The killing of activist Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents working on federal orders from President Donald Trump, has sparked a series of protests across the country. Civil liberties and migrant-rights groups have called for nationwide rallies on Saturday, while state authorities have opened their own investigation into the killing as the row escalated.
The federal-vs-state tensions escalated further when a US Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon, shot and wounded a man and woman in their car after an attempted vehicle stop on Thursday.
Protest organisers said more than 1,000 weekend events are planned across the country, demanding an end to large-scale deployments of ICE agents ordered by the Trump-led Republican Party regime, mostly to cities led by opposition Democratic Party.
The two shootings this week have drawn thousands of protesters to the streets of Minneapolis, Portland and other US cities, with many more demonstrations under the banner “ICE Out For Good” planned for Saturday and Sunday.
Rallies were being organized by a coalition of groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn Civic Action, Voto Latino, and Indivisible, some of which were at the forefront of “No Kings” protests against Trump last year.
What happened in Minneapolis?
Minneapolis became a major flashpoint of Trump’s militarised deportation roundups on Wednesday, after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good, who behind the wheel of her car on a residential street.
The violence came soon after some 2,000 federal officers were dispatched to Minneapolis in what ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, called the “largest DHS operation ever”.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, condemned the deployment as a “reckless” example of “governance by reality TV”.
Large protests, conflicting claims
On Friday night, throngs of demonstrators staged a “noise protest” outside a Minneapolis hotel where ICE agents are believed to be staying.
Video by activists showed protesters, some wearing bright inflatable costumes, creating a din with drums, pots and pans, bullhorns, brass instruments and whistles. Others directed high-power flashlights at the hotel’s windows.
The crowd thinned after state police marched into the area and declared it an unlawful assembly. Police detained and released at least 30 people on Friday night, CNN reported.
How as Renee Good killed?
At the time she was killed, Good was participating in one of numerous “neighborhood patrols” that track, monitor and record ICE activities, according to family and local activists.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump administration officials said she was “impeding” and “stalking” ICE agents; and that the officer opened fire in self-defence. Her swerving her car away was described as trying to ram it into an officer, an “act of domestic terrorism”.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, pointed to a bystander video that directly contradicted the Trump government’s narrative, claims that he termed “garbage”.
Video filmed by the officer who opened fire, identified through official comment and public records as Jonathan Ross, shows Good appearing calm. She is heard telling him, “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you” — moments before he opens fire as she drives forward into the street, steering the car away from him.
Amid the sharply differing accounts of the shooting, Minnesota and Hennepin County law enforcement authorities said on Friday they were opening their own criminal inquiry of the incident separate from a federal investigation led by the FBI.
Some Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, asserted state prosecutors lack jurisdiction to charge a federal officer with a crime, though legal experts say federal immunity in such cases is not automatic.
Officer Ross is shown remaining on his feet and can be seen walking after the incident, contradicting Trump’s assertion on social media that the woman “ran over the ICE officer.”
(with inputs from Reuters and AP)
