The killing of Renee Nicole Good has become a flashpoint across the country. The White House says the agent acted in self-defense. Good’s supporters have called for the agent’s arrest.
Protests against President Donald Trump and his waves of immigration enforcement actions in cities across the United States are underway on Saturday after a woman was killed and two people were injured in separate shootings by immigration officers this week.
The shootings in Minneapolis and Portland have sparked debate across the nation. White House officials defended the agents’ actions, saying officers used their firearms in self-defense; prominent Democratic leaders have blasted the administration for its militarized deployment of immigration authorities and said they will move to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
Protests in the days since Good was killed have remained largely peaceful, despite incidents of property damage that led to arrests Friday night, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said. In Washington, D.C., on Saturday afternoon, protests gathered with chants of “ICE must go now, Trump must go now” outside the White House.
Over 1,000 protests are planned for Saturday and Sunday in cities and towns across the country in response to Trump’s polarizing domestic agenda. Cities including Greenville, South Carolina; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Boca Raton, Florida; and many others are expecting to see large turnouts.
“I am inspired by so many community members that have kept the peace and that are making very clear the message: ‘We cannot take the bait,’” Frey said Saturday at a news conference.
Good, 37, was shot and killed on Wednesday by Jonathan Ross, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal officer based in Minnesota. The shooting happened amid an immigration enforcement action. Noem said Good “weaponized” her SUV to run over Ross in an act of “domestic terrorism.” Good’s supporters have defended the woman, saying she was turning her car away from, not toward, Ross.
“It was a reckless abuse of power,” Frey said on Friday, speaking about the deadly incident. “I said that the narrative the administration was pushing in the immediacy following this shooting was garbage and false and BS. It was.”
Venezuelan nationals Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras were shot in Oregon on Jan. 8. Homeland Security officials said the pair attempted to run over immigration officers with their car and say both are involved with gang Tren de Aragua. Following skepticism around Noem’s characterization of Good’s death, local officials have called for an investigation.
The shootings are just the latest involving federal agents under the Trump administration’s new, aggressive approach to immigration enforcement. The president ran on a promise to enforce mass deportations and has deployed heavily-armed federal agents to cities to carry out his plans.
As protests are expected to ramp up Saturday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a stern warning.
“Reminder: if you lay a finger on a federal officer or agent, you will face the full extent of the law,” DHS said in an X post.
Federal officials have said agents, including those part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are seeing increases in assaults and threats against them.
DHS has faced scrutiny for aggressive tactics in immigration enforcement and against protesters across several American cities.
– Eduardo Cuevas
Organizers are calling the more than 1,000 events scheduled this weekend “ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action.” They have encouraged local organizers to hold the protests and vigils at midday, or to end before nighttime to reduce the chance of violence.
Protests are scheduled in cities and towns of all sizes. For example, people will gather Saturday in Greenville, South Carolina; Worcester, Massachusetts; and Wilmington, North Carolina, as well as in New York City and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
State or regionally specific event locations and site specific information can be found online.
-Sarah D. Wire
The vast majority of demonstrations in Minneapolis have been peaceful so far, Mayor Jacob Frey said, urging protesters who plan to go out on Saturday not to “take the bait” and escalate conditions.
Frey said an incident Friday night that led to property damage at an area hotel and confrontation with police officers was an outlier to the largely peaceful events in recent days. He said some “agitators” have attempted to stir up the protests. There was about $6,000 in damage done to windows and from graffiti at the Depot Renaissance Hotel, the city of Minneapolis said in a news release.
“We are a safe city. We will not counter Donald Trump’s chaos with our own brand of chaos here,” Frey said. “And to the few that have caused damage to property and/or harm to others, we need to be very clear we’re not going to let that happen. If you cause damage to property or put others in danger, you’re going to be arrested.”
-Jeanine Santucci
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said ICE actions in the city have turned “reckless,” giving an example of a what he described as a safety hazard in a city street.
Frey said ICE agents detained a driver and left their vehicle in the street without ensuring it was placed into park first, which he said “could have hit anybody.”
“You’ve got this vehicle that is just rolling down the street with nobody in it,” Frey said at a news conference Saturday. “This is not about safety. If this was about safety, you wouldn’t do stupid things like that.”
Police Chief Brian O’Hara said officers have had to respond to multiple arrests of drivers to tow the cars left in the road, including one case with a dog left alone in a car that required a response from animal control.
-Jeanine Santucci
Americans increasingly disapprove of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and back protests against the federal agency, recent polling shows.
A YouGov poll, conducted Jan. 7 of 2,686 American adults, showed most disapprove of how ICE is handling its job, including 40% with strong disapproval. Fifty-one percent of respondents said ICE’s tactics were too forceful, while 27% said tactics were “about right.”
Meanwhile, 44% approved of recent protests against ICE actions, compared to 42% who disapproved of protests.
The YouGov poll was taken the same day ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, during an immigration enforcement action in Minneapolis. Protests have erupted in American cities since.
Last February, just after President Donald Trump took office on a promise to dramatically increase immigration enforcement, a YouGov poll showed ICE had a net favorability of 16 percentage points.
