As Immigration and Customs Enforcement attempted to kidnap and deport a community member in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning, neighbors gathered to observe and protest. Renee Nicole Good, a legal observer, watched from her car, blocking the ICE vehicle from proceeding. After agents shouted at Good to clear the road, she attempted to turn her vehicle around. Before she could, the three ICE agents got out of their vehicle and closed in on her. Within seconds, an officer fired multiple shots through Good’s windshield, killing her. Video shows that this altercation, from start to finish, lasted only seconds—Good was given no chance to escape harm before she was murdered.

Quickly after the shooting, ICE issued the following statement:

[A violent rioter] weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them—an act of domestic terrorism. An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers. This is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement.

The Trump administration has been quick to defend the murder as well—in her statement to the press, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem doubled down on the notion that Good was a “domestic terrorist” and that ICE agents acted in self defense. Trump himself posted on Truth Social, saying Good was “obviously a professional agitator” who “willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer.” Trump went on to call for a stand against the “Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate [sic].”

This is an unsurprising response from the racist far-right administration whose top domestic priority has been the demonization, kidnapping, and deportation of immigrants. Indeed, ICE presence has increased in Minneapolis in recent weeks as a direct result of Trump’s targeting of the Somali community in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area. Following accusations of welfare fraud, Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 ICE agents (in addition to the hundreds that have been in the city for months) to target the Somali community of the Twin Cities—a community he called “garbage.”

Democrats have responded with a different tone to the murder. Minnesota Governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz issued a statement denouncing the killing, but has, at the same time, been preparing to mount an offensive against any potential uprising in the city:

I want Minnesotans to hear this from me: The desire to get out in protest and to speak up to this administration of how wrong this is, that is a patriotic duty at this point in time, but it needs to be done safely…I feel your anger, I am angry. They want a show, we can’t give it to them.

Walz went on to confirm that he had issued a “warning order” to the National Guard to be prepared for deployment in Minneapolis in case of unrest.

This statement sounds rhetorically less severe than the Trump administration’s response, but the two statements share a common goal: get people out of the streets. No matter how “supportive” his statements may sound, we cannot forget that Tim Walz’ reputation for crushing protests precedes him. The story of the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings in Minneapolis cannot be told without including the brutality of the National Guard, the tear gas, the curfews, the rubber bullets, and the violent arrest of protestors. Every single one of these repressive measures were doled out at the order of Tim Walz. He may say that protest is important, but his legacy is one of brutal repression of thousands of Minnesotans who have protested before.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is no more trustworthy. Frey, who dramatically sobbed over George Floyd’s casket five years ago, only to pump millions of dollars annually into the police department, was asked today what his message to ICE would be. His response: “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” But where was this demand weeks and months ago when ICE began to terrorize our communities in the Twin Cities? What action has Jacob Frey taken, with all his power as mayor of the city, to actually protect the immigrants of Minneapolis? The answer, of course, is almost nothing. Months ago, Frey issued an executive order that ICE agents could not use city-owned parking lots for the purposes of accosting immigrants. This order remains the only political action taken by the mayor to protect his city from ICE—all other “support” has been in the form of rhetorical niceties, which Minneapolis has seen before and has grown tired of.

At a time like this, when far-right politicians wage war against us and our neighbors, it can be tempting to believe that figures like Tim Walz and Jacob Frey are the best place to put our trust, but we have been here before. We have seen ourselves at the epicenter of a social movement against racism and state violence, and we have seen the way Democrats have betrayed us in these moments—indeed, in every moment. Democrats, just like Republicans, represent only the capitalist status quo. They fight not for the working-class people they purport to represent, but for the interests of capital. They will never be our allies in a fight against ICE or against police, because they need these institutions to protect the status quo. We must organize ourselves, independent of either capitalist party, in our workplaces, in our schools, and in our streets, to demand an end to the terror that ICE reigns on our communities. We must put our trust not in capitalist politicians, but in our own power.

If 2020 showed the Twin Cities anything, it showed us that organized together, we are our most powerful. When tens of thousands of us filled the streets of our communities demanding justice for George Floyd, our murdered neighbor, we sparked a revitalization of the Black Lives Matter movement not only across the nation, but across the globe. People who had never been to our city knew the intersection 38th and Chicago because we occupied it for months. Folks from all walks of life raged at the state-sanctioned violence committed by those who claim to “protect and serve” us. This powerful solidarity did not come from City Hall; it did not arise from the “thoughts and prayers” Democratic politicians offered; it came from our mass movement. When faced with state-funded tragedies like that in Minneapolis today, the working class must organize, independent of both capitalist parties, to protect our rights. We have sparked a mass movement across the globe before—we must do it again.

The post ICE Agents in Minneapolis Killed a Protester Less than a Mile from the Site of George Floyd’s Murder appeared first on Left Voice.

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