By Jordan Liz / Common Dreams / Jan. 8, 2026
On January 7, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent murdered Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Immediately, the Trump administration sprang into action to propagandize the incident. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed that the woman “weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed, “It was an act of domestic terrorism.”
President Donald Trump posted via Truth Social:
The woman screaming was, obviously, a professional agitator, and the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense. Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital. The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis. They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE. We need to stand by and protect our Law Enforcement Officers from this Radical Left Movement of Violence and Hate!
This is a national tragedy. A young woman, a US citizen acting as a “legal observer” of federal agents, is now dead. A completely avoidable death if only ICE officers could exercise any level of restraint. If only the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wasn’t actively invading Minneapolis and indiscriminately targeting its residents—citizens and immigrants alike. If only the Trump administration gave a singular fuck about America.
Even after shooting Good, ICE agents refused to allow a doctor who was at the scene to provide aid. When an ambulance arrived 15 minutes later, they were blocked by ICE vehicles. They harassed her, shot her, and if there was even the faintest possibility that she might have lived, they took that away from her too.
In moments like this, we must remember that in democracies like the US there are four systems of checks and balances: In addition to the executive, judicial, and the legislative, there is the people.
The Trump administration is trying desperately to politicize her murder to further attack their political enemies. They kill an innocent woman and then use her death to villainize the people protesting her killer.
There is ample video evidence showing that Good was driving away slowly. None of the agents—who, to be clear, had no right to harass or intimidate her in the first place—were even remotely in danger. They simply shot her because they knew they could. They shot her because the Trump administration has specifically and purposely empowered law enforcement to act without impunity or care.
Don’t forget, President Trump has explicitly told law enforcement: “Please don’t be too nice. Like when you guys put somebody in the car, and you’re protecting their head, you know, the way you put your hand over. I said, ‘You can take the hand away, OK?” For Trump, it doesn’t make a difference whether the person has been convicted or is merely suspected. He chooses and promotes violence at every turn.
What’s particularly alarming here is how, despite the abundance of video evidence and eye-witness testimonies, the Trump administration insists on lying. This is literal fascism. To quote George Orwell’s famous 1984, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
And it’s not just the Trump administration. Conservative commentators are also amplifying this obvious falsehood. Megyn Kelly lies, “This cop almost got run over by this woman, who accelerated into him.” Matt Walsh blames the “protestor” and the “Democrats who’ve been fomenting chaos and violence against ICE for months.” Elon Musk, whose Twitter-X is the social media propaganda wing of the Trump administration, backs the ICE agent: “Attempting to murder them with a car requires self-defense.”
Even in this instance, where the evidence against their propaganda is staggering; where the murdered person was a white US citizen; and where telling the truth would have been advantageous for them, they lie. If the Trump administration was even remotely competent, they could have used this moment to hold this one ICE agent accountable for his crimes and avoid the protest that their lies are provoking. They could have exploited Good’s death to feign the appearance of being a legitimate, rule-based government. But they couldn’t even do that. Driven solely by arrogance, narcissism, and unmitigated contempt for anyone they consider part of the “enemy within,” they can never accept fault.
The Trump administration has given up any pretext of being a democracy bound to the Constitution. They demonstrated this when they kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and imposed colonial rule on Venezuela. And they demonstrated it Wednesday domestically against its own citizens. They will lie at every moment. They will resort to violence at every moment. They will kill you if you show any level of resistance.
In this moment, we cannot allow ourselves to be scared into submission. Elected officials, Americans, immigrants, anyone who cares about democracy, all of us need to stand up against this threat.
But the steps we take have to be productive. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for instance, is correct to call out DHS’s “propaganda machine.” However, sending in the National Guard immediately after an armed federal agent kills an innocent woman will work to silence and suppress protest. Insisting that “they’re there to protect you and protect your constitutional rights” doesn’t change this dynamic. Walz is not meeting the moment.
Part of what people are protesting here isn’t simply this one act of state terrorism. They are protesting the entire monopolization of force by those who were elected to protect the people. They are protesting indiscriminate violence by militarized law enforcement. They are protesting ICE’s domestic terrorism.
This protest is not only righteous, but morality and justice demand it. In moments like this, we must remember that in democracies like the US there are four systems of checks and balances: In addition to the executive, judicial, and the legislative, there is the people. We are the ultimate check against state-sanctioned terrorism. We must be that today.
2 people shot by federal agents today in Portland, Oregon
Two people were shot in an incident involving federal law enforcement agents Thursday afternoon in East Portland, the Portland Police Bureau confirmed.
