Trump doubles down on defending federal agent who killed Minneapolis woman as more ICE protests planned across US – live | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
‘She behaved horribly’: Trump doubles down on claim ICE agent acted in self-defense in interview
In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times, Donald Trump repeated his claims that the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Macklin Good acted in self-defense.
The president, when asked by Times reporters how he decided that Good attempted to run over the immigration agent who shot her, asked an aide to replay video footage of the incident.
“She behaved horribly,” Trump told the Times. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.”
Notably, the reporters in the room said that the video they president played did not appear to show Good running over the ICE agent.
Instead, it shows her backing up after another agent attempts to get her out of the car, moving forward and attempting to turn before she is shot.
“It’s a terrible scene,” the president said. “I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.”
Key events
Anna Betts
Officials at the Noem press conference just announced that there will be a 15 min delay and that the news conference will start at 11:15am ET now.
Behind the podium, there are four posters that appear to show photos of four immigrants from the Dominican Republic who have been arrested on various crimes including assault, sexual abuse, and robbery.
Richard Luscombe
Renee Nicole Macklin Good, the woman killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday, and portrayed by the Trump administration as a “domestic terrorist”, was an “affectionate” mother of three children who had recently moved to Minnesota, and had won an award for poetry.
“Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known,” her mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
“She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life. She was loving, forgiving and affectionate. She was an amazing human being.”
Macklin Good, 37, was born in Colorado and had no criminal record or experienced previous law enforcement engagement beyond a traffic ticket, records show.
She described herself on social media as a “poet and writer and wife and mom”, with a 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son from her first marriage, and a six-year-old son from her second.
According to her Instagram account, which features a pride flag emoji, she was “experiencing Minneapolis” after moving from Kansas City, Missouri, last year. Her Pinterest profile shows her smiling and holding a young child against her cheek, along with posts about tattoos, hairstyles and home decorating.
Read more about what we know of Renee Nicole Macklin Good:
Jeffries calls killing of Renee Good an ‘abomination’ and a ‘disgrace’
At a press conference today, top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries called the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent an “abomination” and a “disgrace”.
“Blood is clearly on the hands of those individuals within the administration who have been pushing an extreme policy that has nothing to do with immigration enforcement connected to removing violent felons from this country,” the minority leader added.
Jeffries called Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, a “stone cold liar” and pushed back on the administration’s claims that Good was a “domestic terrorist” and “agitator”.
“There’s no evidence at all that this was a justified shooting, so let’s deal with the tragedy right now. She hasn’t even been buried, her family is grieving,” Jeffries said.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, speaking alongside his lower chamber counterpart, told reporters today that watching the video of Good’s killing felt like “your stomach was being punched”.
“There seemed no justification for what these agents did,” the Senate’s top Democrat said. “There needs to be a full investigation at the federal level, although I have little faith in the FBI is doing a fair investigation, or DHS, but at the local level as well.”
An update to the White House schedule today. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt will now address the media at 1pm ET.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as that gets underway.
Anna Betts
I am here at New York City’s US Customs and Border Protection office at One World Trade Center, where homeland security secretary Kristi Noem is scheduled to hold a press conference at 11am ET. She is expected to make an announcement regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in New York City.
There are dozens of members of the press here awaiting Noem. The press conference comes a day after an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good in Minneapolis.
Noem has defended the ICE agent involved in the shooting, and said that the woman who was shot had attempted to run over the officer. “Our officer followed his training, did exactly what he’s been taught to do in that situation and took actions to defend himself and defend his fellow law enforcement officers,” Noem said on Wednesday.
But local and state leaders in Minnesota have disputed the DHS’s account of the fatal incident, with Minneapolis’s Democratic Mayor on Wednesday calling it a “garbage narrative”.
“They’re already trying to spin this as an action of self-defense,” Jacob Frey said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly – that is bullshit.”
Vice-president JD Vance called Renee Nicole Macklin Good, the 37-year-old woman fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, a “deranged leftist” who tried to run the federal officer over.
“Every congressional democrat and every democrat who’s running for president should be asked a simple question: Do you think this officer was wrong in defending his life against a deranged leftist who tried to run him over?” Vance wrote in a post on social media.
My colleague, Richard Luscombe, reports that authorities in Minneapolis canceled school classes across the city on Thursday amid safety concerns and rising political tension, following the killing of Renee Nicole Macklin Good by a federal immigration agent during a large-scale enforcement operation.
‘She behaved horribly’: Trump doubles down on claim ICE agent acted in self-defense in interview
In a wide-ranging interview with the New York Times, Donald Trump repeated his claims that the ICE agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Macklin Good acted in self-defense.
The president, when asked by Times reporters how he decided that Good attempted to run over the immigration agent who shot her, asked an aide to replay video footage of the incident.
“She behaved horribly,” Trump told the Times. “And then she ran him over. She didn’t try to run him over. She ran him over.”
Notably, the reporters in the room said that the video they president played did not appear to show Good running over the ICE agent.
Instead, it shows her backing up after another agent attempts to get her out of the car, moving forward and attempting to turn before she is shot.
“It’s a terrible scene,” the president said. “I think it’s horrible to watch. No, I hate to see it.”
Late Wednesday night, Donald Trump re-shared a Fox News segment where the channel’s law enforcement contributor, and former FBI agent, Nicole Parker, said that the “use of deadly force” in yesterday’s shooting “is justified”.
“Let me make something very clear, no law enforcement officer, and particularly federal agent, wants to have to deploy and utilize their firearm in the line of duty. When you are doing that, you know that you have no other choice and that you are literally defending your life or the life of others,” she said. “When there is a vehicle coming at you and it is being used as a weapon, deadly force is justified.”
On Wednesday night, hundreds of Minneapolis residents gathered across the city, following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by a federal immigration agent.
Crowds chanted “say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE”. This comes after the Department of Homeland Security said that the agent was acting in “self-defense”, while local officials – including Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, have disputed the Trump administration’s account. Minnesota governor Tim Walz has called on federal law enforcement to leave the state and for demonstrators to protest peacefully.
