Paso, Texas.
‘This is not normal’: Minneapolis on edge and angry after Ice killing of woman amid federal surge https://t.co/RJhZC6FHFz
— #TuckFrump (@realTuckFrumper) January 20, 2026
According to USA Today, Diaz had been in ICE custody since January 6, after his alleged arrest for illegally entering the country on March 26, 2024.
As Trump’s critics and opposition leaders in Minnesota mourned his demise, many accused ICE of effectively kidnapping him and keeping him in bad conditions in the facility.
Meanwhile, attorney Todd Blanche stated the team will not respond to political pressure from critics or the public and will not take action against the ICE officer identified as Jonathan Ross, who discharged his firearm at Renee Good.
Winter storm warning out now for Minneapolis as ICE has started to accumulate faster than snowflakes.
— Cindy K (@MAGAMAHACindy) January 17, 2026
“We investigate when it’s appropriate to investigate,” Blanche said. “That is not the case here. We are not going to bow to pressure from the media or from politicians.”
After Ross shot Renee Good three times in the head, viral video footage showed Good’s SUV careening into parked cars. Witnesses allege that following the shooting, ICE agents left Good bleeding inside the vehicle for nearly three minutes and prevented a man who identified himself as a physician from giving aid that may have helped her survive.
