On Jan. 7 a woman–later identified as 37-year-old American citizen Renee Good– was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer (ICE) in Minneapolis. The video taken by bystanders of the incident shows an officer approaching Good’s car stopped in the middle of the road. The agent shouts and demands that the driver (Good) open the door. The car begins to pull away and a different ICE officer, later identified as Johnathan Ross, seen standing in front of the vehicle pulls out his weapon and fires three shots into the vehicle at close range. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says the video shows the ICE agent’s use of force as reckless and unnecessary. The Department of Homeland Security, however, maintains that Agent Jonathan Ross “dutifully acted in self-defense.”

Video below: Witness describing Minneapolis shooting with ICE officer

Warning: The contents of the following video are disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

Trump didn’t hold a press conference after Good was killed, instead posting on Truth Social that Good “viciously ran over the ICE officer,” and claims “The Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers,” despite the video disputing this idea. The video shows agent Ross was not in immediate danger, rather he was located on the side of Good’s vehicle when he fired, her wheels turned away from him.

TIME magazine interviewed a former ICE agent about the shooting. The agent explained, “If someone is able to make the argument that she was trying to hit him, he feared for his life, and all he could do was shoot…then sure, he can justify it that way. 
But I think when you look at it a little bit more, it’s … very problematic for him.” It is telling how ICE agents are willing to publicly criticize their colleagues and superiors.  The views of this agent are also reflected through the American people. 

ICE’s presence has rocked communities especially in Minneapolis, “It’s affecting every aspect of daily life,” said Ryan Pérez, Organizing Director of Copal, a nonprofit group that supports Latino families in Minnesota. It is no longer about getting high-profile criminals out of the country, but rather anyone who is not white presenting or outright protesting ICE activity. A recent CNN poll conducted found that the majority of Americans, 56%, say the use of a gun in the Renee Good shooting was an inappropriate use of force, with 51% saying that it also reflects bigger problems with the way that ICE is operating. 

In a 60 Minute interview Trump was asked if he thinks some ICE raids have gone too far and his said, “I don’t think they’ve gone far enough.” Good’s death is not the first at the hands of ICE agents – 43-year-old Los Angeles resident and American citizen Keith Porter Jr. was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE officer on Dec. 31, 2025.

During Trump’s 2024 campaign, he promised to establish America’s biggest deportation plan. Needless to say, he has come through with that promise, in a way most Americans didn’t imagine. In less than a year, ICE doubled its manpower from 10,000 to 22,000. ICE has shortened the training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia from 13 weeks to six weeks, in which the former agent from the TIME magazine interview described this choice as a “recipe for disaster.”

In July 2025, ICE was reporting an average of 930 daily arrests, about 42% of which involved people without charges or convictions. Following the Good shooting, a Quinnipiac University poll found 53% of registered voters say the shooting was not justified. The Minneapolis siege has become more intense than any of ICE’s past attempts. The polling results are important because not only does it show the public’s disagreement with this incident, it reveals how Americans perceive these enforcement tactics. The fact that more than half of voters see this shooting as unjustified suggests that there is a growing part of the public that is uneasy about ICE’s presence. 

In the past week Trump has threatened to cut funding from sanctuary cities, though those cities are not yet named. Trump seems to focus on places that limit their cooperation with ICE. This is not the first time Trump has attempted to do so. Last year in April 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at potentially cutting off federal funds to sanctuary cities, which was a move that was swiftly challenged in court and blocked by federal judges. 

State leaders have pushed back. New York Governor Kathy Hochul made a statement last year about this order stating, “This is just a threat to intimidate states like New York into bowing into submission. And that is something we’ll never do.”  It is clear this administration tries to use federal dollars as leverage to force their immigration agenda, even when legal and public opinion doesn’t support them. From Good to ICE’s operations in Minneapolis, these decisions of ICE are decisions with real consequences for everyday people.

The rapid growth of ICE’s agents and shortening their training creates a recipe for disaster. The Good and Porter Jr. shooting highlights the dangers of this approach.  It has shaken the safety and trust in communities. An encounter that was supposed to be brief turned into one that quickly escalated into using lethal force, sparking public outrage and bringing ICE’s tactics to the center of a national political discussion.