Minneapolis, Portland shooting sparks protests over ICE crackdown as grievance grows
Another round of protests was planned for Friday in Minneapolis over the killing of a local woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer during Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in the city, a day after immigration officials shot and wounded two people in Portland, Ore.
Hundreds of people protesting the shooting of Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday marched in the pouring rain Thursday night down one of Minneapolis’ main streets, chanting “ICE out now!” and holding signs that read, “Killer ICE off our streets.” The day began with a protest outside a federal immigration detention center in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Authorities erected barriers outside the facility on Friday.
And on Friday, city crews removed barriers of old Christmas trees and other debris that blocked roads around the scene where an ICE officer shot Good as he tried to drive away. City officials said they would allow a temporary shrine for the 37-year-old mother of three to remain.
The shooting in Portland happened outside a hospital Thursday afternoon. A man and a woman were shot inside the car, their condition is not yet known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city pending a full investigation, as hundreds protested Thursday night at the local ICE building.
Early Friday morning, Portland police reported that officers arrested several protesters after asking them to move from the street to the side of the road, to allow traffic.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis amid the Trump administration’s latest crackdown, and now anger is burning over conflicting accounts of what really happened. Andrew Chang breaks down the video evidence moment by moment and compares it to the laws governing the use of force and self-defense. Photos provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
This happened just after the shooting of Good, the US Department of Homeland Security defended the action of the police in Portland, saying it happened after a Venezuelan man suspected of having ties to gangs, who was involved in the latest incident, tried to “arm” his car to hit the police. It is not clear whether these images were captured on video like Good’s.
“The agent took immediate action to protect himself and the others, and shot them,” Homeland Security said in a statement to X on Friday.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly portrayed the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting he used his car as a weapon to attack the police officer who shot him.
Vice President JD Vance said the firing was justified and that Good was “a victim of left-wing ideology.”
“I believe that his death is a tragedy and I also know that it is a tragedy of his own making,” said Vance, noting that the police officer who killed him had his car damaged when he was arrested last June.
But state and local officials and protesters rejected that, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying the video footage showed the self-defense argument was “rubbish.”
Union leaders want ICE agents to stay out of schools
Education Minnesota and union leaders from schools across the state called on ICE to stay away from schools at a press conference on Friday.
“We saw ICE in Roseville circling school property, waiting for families to pick up kids,” Education Minnesota president Monica Byron told reporters.
“In Greater Minnesota, students in St. Cloud, St. James and Rochester are afraid to go to school because they fear harassment, assault or worse, the very people our government was determined to protect,” Byron said.
The Minneapolis shooting came on the second day of an immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, which Homeland Security said was the largest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 police officers participated and Noem said they arrested more than 1,500 people.
It sparked an immediate response in the city where the police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of people arriving at the scene to express their anger at ICE and the school district canceling classes for a week as a precaution.
Hundreds of people continue to visit the memorial for Renee Nicole Good, 37, a day after she was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.
Good’s death — at least the fifth tied to the immigration sweep since Trump took office — has extended beyond Minneapolis, as protests have been held or expected this week in many major US cities.
A Minnesota agency investigating the shooting of a police officer said Thursday it had been told the FBI and the US Department of Justice would not cooperate with it, effectively ending the state’s role in determining whether a crime was committed. Noem said the state does not have the power to govern.
“Without full access to the evidence, witnesses and information gathered, we will not be able to meet the investigative standards demanded by Minnesota law and the public,” said Drew Evans, head of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
Senators pressure DOJ, FBI to work with local authorities
In a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi, US Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith called for a thorough, objective and impartial investigation into the killings in Minneapolis.
“That requires full cooperation with state investigators and local authorities,” the letter reads.
The Hennepin County district attorney, who oversees the Minneapolis district, also asked the public to bring video and other evidence related to Good’s shooting to his office at a press conference Friday.
Federal officials declined to identify the agent by name and CBC News could not independently confirm the agent’s identity, but the information previously provided to Vance and Noem matches that in federal court documents of an incident involving an ICE officer in Bloomington last June.
Court documents reviewed by CBC News say the agent, identified as Jonathan Ross, was dragged away as police tried to arrest Roberto Carlos Muñoz. Muñoz, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was convicted of sexually abusing his stepdaughter three years ago.
