In sub-zero weather, thousands of Minneapolis residents take to the streets with posters, megaphones, and a fervent opposition to the current method of enforcement by immigration officers, known colloquially as ICE. It’s Friday, January 23, and despite the frost of what’s usually an early-morning workday, businesses and schools alike are left empty. Champlin High School’s walkouts, for example, mirrored those of Edison High School.
This outrage has been largely due to the continued presence of ICE officials in Minneapolis, as a result of President Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge,” in which armed and disguised ICE agents attempt to carry out “the largest immigration enforcement operation ever carried out,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. Initially, this operation targeted Minneapolis and St. Paul, but has since expanded to the state as a whole. In Minneapolis, there are 2,000 ICE agents stationed. As a byproduct of escalating tension between protestors and ICE—and arguably, an increase in brutal policing tactics by ICE—two civilians were caught in the crossfire, the first of whom was Renee Good.
Renee Good, 37 years old, was a married woman with a six-year-old daughter. On the day of her shooting, witnesses close to Good allege that “she was not an activist,” and was instead targeted by ICE for legal observance of ICE activities. Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent, was standing next to her driver’s side window when the situation verbally escalated, and Ross shot Good thrice, fatally. When Good’s injuries were investigated, they found severe bullet injuries in the chest, forearm, and head. The full transcription of the events compiled from Ross’ body camera and eyewitness testimony is linked here. Viewer discretion is advised, for the events described may be disturbing to many viewers, not just in a physical sense, but in a moral one, too.
The death of Renee Good is still currently under investigation, but many pieces of evidence point towards ICE’s steadily increasing abuse of power. With the right to drive in unmarked, nondescript cars, permanently maintain anonymity with masks, and apparently, shirk civil responsibility for unjustified violence, the current administration’s unyielding support of ICE’s conduct may begin to resemble a secret police force in history. A secret police force that perhaps we have studied before.
But outrage is the key, here. While we live in Silicon Valley, where ICE agents may never invade in such an audacious way as in Minneapolis, our disdain for ICE’s conduct is integral to making sure they leave our citizens and residents safe.