Massive demonstrations continued into Tuesday night in Minneapolis as tensions rose between protesters and federal agents over the killing of a motorist last week by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
Hundreds of protesters gathered Tuesday outside the Graduate by Hilton hotel on the University of Minnesota campus, holding signs and shouting, sometimes into megaphones, “Fuck ICE!”
The protests began after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot to death on Jan. 7 by an ICE agent while in her vehicle. The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that officer who shot Good, Jonathan Ross, suffered internal bleeding from being hit by her vehicle. Videos viewed from several angles, however, do not indicate that Ross was struck.
After Good’s shooting, protesters swarmed the streets, some acting as legal observers, recording interactions between civilians and federal officers in hopes of compelling some level of accountability.
Over the weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sent hundreds of additional officers to Minnesota.
Videos over the past week have shown Minneapolis residents, often vastly outnumbered by immigration officers, pulled from vehicles, chased down the street and detained. At least one video shows agents using tear gas.
U.S. citizens in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area say they have been detained, questioned, threatened and even attacked by federal immigration officials in recent weeks, describing encounters that left them fearful and shaken despite their legal status. The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul filed a lawsuit Monday in an attempt to block the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation. On Wednesday, Judge Katherine Menendez of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota declined to immediately block ICE without giving the federal government an opportunity to respond, but she said she would handle the case on an expedited basis. Minneapolis is one of many cities targeted by the Trump administration in a nationwide crackdown on crime and immigration. Since President Donald Trump took office for a second term last year, immigration agencies and National Guard troops have been sent to cities including Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Memphis.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian. Recommended
