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Last week, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, at the wheel of her car during an encounter in Minneapolis.
When she was killed, Ms. Good and her wife were participating in a protest in response to ICE agents who had been spotted in the neighborhood.
The killing gave rise to demonstrations across the country over the weekend as people protested President Trump’s mass deportation campaign and ICE agents’ use of force.
Have you been following this story? Have you discussed it with your family, friends, classmates or community? What is your reaction to what you have seen and heard about the shooting and the response to it?
In “Anti-ICE Protests Spread Nationwide,” Chris Hippensteel explains how Ms. Good was killed, how the Trump administration has responded, the conflicting interpretations of the killing and the protests that have followed:
Mounting outrage over an ICE agent’s killing of a woman in Minneapolis spilled into streets across the country on Saturday, as crowds of protesters mobilized against what they called the excesses of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
The “Ice Out for Good” campaign held demonstrations in small towns and major cities, including some that have been central targets of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The protests came three days after an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen at the wheel of a car, during an encounter in South Minneapolis.
Almost immediately, conflicting interpretations of the killing — which was captured in video from several angles — divided the country along ideological lines. State leaders in Minnesota described the ICE agent’s action as an unjustifiable use of lethal force against a civilian who was trying to leave the scene. For their part, Trump administration officials claimed that Ms. Good was a left-wing domestic terrorist who tried to run over the ICE agent, and that the agent acted in self-defense.
In light of the killing in Minneapolis and another shooting in Portland, Ore., where Border Patrol agents shot and wounded two people in a car on Thursday, activist groups, including the organizers of the “No Kings” and “Hands Off” demonstrations last year, called for a weekend of “nationwide mobilization.”
“Renée Nicole Good and the Portland victims are just the most recent victims of ICE’s reign of terror,” one of the groups, the 50501 movement, said in a news release. “ICE has brutalized communities for decades, but its violence under the Trump regime has accelerated.”
The Trump administration has been mounting large enforcement operations in one city after another; in Minneapolis, the target has been primarily Somali immigrants. As has happened elsewhere, the federal agents descending on neighborhoods in Minneapolis have been met by protesters carrying cameras and whistles.
In Minneapolis, the public reaction to the killing of Ms. Good has been swift and angry. Law enforcement officers have used tear gas against protesters outside a federal building near the Minneapolis airport. Gov. Tim Walz, who has urged calm while denouncing the shooting in stark terms, has alerted National Guard troops in the state to be ready in case of unrest. And President Trump has dispatched more federal agents to the city.
By the weekend, demonstrations had spread to other cities.
To learn more about the fatal shooting of Ms. Good, read “What We Know About the Fatal ICE Shooting in Minneapolis.”
Students, read one or both of the articles in their entirety, and then tell us:
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What is your reaction to an ICE agent’s killing of Ms. Good? What are you feeling, thinking and wondering in this moment?
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What else have you read, seen or heard about the shooting and the protests that followed? Have these events affected you, your family or your community?
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Why do you think this shooting has resulted in such strong reactions around the country? Did you participate in or witness any protests against ICE in your local area?
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President Trump and other federal officials have asserted that the agent, who killed Ms. Good as she was driving from the scene, acted “in self-defense.” In a post on social media, Mr. Trump falsely claimed that Ms. Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” the officer. Minnesota officials have described those accounts as “propaganda” and a New York Times analysis of videos of the shooting contradicts the Trump administration’s account. What do you think of the Trump administration’s response to the shooting? How do you think the president should handle an incident like this one, and why?
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The ICE effort in Minnesota is part of a broader deportation push that has taken place in cities across the country since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term. For months, scores of federal agents have been deployed and have made thousands of arrests in what the Trump administration says is an effort to crack down on crime and illegal immigration. What is your reaction to President Trump’s deportation goals in general? What do you think about the tactics these agents are using?
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Is there anything else you’d like to say about this shooting or the larger issues it touches on that we haven’t asked about? If so, what and why?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
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Natalie Proulx is an editor at The Learning Network, a Times free teaching resource.
The post What Is Your Reaction to the Fatal ICE Shooting in Minneapolis? appeared first on New York Times.
