More than a thousand protests are planned across the United States on Saturday and Sunday after ICE agents shot three people, one fatally, in Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon, this week.
“This weekend, people around the world are coming together not only to mourn the lives lost to ICE violence, but also to confront a range of harms that have torn families apart and terrorized our communities,” said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, an organizer of the “ICE Out for Good Weekend of Action.”
Large crowds marched through the streets of Manhattan, New York, many carrying umbrellas in the middle of a rainy winter.
In Tucson, Arizona, protesters lined up outside the office of Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani. In downtown Stuart, Florida, a crowd gathered outside Rep. Brian Mast’s office. Mast, a Republican who also chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, defended the actions of the ICE agent who shot Good, saying he acted reasonably.
“We are thrilled that so many people came out to pay their respects to Renée Good,” Barbara Turitz, organizer of the Stuart protest, told Treasure Coast News.
About 200 people participated in a protest in Fairfield, Connecticut, outside a Home Depot store.
“We’re making people aware of what’s happening in our country,” Meg Doyle, a member of Bridgeport Resists, who organized the protest, told CT Insider. “People can follow their own hearts to determine how they respond to it, but it’s about showing up in the community, our beloved community, and letting people know that we care, that we’re angry, that we’re energized, and that we’re going to make changes.”
Philadelphia protesters began their march in front of City Hall before arriving at the federal detention center. The crowd could be heard chanting phrases such as “ICE must go” and “no fascist United States,” 6abc reported. The protest was one of several in the city in recent days.
Several North Carolina cities, including Durham and Raleigh, also joined the national protests. Protesters carried upside-down American flags and signs reading “Stop Looking Away!” » and “It’s ICE Cold in America.”
“What justice means to us is that ICE is no longer on our streets,” Amy Aponte, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told ABC11. “It made me realize that in reality, none of us are safe. You know, Renee Good is a white woman. And if they can shoot her, if they kill her, they can kill you. They can kill me for no reason.”
This action comes as tensions rise in communities where ICE and federal agents have been deployed to crack down on undocumented immigrants, often leading to threats, attacks and arrests of community members. On January 7, Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen, was killed by an ICE agent during an immigration raid. Footage of the shootings taken by community members attempting to disrupt ICE operations — more than 2,000 agents had recently been deployed to the Twin Cities — quickly spread across the Internet. On the night of Good’s death, thousands gathered at the scene of the shooting, some Democrats threatened to defund the Department of Homeland Security, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to “fuck off” the city. From New York to Oakland to Kansas City, thousands more took to the streets.
The next day, in Portland, Oregon, ICE agents shot and killed Venezuelan immigrants Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras and Luis David Nico Moncada outside a hospital. Protests across the country continued to grow – as did the backlash, with the arrest of six protesters in Portland.
For the ICE Out for Good weekend of action, events are planned in every corner of every state, from Honolulu, Hawaii to Machias, Eastern Maine. Indivisible, one of the groups behind last year’s No Kings protests, continually updates its online tracker to note each vigil, rally and protest. Other umbrella groups include the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and the 50501 movement.
“We demand justice for Renee, ICE out of our communities and action from our elected leaders,” Greenberg said. “Enough is enough.”
Steven Eubanks, 51, told The Associated Press he felt compelled to attend a protest Saturday in Durham, North Carolina, after Good’s “horrific” killing.
“We cannot allow this,” he said. “We need to get up.”
