Minneapolis erupts after ICE shooting, protests across US demand answers

Tens of thousands of people marched through Minneapolis on Saturday (US time) in biting winter winds to denounce the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer. The killing — and sharply conflicting accounts from state Democrats and the Trump administration — has become a rallying point for more than 1,000 protests planned across the country this weekend against the federal deportation drive.

Led by Indigenous Mexican dancers, demonstrators moved through the city towards the residential street where Good was shot in her car on Wednesday, 7 January. Police estimated turnout in the “tens of thousands” as per a Reuters report, a show of force that saw marchers chanting Good’s name alongside slogans such as 'Abolish ICE' and 'No justice, no peace — get ICE off our streets'.

“I’m insanely angry, completely heartbroken and devastated,” Ellison Montgomery (30), one of many protesters who described shock that a local immigrant-rights volunteer had been killed by an enforcement agent, told Reuters.

Minnesota officials have called the shooting unjustified, pointing to a bystander video they say shows Good’s car turning away from the armed agent when he opened fire. The US homeland security department (DHS), which oversees ICE, claims the officer acted in self-defence, alleging Good had driven towards him after another agent ordered her out of the vehicle. Good was known locally for documenting ICE operations in Minneapolis.

The incident occurred only days after some 2,000 federal officers were deployed to the Minneapolis–St Paul area in what DHS has described as its largest ever operation — a move that has already strained relations between Washington and Minnesota’s Democratic leadership.

Those tensions escalated further on Thursday, when a US Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, after what DHS also described as an attempted vehicle attack. The two shootings, coming within 48 hours, helped galvanise progressive, civil-rights, immigrant-rights and faith groups into coordinating the nationwide 'ICE Out For Good' actions this weekend.

Protests were reported in major metropolitan hubs and smaller towns alike. In Philadelphia, marchers chanted 'ICE has got to go' and 'No fascist USA' as they moved from City Hall to a federal detention facility. In Manhattan, several hundred demonstrators walked past an immigration court, carrying placards and accusing ICE of 'community terror'.

“We demand justice for Renee, ICE out of our communities, and action from our elected leaders. Enough is enough,” said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, one of the groups coordinating the protests.

Minnesota has been a political flashpoint for months, with Trump criticising Democratic leaders over a high-profile welfare fraud scandal involving members of the state’s Somali-American community. Against that backdrop, the Good shooting has further polarised state–federal relations.

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey urged demonstrators to remain peaceful, telling reporters: “We will not counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos. He wants us to take the bait.”

City officials said more than 200 law-enforcement officers had been deployed on Friday night after protests caused roughly $6,000 in damage at the Depot Renaissance Hotel and led to failed attempts by some demonstrators to enter the nearby Hilton Canopy Hotel, rumoured to be housing ICE personnel. Police chief Brian O’Hara said 29 people were arrested after the gathering escalated from a “noise protest” to attempts to breach the hotel.

In a further sign of federal–state friction, three Democratic members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation — Representatives Angie Craig, Kelly Morrison and Ilhan Omar — were turned away from a regional ICE facility in St Paul on Saturday morning.

Craig accused ICE and DHS of violating federal law, which bars the department from blocking congressional access to detention sites. “It is our job as members of Congress to make sure those detained are treated with humanity, because we are the damn United States of America,” she said outside the Whipple Federal Building.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin defended the denial, citing “safety of detainees and staff” after recent protests, and said ICE policy requires members of Congress to provide seven days’ notice before visits.

With rallies scheduled to conclude before nightfall on Sunday to avoid clashes, organisers say the movement is only beginning to take shape — united by the name of one woman, and a demand: ICE out for good.

With agency inputs