Minneapolis erupts in protest after Renee Good’s murder
For over a week, Minneapolis residents have been peacefully protesting nonstop against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the aftermath of the murder of Renee Good, who was killed by an ICE agent while in her car. Good’s murder has exacerbated ICE’s controversial status in the United States. In response to protests, the federal government has dispatched over 3,000 federal agents to Minnesota, and around 2,400 people have been arrested. The multiple killings in Minnesota are not only violent and unjust but also shed light on the unconstitutionality of ICE’s actions and how the agency no longer exercises its charter set by the federal government. This concerning trend has caused Americans to doubt the credibility of federal government organizations as a whole.
While the Trump administration claims to stop criminal activities from illegal immigrants by cracking down on illegal immigration, they have primarily gone after innocent people. Shortly after the murder of Renee Good, Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old, was detained in Minneapolis. The arrest of an innocent child has intensified the protests throughout the city. This detainment illustrates how ICE no longer serves the purpose it was originally created for. As a result, the people of Minnesota are well within their right to protest over the fact that ICE is rampaging throughout Minnesota, arresting and murdering people without probable cause.
Both sides of the aisle have reacted differently, demonstrating how ICE has become an extremely controversial organization across America. President Donald Trump has also threatened to deploy additional federal troops in Minneapolis using a 19th-century law called the Insurrection Act. Many state lawmakers have pushed back against this move, instead arguing that the current amount of troops in Minneapolis has already caused immense chaos and that adding more troops just amplifies the problem.
The federal government has also been using intimidation tactics against the Minneapolis and Minnesota governments. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has called several members of the state and city government to court and is accusing them of impeding ICE’s detainments. Through intimidation, the federal government has sent a forceful message to the citizens of Minnesota and its government to stop protesting. These actions limit the protesters’ First Amendment rights to free speech and peaceably assemble, which sets a dangerous precedent for future suppression of protests against government officials.
In response to the government threats, protests in Minneapolis have taken many different forms. For example, Minneapolis held an “economic blackout” where people participating did not go to school, work, or buy products in protest of the ICE agents who have flooded the city. This form of protest intends to grab the attention of the federal government and emphasize how the vast number of ICE personnel in the city will not stand.
The circuit court of appeals has aided ICE’s fight against protesters by granting permission to use pepper spray and arrest people who are peacefully protesting. This ruling has also escalated protests with massive amounts of arrests and violence, even when there is no violence against law enforcement. These protests are not just isolated to Minnesota. Protests and resistance groups have been springing up across America since the national attention surrounding the Trump Administration’s deployment of ICE. The protests in Minnesota are not just a one-time occurrence. Citizens are standing up against a federal government that has been sending in federal troops to take away people for reasons that are clearly false. The government is attempting to shut down these protests, a clear violation of one of the core American values: free speech.
