'These ICE agents are here for sport': Why Minneapolis was targeted
SOURCE:ABC Australia|BY:Phoebe Hosier
Minneapolis had been the target of a massive immigration enforcement operation in the weeks leading up to Renee Nicole Good's death. Now, the shooting has opened old wounds.
Somali woman Fathmo Hassan has barely left her Minneapolis home in weeks.
But with homemade sambusas and canisters of coffee ready to be dispensed, she stepped out into the pale winter day and headed to a suburban street where mourners were gathering to remember Renee Nicole Good.
"She was a mother, she was respected. She tried to help the people," Hassan said, standing on an icy footpath at the memorial. "It's very, very sad."
Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was monitoring an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation when she was fatally shot through the windshield and open window of her car by an immigration officer earlier this week.
She was what is described as a legal observer, someone who volunteers their time to document ICE operations and warn communities when officers are nearby.
Her killing has ignited nationwide protests and further entrenched deep political divisions over the Trump administration's increasingly violent immigration crackdown.
The nature of her killing, and the aggressive political rhetoric that quickly ensued, has enraged a city still scarred by a recent string of tragedies, and where the memory of murdered African American man George Floyd looms large.
Since December, immigration officers, known as ICE, have conducted sweeping operations across the city, deploying 2,000 masked and armed officers in what it described as its largest operation to date.
The actions in Minneapolis have targeted undocumented migrants with a particular focus on Somalis — a group that President Donald Trump has referred to as "garbage" while criticising a federal fraud scheme involving Somali Americans in the state.
Immigration raids continue across the city days after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good. (Reuters: Tim Evans)
At the memorial site, Hassan shifts uncomfortably, scanning the crowd.
When she arrived in the US in 2005, she was welcomed with typical Midwestern charm — a community of cheery, unpretentious and neighbourly people.
Now, she said hostility towards her community had become common, leaving her fearful to go to work in an aged care home.
"Anytime I go outside, I'm very scared. [We are] physically attacked. They say, 'Go back to your country, this is not your country'. It's very sad," she said.
"I'm not garbage. I pay taxes. I want this to stop."
A city targeted
Many in Minnesota feel the state and its Democratic governor, Tim Walz — who ran against Donald Trump as vice-presidential nominee in the 2024 election — have been singled out by the Trump administration over his handling of the fraud scandal that has plagued the state.
The allegations, which date back to 2020, involve federally funded non-profit childcare and social service providers, with prosecutors estimating the fraud could reach $US9 billion ($13 billion) — a figure state officials reject as exaggerated.
Donald Trump has sought to portray Minnesota and its Somali community as a hotspot for fraud. (Reutesr: Tim Evans)
A 2021 federal investigation into a series of schemes resulted in charges against 92 people with 62 convicted — many of them Somali, according to CBS News.
Trump has since sought to portray Minnesota and its Somali population as a hotspot for fraud.
Immigration rights groups have accused the administration of using the scandal as a scapegoat to target Somali immigrants.
Attacks on the Somali community followed after a recent string of racist remarks by Donald Trump, describing them as "garbage" and saying he did not want them "in our country."
Kathryn Johnson, a podcaster and spokesperson with Minnesotan Republican think tank the Center of the American Experiment, said there was a perception illegal immigrants were implicated in the scam.
"It feels really disrespectful to the taxpayers and the people of Minnesota that so much was stolen, and they went to such minimal lengths to hide it," she said.
Johnson said the scandal had appalled Minnesotans and led to "a lot of resentment".
Governor Tim Walz said those involved would be prosecuted and pushed back on the federal politicisation of the issue, criticising the administration for demonising an entire community.
Old wounds reopened
Good was fatally shot four blocks from where African American man George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in 2020.
Five years on from his murder, the memory of that historic turning point still weighs heavy in the collective psyche of many in Minneapolis.
It ignited a national reckoning over race and police brutality and left deep scars across the city.
The fatal shooting of Nicole Renee Good happened just a few blocks from where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. (ABC News: Phoebe Hosier)
For many, those wounds were reopened this week as Minnesotans again mobilised in protest to demand accountability for an officer's actions.
"We have been here before," Minneapolis Reverend Kenny Callaghan said.
