Blood and ICE in Minneapolis

Thousands of people have gathered in a South Minneapolis neighborhood to mourn 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good, who was shot multiple times and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent yesterday. The shooting, which was recorded by multiple bystanders, is the latest of more than a dozen by Department of Homeland Security agents carrying out raids and abductions around the country.

The DHS confirmed the shooting, which took place less than a mile from where George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020. While officials claimed that Good was using her SUV to attack ICE agents, video evidence immediately contradicted this narrative. Photos from the scene of the killing showed stuffed animals in the glove compartment of Good’s car. Another video showed a sobbing woman saying that agents had killed her wife. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had a clear message for ICE and the DHS following the shooting: “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” Frey said. “We do not want you here.” The mayor went on to urge residents not to  “take the bait” from the federal government. “They want us to respond in a way that creates a military occupation in our city,” he said. “Let’s not let them.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who also strongly condemned the shooting, ordered the Minnesota National Guard to prepare for deployment in case of unrest, as in the days following Floyd’s murder in 2020. 

Federal officials have been targeting Minneapolis and its Somali population since early December, arresting hundreds in what it is calling its “largest immigration operation ever.” The administration said it would be sending 2,000 additional agents to the city after a right-wing influencer made a viral video of himself harassing day care workers under the guise of rooting out fraud. 

Good’s killing is the ninth shooting by an immigration officer in the past four months, according to The New York Times. In September, an ICE officer shot and killed 38-year-old Silverio Villegas González in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park. In early October in Chicago, Border Patrol agent Charles Exum shot Marimar Martinez five times. (The victim had originally been charged with assaulting federal agents, but the charges were dismissed after text messages were made public in which Exum wrote, “I fired 5 shots and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys.”) 

On New Year’s Eve, an off-duty ICE agent shot and killed 43-year-old Keith Porter in Los Angeles when Porter was shooting off celebratory gunfire. 

Altogether, The Trace has identified 28 incidents in which federal agents have shot someone or held them at gunpoint during an immigration enforcement action — a number approaching the roughly 30 people believed to have died in ICE custody in 2025. Noting that its number is not a complete count, The Trace report believes that fully half of these incidents — 14 of 28 — have involved shootings.

They include the shootings of three people observing or documenting ICE raids; the shootings of five people driving away from traffic stops or evading an enforcement action; and the September 30 raid on a Chicago apartment building, during which half-asleep tenants and their children were held at gunpoint. At least four people have been killed and five others have been injured.

The Trace also found 13 incidents involving the use of “less-lethal” munitions by agents — things like rubber bullets and pepper balls — 10 of them at protests. Two of the victims were pastors, shot with pepper balls during protests in California and Chicago. “It is unusual for immigration enforcement agencies to use less-lethal munitions,” reports the site:

Rubber bullets and pepper balls … can cause welts and burning in the lungs and eyes [and] are more often deployed by local police during protests and civil unrest. But since Trump’s crackdown began, federal agents have used them against swarms of bystanders that formed when ICE tried to apprehend someone.

“They’re describing what’s happening to cities across the United States as an invasion and using language and imagery that’s evocative of war,” said [one expert]. “The fact that immigration agents are responding in a way that is more aggressive than what is customary cannot be divorced from [that] rhetoric.”

You can read more about The Trace’s project tracking ICE shootings here.