Mass Mobilization: Over 1000 'ICE Out' Rallies Erupt Nationwide Following Minneapolis Tragedy

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Civil liberties and migrant-rights groups in the United States have called for nationwide rallies to protest the fatal shooting of an activist in Minnesota by an immigration agent, as state authorities opened their own investigation of the killing.

Protest organisers said more than 1,000 weekend events were planned across the country demanding an end to large-scale deployments of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents ordered by President Donald Trump, mostly to cities led by Democratic politicians.

Minneapolis became a major flashpoint of the Republican president’s militarised deportation roundups when an ICE officer shot and killed a 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Good, behind the wheel of her car on a residential street on Wednesday.

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.”

During one of the many “neighborhood patrols” aimed at observing and documenting ICE activities, Good found herself in a tense situation, as related by family members and local activists.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other Trump administration officials said Good was “impeding” and “stalking” ICE agents all day, and that the officer opened fire in self-defence when she tried to ram her car into him in an “act of domestic terrorism.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a known Democrat, has openly criticized the federal narrative, calling it a “garbage narrative.” Bystander footage, which has circulated widely, supports the view of civil liberties advocates who argue that federal agents had no just cause for resorting to lethal force.

This incident in Minneapolis is not isolated; similar federal-state tensions erupted in Portland, Oregon. There, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and injured two individuals in their vehicle following an attempted stop. Echoing the Minneapolis case, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that the driver attempted to “weaponize” the vehicle against agents.

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 said state prosecutors lacked jurisdiction to charge a federal officer with a crime, though legal experts say federal immunity in such cases is not automatic.

Governor Walz – a prominent Trump antagonist – has put the state’s National Guard on alert.

The presence of federal agents in Minneapolis comes in the wake of President Trump’s recent critiques of Governor Walz and the state’s significant Somali immigrant community. These critiques stem from accusations of fraud involving nonprofit organizations managing childcare and other social services, originally surfacing in 2020.

The department identified the wounded driver and passenger as suspected gang associates from Venezuela who were in the US illegally. The agency said the woman had been involved in a prior shootout in Portland but provided no evidence of its allegations against the pair.

Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, echoing Mayor Frey, said he could not be sure the government’s account was grounded in fact without an independent investigation.

The officer involved in the Minneapolis shooting, identified as Jonathan Ross through official comments and public records, captured the incident on his body camera. The footage reveals Good in a composed state, even reassuring the officer with, “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you,” moments before Ross fired as she drove into the street, deliberately steering away from him.

Video evidence

Good was shot dead just a few blocks from where George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer crushing his neck into the pavement with his knee during a videotaped arrest in May 2020. Floyd’s death sparked months of nationwide racial-justice protests during Trump’s first term in office.

A bystander video of the Minneapolis incident showed masked officers approaching Good’s Honda SUV while it was stopped at a perpendicular angle to the street, partially blocking traffic.

One agent is seen ordering her out of the car and grabbing onto the driver-side front door handle as the car pulls forward and steers away from the officers, one of whom jumps back and fires three shots into the front of the vehicle as it rolls past.

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.

Homeland Security Secretary Noem has said he was treated at a local hospital for unspecified injuries and released.

The car’s front bumper appears in the bystander video to pass Ross before he shot at Good. It is unclear from any of the footage whether the vehicle made contact with him.

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”.

The two DHS-related shootings this week have drawn thousands of protesters to the streets of Minneapolis, Portland and other U.S. cities, with many more demonstrations under the banner “ICE Out For Good” planned for Saturday and Sunday.

The rallies were being organised 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.