"We know what to do as a city, we know how to raise ourselves up to protest against marginalisation and intimidation and abuse of human life and dignity.
"We will be out in the streets protesting this insanity until we don't need to anymore."
Some hope Good's death will serve as a watershed moment in the administration's immigration campaign, much like George Floyd's murder did for police brutality.
Reverend Kenny Callaghan says Minneapolis has a history of protesting against "marginalisation and intimidation". (ABC News: Bradley McLennan)
Anger and distrust of authorities can be felt across Minneapolis, with acrimony occasionally levelled at members of the press.
In the aftermath of her death, the ABC approached the scene where Good was killed and was met with hostile local activists who had barricaded the streets with wooden pallets, skip bins and witch's hats.
Red spray paint spelled out "ICE KILLS GOOD PEOPLE" on the frosty sidewalk, the letters blurring and running in the snow like blood.
The memorial site of Good's death had shifted into a community event with a charged atmosphere. An abrupt noise nearby was enough to make everyone jump.
Smoke rose from a bin fire into the grey winter sky as residents and activists huddled around, eyeing passers-by and handing out food.
Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Minneapolis last week. (AP: Mike Householder)
A series of barbed comments from activists made it clear the press were perceived as a hindrance to their cause.
The few network journalists on the scene were closely trailed by stern-faced security details with searching eyes.
To the left, conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham was encircled by a group in a tense exchange.
To the right, a large sign painted in angry scrawl read: "Dear press, you're pointing your cameras at the wrong people. Film the fascists."
News had filtered through that the Department of Justice had blocked the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from working with federal authorities on the investigation into Good's death.
A demonstration against the immigration crackdown was happening outside a federal building in Minneapolis in the days following the fatal shooting. (Reuters: Tyrone Siu)
The move is considered highly unusual and has contributed to the growing mistrust in any federal investigation into the incident.
"There is no accountability in this administration," a woman said at the memorial when the ABC returned the following day, adding that she had no faith in a fair FBI probe.
"I felt immense anger. I wanted to vomit," the woman recalled of the footage, having flown in from Montana to pay her respects.
"I wanted to go into a cave and come out in three years and see if we still have a country."
'They're here for sport'
The events in Minneapolis are the latest flashpoint in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, which has sparked widespread condemnation.
Within 48 hours of Good's killing, another two people were shot in their car by a Customs and Border Protection agent in Portland, Oregon. The Department of Homeland Security described the action as being a "defensive shot".
Minneapolis has been the ignition point for demonstrations across the United States before. (Reuters: Tim Evans)
As Americans watched the same footage of Good's death, two starkly different narratives quickly emerged.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quickly defended the officer's actions, describing the incident as an act of "domestic terrorism".
Trump went further, posting that Good had "violently, wilfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer".
Democratic local and state leaders quickly condemned that characterisation, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey dismissing it as "bullshit", instead describing the officer's actions as a "reckless abuse of power".
Kathryn Johnson said she was careful not to jump to any conclusions too quickly but believed the ICE officer was "in fear for his life."
She blamed Governor Tim Walz for inflaming tensions with political rhetoric, although she conceded that Trump had done the same.
"He [Walz] had hardly any information and he declared that this officer had essentially murdered a woman in cold blood," she said.
She accused Walz of calling for civil war when he mentioned he was preparing the National Guard for deployment.
Reverend Callaghan rejected that characterisation categorically, describing the administration's narrative as blatant lies.
Having had his own interaction with ICE, he believes their operations are driven entirely by systemic racism.
At the same time and on the same street as Good was shot dead, Callaghan had noticed ICE agents harassing a Hispanic woman.
"I said to them, 'Arrest me, take me, I'm not afraid of you' … They pointed a gun at me and before I knew it they had me in handcuffs," he said.
"They said, 'Are you afraid yet?' And I said, 'No'. And then they said, 'Well, you're white. You wouldn't be any fun anyway.'"
The comment left him aghast.
"I couldn't believe it. I could not believe my ears or my eyes what I was witnessing firsthand happening in this country," he said.
"These ICE agents are here for sport. They're not here for immigration raids. They're here for sport."
The ABC has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.