PPB officers responded to Southeast Main Street near I-205, the location of Adventist Health Portland, for a report of the shooting at 2:18 p.m. Officers confirmed at the scene that federal agents were involved in the shooting.
At 2:24 p.m., police learned that a man who had been shot was calling to request help near Northeast 146th Avenue and East Burnside. Portland police officers responded and found a man and a woman with apparent gunshot wounds.
PPB said they applied a tourniquet and called for emergency medical help. Both patients were taken to the hospital, and PPB said their conditions are unknown. Police confirmed they were connected to the shooting involving federal agents.
Police have secured both scenes for an investigation. East Burnside is closed westbound between Northeast 145th Avenue and 148th Avenue.
Credit: Portland Police Bureau
A map of the scenes involved in the shooting, which Portland police said involved federal agents.
“We are still in the early stages of this incident,” said Chief Bob Day. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”
In a tweet, FBI Portland said it was the lead agency investigating an “agent involved shooting” involving Customs and Border Patrol officers and that two people were wounded. They later deleted the tweet.
FBI agents could be seen Thursday afternoon at the scene on East Burnside, where Portland police found the two injured people.
Staff at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center confirmed to KGW that the hospital was on lockdown shortly before 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. OHSU said it was not on lockdown.
At Adventist Health Portland, located on Southeast Main Street by I-205, a KGW crew saw an area outside the hospital surrounded with yellow police tape, with Portland police officers and ICE agents on-scene. Staff confirmed that there had been an incident in one of the parking lots.
In middle of the roped-off parking lot, KGW saw a damaged vehicle with its doors open.
The incident Thursday happened to coincide with a protest against ICE happening downtown. Demonstrators planned to go up to Mayor Keith Wilson’s office at city hall to demand he revoke the permit for the ICE facility in Portland, spurred on by the agency’s recent deadly shooting of a woman in Minneapolis.
RELATED: Mayor Wilson responds to Minnesota governor after deadly ICE shooting
But outside Wilson’s office, a constituent consultant told the small group of demonstrators that there’d been an incident in the city involving ICE, and that the mayor was in an emergency meeting.
Almost simultaneously, around 2:40 p.m., Portland City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney abruptly broke into an ongoing debate over the election of a new council president, saying that the council needed to immediately go on recess.
Just before 4 p.m. Pirtle-Guiney returned and adjourned the meeting for the day, after looking to reschedule for Wednesday, January 14.
Right at 4 p.m., Mayor Wilson released a statement addressing the shooting:
“Just one day after the horrific violence in Minnesota at the hands of federal agents, our community here in Portland is now grappling with another deeply troubling incident. Earlier this afternoon, two people were shot and injured by federal agents in the Hazelwood neighborhood.
“We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts. Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences. As Mayor, I call on ICE to end all operations in Portland until a full investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community?based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region. I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.
“I call on every Portlander to represent our values and to show up with calm and purpose during this difficult time. Portland does not respond to violence with violence. We respond with clarity, unity, and a commitment to justice. We must stand together to protect Portland.
“The City of Portland will continue to provide updates as they become available. We are grateful to our first responders for their support of the victims.”
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/crime/east-portland-2-shot-ice-agents-police/283-387edc28-a51f-4c4f-a0d1-5e536152e532
A nice group of people with ethical & moral foundations, met at the corner of Broadway and Front St downtown San Diego at six p.m. (1/8/25). All the political factions had a turn with the amplified megaphones explaining their various ideologies. And then we all marched with noise & whistles & chants & horns & signs throughout downtown San Diego.
This was a much larger group of marchers than the group from 1/7 that marched from Little Italy and then through parts of downtown.
We need more people to step out & protest. And we need firm strategy to rid outselves of the fascists.
They’re coming for us all. Opposition to the regime is grounds for immediate and summary execution.
I have carefully examined all the posted video showing the different angles of Renee Good’s red van and the ICE men pretending to be combat soldiers. I believe ICE stopped an un-marked gray civilian pickup truck and began walking aggressively toward several civilian vehicles. There was no identification declared, no badge shown and no opportunity to explain the purpose of the aggressive stance in the public street. Two ICE men walked toward the path of the red van, one pulled a gun and as the van turned tires away from them he fired one shot into the windshield, then stepped to the side of the van and fired two more shots. The deceased slumped and the van rolled down the block to hit another vehicle. To me this is terroristm pure and simple. There are no arrest warrants, there was no identification as police, no orders, he just shot. Three bullets in the head killed Renee Good. ALL AMERICANS SHOULD BE APPALLED AT THIS BEHAVIOR.
We should all demand a thorough and public investigation to determine if these two people were shot without warning like Renee Good was shot in Minneapolis.