Defiant Protesters Face Noem After ICE Shooting: ‘We Have To Be Here’
Robust resistance
The fatal shooting of Renée Nicole Good shows that people who resisted President Trump’s mass deportations are risking their lives. However, the waves of protests that followed his death show that the threat does not stop anyone from coming forward. That dynamic was clear when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited New York on Monday and was greeted with demonstrations of defiance.
Good was killed Wednesday in Minneapolis after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot at her car. In recent days, the city has been the target of large-scale ICE raids, fueled by far-right influencers. As TPM has reported, the mass deportation campaign is increasingly met with a robust resistance movement that includes legal observers and rapid responders arriving at the scene of ICE operations. Witnesses said that before Good’s shooting, officers at the scene were surrounded by these fast responders blowing whistles and blocking vehicles. Good’s car reportedly blocked traffic before she sped away when an officer grabbed her door.
Noem, who oversees ICE, discussed the shooting at a news conference Thursday morning, during which she touted an operation targeting the Trinitarios street gang as evidence of her agency’s focus on bringing “criminal illegal aliens” to justice. While the Trump administration has argued that the deportation campaign is focused on the “worst of the worst” violent offenders, data shows that the majority of those deported do not have criminal records. After Noem touted the operation, she was asked by the gathered reporters about Good. Noem described the murdered woman as a “domestic terrorist” as she reiterated false claims made by other Trump officials, including Trump himself, that Good rammed her car into the officer who then killed her.
“This vehicle was used to strike this officer,” Noem said. “It was used as a weapon.”
The shooting of Good was captured on video, from multiple angles. Visual analyzes of the footage by several news agencies concluded that her car was not actually aimed at the officer when she was killed.
Activists caught wind of Noem’s planned visit to New York on Wednesday evening and immediately began planning protests, including one that drew hundreds of people to Foley Square in Manhattan that night. Noem was rumored to show up at 26 Federal Plaza, a building that houses an ICE detention center and immigration courts where masked agents regularly herd migrants through the halls. Thanks in part to the efforts of defenders, many of these detainees were later released by judges’ orders.
A government source told TPM on Wednesday that before Good’s shooting, they expected Noem to hold her event in that building, which has been a focal point of the legal activism that has emerged around ICE detentions. Given the rumors, crowds gathered outside 26 Federal Plaza Thursday morning ahead of Noem’s appearance. Protesters who demonstrated against ICE in this area have already been arrested by federal agents.
TPM had contacted DHS in an attempt to cover Noem’s press conference on Wednesday. They did not respond or provide any information about the event.
Ultimately, Noem held her press conference at the World Trade Center, located about ten blocks from 26 Federal Plaza. She spoke in front of a small audience of journalists, which did not include TPM. When the location was revealed, some of the protesters gathered at Federal Plaza marched toward the other building.
The TPM spent the morning inside the court where an Ecuadorian was taken from the corridors just before Noem began her speech. After the event was over, we went outside where, despite the change of venue, crowds of people were protesting Noem. People in the crowd carried signs with Good’s name and photo. Some carried photos of others who were killed by ICE during the deportation campaign.
A gray-haired woman named Jenny Heinz wore a neon vest emblazoned with the slogan “ABOLISH ICE.” She told us it felt imperative to be out and about protesting Noem.
“For me, how could I not be here? How could I not be somewhere right now standing up for immigrants, for all of us right now and taking a stand against Trump and ICE illegally taking people off the streets,” Heinz said. “It’s an absolute scandal and a heartbreak, and we need to be there.”
TPM asked Heinz whether it was the shooting, Noem’s visit, or both that prompted his position. She made it clear that her protest began well before the latest events – and will continue.
“I come here every Thursday,” Heinz said.
-Hunter Walker
Hawley’s Tears
President Trump has inflamed the five Republican senators who voted with Democrats to advance legislation that would require the president to obtain congressional approval before taking any new military action in Venezuela, essentially disavowing them via Truth Social. He listed them by name – Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Todd Young (R-IN) – and said they should “never be elected again.”
This is old news for Collins and Murkowski, but Hawley is a close ally of Trump and a longtime supporter of his agenda. He broke slightly with the party last year by criticizing the sweeping cuts to Medicaid that Republicans passed as part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful” budget bill, but that was due to the large number of Medicaid recipients who live in his state. Vice President JD Vance attempted to clean up after Trump on Thursday, suggesting that senators’ votes were “based more on a legal technicality than a policy disagreement.”
In remarks to reporters Thursday, Hawley said he wasn’t bothered by Trump’s insults.
“I love the president,” he said. “I feel like we had a good relationship and I support that. I don’t take offense to it.”
He also posted more to X on Thursday afternoon to explain his vote.
—Nicole LaFond
Expired Obamacare subsidy stimulus bill passes House
Seventeen House Republicans rebelled against their party’s leadership and joined all House Democrats on Thursday to pass a bill that would restore expired Obamacare subsidies for three years.
Representatives Mike Carey (R-OH), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA), Mike Lawler (R-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), David Joyce (R-OH), Tom Kean (R-NJ), Nick LaLota (R-NY), Max Miller (R-OH), David Valadao (R-CA), Rob Wittman (R-VA), Jeff Hurd (R-CO), Maria Elvira-Salazar (R-FL), Rob Bresnahan (R-PA), Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), Zach Nunn (R-IA), and Monica De La Cruz (R-TX). ran counter to Republican leadership and President Donald Trump’s efforts to create a plan that would send money directly to people.
The bill now heads to the Upper House, where it is expected to fail in its current form, which simply revives the expired plan. A bipartisan group of senators is continuing negotiations, apparently hoping to find a way to get enough votes to revive the subsidies with some policy changes.
The House vote came after four House Republicans joined a Democratic discharge petition in December to force a floor vote on the issue, which at that time was an attempt to save the grants before they expire at the end of 2025.
-Emine Yucel
In case you missed it
Layla A. Jones explains how we got to where we are in Minnesota this week: How the right-wing outrage machine sparked the Minnesota conflagration
Morning memo: The Trump-led DOJ is going to investigate the ICE shooting, huh?
David Kurtz: That’s the whole ball game, folks
Where things stand: Minnesota officials remind residents that Trump admin’s goal is to provoke
Yesterday’s most read story
Trump officials cry ‘domestic terrorism’ after videos show ICE agent killing woman
What we read
404 Media: Inside ICE’s Tool for Monitoring Phones in Entire Neighborhoods
Mother Jones: Grok faked Renee Nicole Good’s body in a bikini
The Intercept: ICE agent who shot Renee Nicole Good identified as Jonathan Ross
