ICE feels heat after Minneapolis shooting

MINNEAPOLIS/NEW YORK — Tens of thousands of people marched through Minneapolis on Saturday to decry the fatal shooting of a woman by a US immigration agent, part of more than 1,000 rallies ?planned nationwide over the weekend against the federal government's deportation drive.

"We're all living in fear right now," said Meghan Moore, a mother of two from Minneapolis who joined the protest. "ICE is creating an environment where nobody feels safe and that's unacceptable."

The nationwide mobilization included events across the United States under the slogan "ICE, Out for Good" — referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that is drawing growing opposition over its execution of the US administration's effort at mass deportations.

Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother, was shot dead in her car on Wednesday by an agent of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The killing sparked outrage in the Democratic-led state and beyond, triggering protests and vigils aimed at ICE and the federal immigration policy.

Demonstrators gathered in major cities, including New York, Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle and Minneapolis. Some cities held candlelight vigils in Good's memory, while others saw marches calling for ICE to be dismantled.

"We got ICE shooting women in the face for self-defense. It doesn't make any sense," said Alex Vega, a protester in Boston.

"Let them come around here with that, and let's see what's really going to happen to ICE."

The US administration has insisted the agent who fatally shot Good was acting in self-defense.

This narrative is strongly disputed by local officials, who say footage shows Good's vehicle turning away from the agent, and did not pose a threat to his life.

In Philadelphia, protesters marched in the rain from City Hall to the ICE field office. Others mobilized in New York, Washington and Boston, with the gatherings drawing dozens to hundreds of demonstrators.

More protests were planned for Sunday.

Demanding accountability

"People across the country are coming together to grieve, honor those we've lost, and demand accountability from a system that has operated with impunity for far too long," said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, one of the organizing groups. "ICE's violence is not a statistic. It has names, families and futures attached to it."

Civil rights groups echoed the condemnation. Deirdre Schifeling, a senior official at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the shooting in Minneapolis highlighted deeper problems within the federal immigration enforcement.

"These tragedies are simply proof of one fact: the (Donald) Trump administration and its federal agents are out of control, endangering our neighborhoods and trampling on our rights and freedom," she said.

The fatal shooting came after the federal government deployed about 2,000 immigration agents to Minneapolis and neighboring St. Paul in what the administration has called its largest immigration operation to date.

The 30-day enforcement "surge" targets alleged immigration violations and fraud within the local Somali immigrant community, a move that critics say has fueled fear and heightened tensions across the region.

The federal-state tensions escalated further on Thursday when a US Border Patrol agent in Portland, Oregon, shot and wounded a man and woman in their car after an attempted vehicle stop.

Agencies - Xinhua