January 8, 2025 

Contacts:  Elena Hodges | elena@pangealegal.org

Vanessa Godinez | vanessa@pangealegal.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRESS RELEASE: PANGEA CONDEMNS THE MURDER OF RENEE NICOLE GOOD BY ICE IN MINNEAPOLIS AND JOINS DEMANDS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRUE SAFETY 

We mourn the loss of Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three and an award-winning poet, who was shot and killed in front of her wife by an armed ICE officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 7, 2026, while attempting to document immigration enforcement activity.  She was an American citizen exercising her rights. 

We mourn the loss of a mother. 

We mourn the loss of a partner. 

We mourn the loss of an artist.

We mourn the loss of a community member whose life was taken by state violence. 

When immigrants are under attack, we’re all under attack. The killing of Renee is not an isolated incident. It is an abominable escalation of state violence on the heels of a year of exceptional cruelty. ICE’s presence does not make our communities safer. This tragedy demonstrates the violent extremes to which the federal government will go to carry out an anti-immigrant agenda. Renee was killed at point-blank range by an administrative agency whose officers should never have been armed in the first place. This killing reflects a broader political project to expand enforcement through militarism, criminalization, and repression across communities nationwide. 

Federal officials have attempted to justify Renee’s killing as “self-defense” and to criminalize her actions by labeling them as “domestic terrorism.” These claims are false and dangerous. It is not illegal to document law enforcement activity. Efforts to criminalize community members who step up to protect one another are an attempt to silence dissent and shield state violence from accountability. 

ICE’s murder of Renee must be placed in context. Since December 2025, the federal government has targeted Minneapolis for a federal immigration enforcement “surge” as part of an explicitly racist, anti-Somali project. ICE has deployed 2,000 officers and arrested at least 1,000 people in Minnesota in recent weeks, in connection with President Trump’s xenophobic tirade against Somali community members, whom he called “garbage” and suggested should “go back to where they came from.” We know that Somali and other Black immigrant communities experience the virulent intersection of anti-Blackness and xenophobia, with deep historical underpinnings and devastating present impacts. Pangea condemns this rhetoric and celebrates the power, dignity, and courage of our siblings in the Somali community and all immigrant communities. 

This escalation in ICE’s violence comes amid a broader landscape of intensifying harm across the country. 2025 was one of the deadliest years in ICE’s history. Just two months ago, ICE killed Silverio Villegas Gonzalez in Chicago. Silverio, too, was a parent. In 2025 alone, 20 people died in ICE detention centers and camps, where draconian conditions that include medical neglect, food deprivation, violent repression, and various forms of physical, psychological, sexual, and medical abuse have become the norm. A record-breaking 60,000 people are currently detained. At least 3,800 children and infants were booked into detention. 1,500 children were detained for more than 20 days. Meanwhile, the federal government has flooded Los Angeles, New York City, Charlotte, Portland, Minneapolis, and more cities with roving, militarized enforcement operations that target Black and brown communities, disappearing neighbors, parents, siblings, and friends for profit and political capital.  

Immigration enforcement policy has never been about public safety, crime reduction, or national security. This is not normal. What we are witnessing now is the militarization of immigration enforcement in real time. Violence is a feature, not a coincidence, of the deportation-industrial complex being entrenched at this very moment on the backs of taxpayers for the exploitation of immigrants. The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ has granted CBP more than $170 billion to fund border and interior enforcement, and ICE $45 billion to build more detention facilities. With this increase, the ICE budget alone will be 62% greater than the budget for the entire federal prison system. 10 companies have already made $1 million as ICE bounty hunters, and DHS is planning to create a class of “special agents” to arrest people for both civil and criminal immigration and non-immigration violations. 

Militarization is not only dangerous and misguided, but it is also a cruel farce preying on fear and manufactured scarcity. It seeks to sow division and to steal our communities’ resources: our tax dollars and natural resources, but also our collective mental health and our trust in and support for each other. ICE and CBP will receive billions in funding, all while the Department of Education is being dismantled, families in poverty are losing SNAP benefits, and life-saving scientific research is gutted. 

That is why reform is not enough. From the Bay Area to Minneapolis, immigrant communities demand true safety and real accountability. That safety will only come from ending immigration detention and abolishing ICE once and for all. We reject further public funding for militarized enforcement and detention. We demand an end to funding mass death and organized abandonment. We demand investment in what our communities need to thrive: housing, health care, education, food, and dignity for all.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Minneapolis who are demanding accountability. We affirm our commitment to freedom and safety for all. We support and uplift community-based organizations like Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Immigrant Defense Network, and the Monarca Rapid Response Line, and their communities. 

We say no to militarization. 

We say no to criminalizing community defense and dissent. 

We say yes to safety rooted in funding housing, healthcare, education, and food for ALL. 

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Take Action in the Bay Area

  • Join local demonstrations and vigils demanding accountability for ICE violence and an end to militarized immigration enforcement. Follow local immigrant justice and rapid response networks for up-to-date actions and safety guidance.

  • Support Bay Area Rapid Response Networks, which provide real-time support when ICE activity is reported and help keep community members safe:

    • San Francisco Rapid Response Network

    • Alameda County Immigration Legal & Education Partnership (ACILEP)

    • Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network

    • North Bay Rapid Response Network

  • Share Know Your Rights information widely. It is legal to observe and document law enforcement activity. Community education saves lives.

Stand in Solidarity with Minneapolis

  • Amplify and support Minnesota-based immigrant justice organizations and rapid response networks calling for accountability and community protection.

  • Demand an independent investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good and accountability for the ICE officers involved by contacting local, state, and federal elected officials.

Reject Further Funding for Harm

  • Call on Members of Congress to oppose any additional funding for ICE, CBP, immigration detention, and militarized enforcement.

  • Demand that public funds be redirected to housing, health care, education, food access, and community-based safety, not policing and detention.

Support Community Defense

  • Donate to or volunteer with organizations providing legal support, court accompaniment, rapid response, mutual aid, and community organizing for immigrant communities.

  • Speak out against the criminalization of people who document abuse, resist injustice, and protect their neighbors.

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