Neighbors of Renee Nicole Good say ICE has no plans to stop monitoring her.
Protests against ICE after ICE officer shot in Minneapolis
Protests against President Donald Trump and his wave of immigration enforcement have swept through Minneapolis over the ICE shooting of Renee Good.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement monitoring group launches a signal chat at 5 a.m. most mornings to track arrests and raids in south Minneapolis for another day.
Homemade checkpoints made from blue recycled boxes have already been set up near Powderhorn Park. Residents check license plates and flag vehicles they don’t recognize or think may be occupied by ICE agents. Andrew Fahlstrom, 44, one of the organizers, said these vehicles typically drive right past volunteers waving to them to slow down.
At school drop-offs and pick-ups, parents and neighbors carry whistles and are ready to blow when they see immigration officers. After that, they will deliver groceries to neighbors who are afraid to leave their homes and take others to the hospital.
This is the area where Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed by ICE agents on January 7th.
It has been the target of the harshest immigration crackdown in the past six weeks and, like many communities in Minneapolis, is home to a coalition of residents who decided they needed to stand up for their neighbors when ICE arrived.
Good, like others in her community, stopped by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation near her home in Minneapolis. Video suggested she was leaving the scene when she was shot, but Vice President J.D. Vance and Homeland Security officials accused her of using her car as a weapon and that agents fired in self-defense. Mr. Vance reposted the video shot by the agents to strengthen the administration’s position.
New angle on deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis
A new perspective on the ICE shooting in Minneapolis.
Her death sparked immediate protests and vigils in cities large and small across the country, drawing tens of thousands of Americans and reigniting debate over the tactics used by community groups to monitor ICE enforcement operations.
In recent days, Trump administration officials have called Good and others “domestic terrorists” for tracking ICE and warning neighborhoods.
Fahlstrom said they call themselves neighbors and aren’t backing down.
“No one is deterred. What I’m seeing is more people’s eyes becoming clearer,” Fahlstrom told USA TODAY. “The murder of Renee Good made it clear to everyone in the city just how dangerous and disorganized this group of armed operatives really is.”
He lives six blocks from where Good was killed. When he was at the checkpoint, he heard the sound of a siren and the signal chat turned on.
Fahlstrom said that in recent weeks, people have been walking up and down Lake Street before work and on their lunch breaks, and at grocery stores and bus stops to educate their neighbors about what their rights are if they are stopped by ICE. He added that the morning after Goode’s death, he observed four arrests and 12 ICE vehicles on Lake Street alone in two hours.
When what appears to be an ICE vehicle arrives, a cacophony of car horns and whistles follows them everywhere, and a furious text chain announces their location. A crowd quickly gathers, taking pictures and sometimes heckling the agents.
When ICE makes an arrest, neighbors loudly ask for the arrestee’s name and phone number. They comb through the cars left behind to identify information that will help them contact the abductee’s family.
ICE Watch trains neighbors to monitor and record
Since the first year of President Trump’s first term, immigrant advocates have been preparing for a time when communities will need vigilance and support systems. Jill Garvey, co-director of States at the Core, which organizes the virtual ICE Watch and Community Defense training program, said they employ nonviolent “cop watch” tactics popularized during the civil rights era, including monitoring and recording police activity and preparing multiple incident reports to supplement the official narrative.
ICE Watch began a year ago, before enforcement tactics ramped up, when local organizers asked for some training on what to do when that moment came, she said.
State at the Core’s training focuses on monitoring ICE operations and assisting by obtaining names and contact information for arrested individuals. It also provides information about the rights of lifeguards, how they can get into trouble, such as interfering with an arrest or contacting police, and how to de-escalate the situation.
It is legal to monitor and film federal employees while on the job.
Garvey said more than 10,000 Americans from large cities to rural areas have received ICE Watch training since President Trump took office last year, but that implementation appears to vary by region.
