In response to two shootings involving federal agents that resulted in one fatality and two injuries, individuals have taken to the streets in protest.
Citizens in various cities and towns across the United States have assembled following an incident in Minneapolis where an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good, and another case in Portland, Oregon, where immigration enforcement officers shot and wounded two individuals.
The protests coincide with the implementation of what the US Department of Homeland Security refers to as its largest-ever immigration enforcement operation in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Despite widespread criticism, President Donald Trump’s administration has justified the shootings as acts of self-defense against individuals who were allegedly using their vehicles as weapons.
Many demonstrations have been branded under the theme “ICE Out for Good,” a wordplay on the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The organization and its local branches claim to have coordinated protests nationwide last year, spanning all states in the country.
The Trump administration has deployed a significant number of federal officers to Minnesota as part of an intensified enforcement initiative, involving over 2,000 personnel. Some of the officers were redeployed after a sudden withdrawal from Louisiana, where they were engaged in a separate operation that had commenced the previous month and was scheduled to continue until February.