– Eduardo Cuevas
With more ICE agents surging into Phoenix — and now empowered to racially profile under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling — urban Indigenous populations have growing fears about enforcement tactics.
Incidents have already shown federal agents apprehending Native Americans in a dragnet to apprehend suspected undocumented immigrants in President Donald Trump’s first year. Near Minneapolis, agents reportedly forcibly took a Native American man into custody on Jan. 8, even after video showed him complying and saying he was Indigenous and an American citizen. The same day, four homeless tribal men in Minneapolis were also detained, Frank Star Comes Out, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, said on social media.
Phoenix is the third-largest U.S. city for Native Americans, with about 65,000 Indigenous residents. Over 50,000 people are Navajo, according to a Navajo Epidemiology Center report. Last January, Navajo leaders advised citizens to carry their Certificate of Indian Blood or tribal identification card. However, Navajo officials have raised concerns that federal agents haven’t consistently recognized these documents as valid and could still detain tribal members.
“Indigenous people are the first people of this country,” Navajo Speaker Crystalyne Curley said. “Unfortunately, our communities have long endured the consequences of federal policies carried out without regard for our rights and livelihoods.”
Read more at the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network.
– Arlyssa D. Becenti, Arizona Republic
As demonstrations in Minneapolis grew heated Friday night, at least 30 people were detained, cited and released after police gave orders to disperse at a hotel.
Hundreds gathered near the Canopy Hotel, a Hilton property, Friday evening, according to a statement from the Minneapolis Police Department. The group also moved nearby to the Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, the Depot, where property damage was reported, police said.
At about 8:30, officers responded to a call and found a vehicle parked on a sidewalk. While they were investigating, protesters formed a crowd around them, according to police.
“Over the course of the night, individuals threw snow, ice, and rocks at officers, police vehicles, and other vehicles in the roadway,” the police department said, adding that one officer had a minor injury that didn’t require medical attention.
At 9:45 p.m., some protesters entered “forced entry” into the Canopy, police said. At 10:15, police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and gave orders to disperse, which the main crowd began to do, police said. Arrests were made among a smaller group that remained near the Canopy, the statement said.
–Jeanine Santucci
A GoFundMe campaign to support the family of Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis woman killed in a Jan. 7 shooting by an ICE agent, has closed after raising more than $1.5 million.
The campaign was started just hours after Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot while in her Honda Pilot SUV at an immigration enforcement operation on a residential street near her Minneapolis home.
After the campaign collected $1,503,533 from more than 38,500 donations, the organizers posted a note thanking contributors for their generosity. “We’ve closed this GoFundMe and will place the funds in a trust for the family,” the note said. “If you’re looking to donate, we encourage you to support others in need. We’re truly grateful.”
The GoFundMe page has also been updated with a comment a statement Good’s wife, Rebecca Good, had given to Minnesota Public Radio in which she said the two found themselves at the operation because they “stopped to support our neighbors” before Renee Good was fatally shot. “We had whistles. They had guns,” Rebecca Good said.
— Mike Snider
Among the places where people are expected to protest over the weekend are: Greenville, South Carolina; Worcester, Massachusetts; Boca Raton, Florida; Rochester, New York; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of one of the organizing groups, Public Citizen, said she expects the events this weekend to be peaceful. Protests across the country during Trump’s first year back in office were widespread and largely peaceful.
“The intent of these solidarity actions is to both honor and humanize the lives taken by ICE and to demand immediate accountability, transparency, and independent investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good, as well as expose the broader pattern of ICE violence,” Gilbert said.
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Minneapolis to protest within hours of Good’s death and demonstrations have continued to swell in the ensuing days.
The site of her death and a federal building used by immigration agents, both south of the city’s downtown, have become focal points for protesters. Authorities installed concrete barriers outside the federal building following protests.
Many protesters have taken to carrying signs showing pictures of Good. The mother of three’s wife, Rebecca Good, released a statement describing her partner as a dedicated Christian who had “stopped to support our neighbors” before she was fatally shot. “We had whistles. They had guns,” Rebecca Good said.
Local officials have called for immigration authorities to leave the city and for the officer behind the shooting to be arrested.
Minnesota prosecutors launched an online portal for residents to submit evidence related to the shooting in Minneapolis, vowing to probe the incident. State investigators said the FBI has moved to withhold evidence.
Trump administration officials are promising to double down on their immigration enforcement strategy despite widespread protests.
Over 10,000 new ICE agents armed with personal data harvested by private contractors are expected to deploy across the country in the coming months.
Speaking on a FOX NEWS broadcast earlier this week, Vice President JD Vance said ICE would be going “door to door” in the coming months to carry out the White House’s plans for the largest mass deportation in history. Federal officials say they’ve now got about 22,000 agents and investigators, up from 10,000 a year ago.
Vance’s comments were broadcast hours after the ICE agent shot and killed Good in Minneapolis. White House officials have accused Democrats of encouraging illegal immigration to reshape the country’s voting patterns.
The vice president said the more aggressive enforcement that began in 2025 will ramp up in 2026.
Contributing by Sarah D. Wire, Amanda Lee Myers and Trevor Hughes