And communities have learned from each other. When ICE went into effect in other Democratic-controlled cities like Los Angeles and Chicago last year, whistles quickly became the soundtrack to ICE arrest videos. After that, it became popular to follow the vehicles of agents while honking their horns.
The day after Goode’s death, more than 1,000 Minneapolis residents signed up for Community Defense and ICE Watch training, according to State at the Core.
“Domestic terrorism”
The Trump administration has accused the group that monitors and tracks ICE of unfairly hindering the agency’s ability to complete immigration removals.
Fahlstrom said Good’s spouse was also present in the Powderhorn/Phillips area chat, adding that he did not know the extent of their involvement.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Goode of “domestic terrorism” in multiple interviews on January 11.
On January 12, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters that Good was a “madman who was part of an organized group that interfered with and disrupted law enforcement operations.”
Days earlier, Levitt said that President Donald Trump supports ICE and that “this deadly incident comes as a result of a larger, more sinister left-wing movement that is sweeping across our nation and exposing the brave men and women of our federal law enforcement agencies to systematic attacks.”
Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, told conservative broadcaster Newsmax that the clashes will continue as long as Americans continue to challenge immigration authorities.
“We need to make some progress on the fact that people need to stop demonstrating, stop yelling at law enforcement, stop challenging law enforcement, and start being civil,” he said. “Until we do that, I think it’s going to stay this way, but people who are doing the right thing by staying at home need to be protected.”
But Larry Jacobs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said the use of coercive tactics, including plans to send hundreds more ICE agents to Minneapolis, is undermining the president’s support among Americans who want tougher immigration enforcement and a tougher border.
“It kind of confirms what the protesters are saying, so much so that the state of Minnesota in Central America is saying, ‘Wait, this isn’t right,'” he said.
“I see neighborhoods coming together in ways we’ve never seen before.”
Fahlstrom said as many of his neighbors are delivering meals, helping with shopping and dropping their kids off to school as he is recording ICE.
He works with Defend the 612, which helps connect people within the Minneapolis area code with hundreds of small neighborhood groups involved in rapid response, school protection patrols, and community assistance programs.
“I see neighborhoods coming together in a way we haven’t seen before,” Fahlstrom said. “I can’t tell you how many people have since responded to these raids and gone on to do jobs they never imagined they would be doing, such as finding out where children go, getting into someone’s car after they’ve been kidnapped…trying to find their next contact or next of kin.”
What engagement looks like varies from person to person, he said. Not everyone feels comfortable filming ICE agents or begging arrested people to provide family contact information.
Flannery Clark, 42, a Powderhorn parent, said parents and community members are outside nearly every school in the Twin Cities dropping off and picking up children, monitoring ICE and communicating with school administrators.
They stand guard at schools even when children are not attending. Clark, who has an elementary school-aged child, said she was pepper-sprayed at Roosevelt High School when ICE arrived hours after Goode’s death.
Parents and community members are arranging transportation to school, delivering groceries and collecting rent for people who are afraid to go to work, she said.
“It’s amazing that thousands of ordinary people are doing this organizing. It’s not some magical outside group doing this. It’s just Minnesotans saying, ‘These are our neighbors, we’re going to take care of them,'” she said.
Goode’s death hasn’t changed her willingness to get involved.
“We’re all very aware of the risks, but this is one of those moments where I really believe we need to do the right thing and approach it knowing what the risks are,” Clark said.
on the road
Venus de Mars and her wife, Lynette Rainey-Grandell, are ICE observers who live on the same Minneapolis block where Goode died. They recorded the aftermath.
The couple often roams the area with their cell phones and 3D-printed pink whistles. Since ICE arrived six weeks ago, the neighborhood’s Signal group chats have been buzzing, and they’re busier than ever.
De Mars said the couple was more anxious than afraid, respectfully acknowledging that “our immigrant neighbors are scared.”
“We might feel a little more protected because we’re white,” Raini Grandel said.
“That’s not guaranteed,” De Mars countered, shaking his head. “Especially after they killed her.”
Contributors: Terry Collins and Michael Loria, USA TODAY
