Today, following an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis involving 2,000 federal agents, which an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official claimed was their largest operation “ever,” an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37 year-old legal observer and resident of the Twin Cities.
Minneapolis is home to a large Somali and Somali American community that recently has endured hateful rhetoric, harassment, and false accusations of illegal conduct following President Trump’s racist and xenophobic verbal attacks against this longstanding Minnesotan ethnic community.
In response, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson issued the following statement:
“Our hearts go out to Renee Nicole Good’s family and friends, and to the wider Minneapolis community, for this shocking, devastating, and preventable loss of life at the hands of a federal ICE official. Today’s wanton killing of a legal observer is a horrific abuse of power and act of aggression against an American citizen exercising her First Amendment freedoms. This tragic incident once again exposes the extraordinary and unnecessary danger that the presence of these federal agents poses to all communities.
“This is not the first killing arising out of the Trump administration’s violent, aggressive and costly immigration tactics. DHS has made it abundantly clear that public safety is not the real motivation behind its large-scale show of force, as evidenced by this reckless use of a firearm against a motorist who, based on currently available video footage, did not appear to pose a threat justifying deadly force.
“The Department of Homeland Security has already falsely characterized Ms. Good as a domestic terrorist in a shameful and cowardly effort to deflect its own responsibility for this indefensible killing. As Minneapolis residents and people nationwide know too well, it is DHS agents’ violent actions that are instilling fear in Minneapolis and other communities across the country, not their immigrant neighbors. DHS has demonstrated a callous disregard for our public safety and well-being, and we condemn it unequivocally. We urge the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to swiftly and comprehensively complete their investigation in the interests of justice and accountability. We also call on protesters across the nation to exercise their constitutional rights peacefully and robustly in support of justice and the rule of law.”
###
Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
