“I think we can all agree,” Stephen Colbert told his Late Show audience Monday night, then delivered two words that captured the national mood: “Fuck ICE.”

The audience erupted.

WHAT’S GOING ON: Colbert dedicated his entire monologue to the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday after attempting to film them on the streets. The shooting came amid weeks of protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

And the administration’s response? Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller both accused Pretti of being a “domestic terrorist”—without providing any evidence to back that up.

BUT BUT BUT: The video footage that has emerged tells a completely different story. It contradicts the administration’s claims entirely.

Colbert didn’t mince words: “Masked government agents disarmed an American citizen and then executed him in the streets. That’s what it looks like.”

THE DETAILS: The late-night host opened by thanking his audience for braving a winter storm that brought freezing temperatures, snow, and ice to New York and much of the country. But his gratitude quickly pivoted to something darker—a pun with teeth. “Fuck ICE” wasn’t just about the weather.

WHY IT MATTERS: When federal agents can kill an American citizen on camera, then have top administration officials immediately smear the victim as a terrorist without evidence, we’re not talking about immigration enforcement anymore. We’re talking about state violence against dissent. Colbert knows it. His audience knows it. The question is whether enough Americans are paying attention before it gets worse.

The message from late night was clear: this isn’t normal, it isn’t acceptable, and calling it what it is—publicly, loudly—still matters.