San Jose, CA – Around 200 community members rallied at Mexican Heritage Plaza on the evening of Friday, January 9 to demand justice for Renee Good, a mother of three who was fatally shot by ICE officer Jonathan Ross two days earlier in Minneapolis.

The program featured speakers from Community Service Organization San Jose, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, San Jose Against War, San Jose State University Students for a Democratic Society, and SIREN Immigrant Rights. Through song, chants, and prayer, those gathered called for an end to the violence faced by Chicanos, immigrants, and their allies.

Misrayn Mendoza, a longtime community organizer and member CSO San Jose, opened the rally with the Prayer of the Farmworker’s Struggle, reflecting on how the historical legacy of César Chávez and the United Farm Workers movement continues to live on in San Jose.

After chants of “Say her name: Renee Good,” Jessica Aniles of CSO San Jose read aloud the Legalization for All Network’s statement.

Aniles read, “If they are not backing down, neither should we. We must fight back as the Trump administration escalates their attacks on the undocumented and immigrant rights movements.”

Maria Blaze from SIREN Immigrant Rights and a student at De Anza College added, “We must not let Renee’s and many other deaths go in vain. We must keep fighting with resilience and the absolute belief that change will come but only if we step up.”

Blaze continued, stating that the escalation of repression in Minneapolis comes as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem plans to increase ICE presence in San Jose for Super Bowl LX, urging community members to get further organized.

John Duroyan, of SDS SJSU, said “Now is the time to fight,” and emphasized solidarity, “What unfolded in Minneapolis… is the same cruelty that unfolded against Keith Porter, an innocent who was murdered by an off duty ICE agent on New Years Eve. The same cruelty is unfolding against the people of Venezuela.”

Duroyan continued, “The students say no more, the workers say no more, the people say no more.”

After the program ended, protesters then began a march down Alum Rock Avenue to the US 101 overpass and back to the Mexican Heritage Plaza, chanting, holding candles, and carrying a large poster with Renee Good’s photograph at the front of the march.

#SanJoseCA #CA #ImmigrantRights #ReneeGood #CSOSJ

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