Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered near the Galleria in Houston on Jan. 8, 2026, condemning the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.
Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the Galleria area of Houston on Thursday evening in protest of the federal government’s immigration policies, particularly in the wake of the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by a federal agent.
Dozens of Houston police officers looked on as a crowd of demonstrators marched along Post Oak Boulevard from Westheimer Road. Many protestors bore signs with slogans like “fight ignorance not immigrants” and “stop ICE terrorism.”
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
A sign that reads “Billionaires are the real enemy, not immigrants!” at a Jan. 8, 2026 protest against ICE in Houston.
“This could happen to any one of us at any point,” said Rachel Domond, one of the protestors leading chants on Thursday. “It’s up to all of us to organize with our community, to mobilize, to continue to stay in the streets and to demand what we know is possible but that they don’t want to give us.”
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Thursday’s protest was one of many taking place across Texas and the United States in the wake of the death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Trump administration officials have defended the ICE agent’s actions as justifiable self-defense. City and state officials have challenged that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey reportedly calling it a “garbage” narrative.
MORE: Michael Adkison discusses this story on Houston Matters
The protest in Houston, which was organized by the local branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, is one of multiple planned throughout the weekend. The same organization plans to hold another protest on Saturday at Houston City Hall. FIEL Houston, an immigration advocacy organization, is planning a demonstration Friday evening.
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered near the Galleria in Houston on Jan. 8, 2026, condemning the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.
As hundreds marched along Post Oak Boulevard on Thursday, Houston police officers controlled traffic to permit the demonstrators to march through the busy intersection of Post Oak and Westheimer. No arrests immediately appeared to have taken place.
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
City and state officials gather at a prayer vigil in Houston to mark the fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent.
Across town Thursday evening, local elected officials at the city and state level held a prayer vigil to mark Good’s death. Most of them labeled the moment a time for action.
“What happened to Ms. Renee Nicole Good was not an isolated incident,” state Rep. Christina Morales, D-Houston, said. “It was an injustice and a warning, a warning of what happens when fear replaces humanity, when force replaces reason, and when systems operate without accountability. And nightmares don’t end on their own. They end when people wake up, when people act.”
During the prayer vigil, national news outlets reported the shooting of two individuals by federal agents in Portland, Oregon. When a Houston Public Media reporter shared that news with officials, Morales immediately became emotional and called herself speechless. State Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, who leads the Texas House Democratic Caucus, spoke up.
“This is very clearly a pattern,” he said. “This is very clearly a pattern of escalation of simply not caring that the people in front of their barrels are Americans. These are Americans exercising their g****** rights as we’re supposed to in the Constitution, doing exactly what our founding fathers said we’re supposed to do when we’re met with tyranny.”
Michael Adkison/Houston Public Media
State Sen. Carol Alvarado and State Rep. Christina Morales speak at a vigil opposing ICE operations on Jan. 8, 2026.
Multiple leaders drew attention to a new report from the New York Times calling the Houston area one of the leading regions in ICE arrests.
“America, wake up,” state Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, said. “Despiértate. Is this what we asked for? Is this what you voted for? Hell no.”