A masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year old U.S. citizen and mother of three, in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Americans have been dismayed by videos of the incident, which contradict the Trump administration’s claims that Good deliberately tried to kill the agent with her vehicle. Local authorities are attempting to investigate, but the administration isn’t helping, instead peddling dubious accounts of what happened and insisting that Good was a radical extremist who deserved it.
Hours before Good had been publicly identified, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kiristi Noem claimed in a press conference that she had committed an “act of domestic terrorism.” The DHS released a statement characterising Good as a “violent rioter” who “weaponised her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them.” Trump claimed absurdly that the officer who shot Good barely survived the incident and was “recovering in the hospital.”
As more details emerged about the incident, and local officials made clear they would seek accountability for the officer involved, Republicans have continued to push the narrative that Good practically asked to be shot.
“I can believe that her death is a tragedy, while also recognising that it’s a tragedy of her own making,” Vice President J.D. Vance said at a press conference on Thursday, baselessly calling Good a member of the “lunatic fringe” and a part of a “left-wing network” targeting federal agents. Vance claimed that “nobody” was debating the events that took place surrounding the shooting, and that he was “certain” that “she accelerated in a way where she ran into the guy.”
The vice president went on to defend the officer who shot Good, stating that he was legally protected by “absolute immunity,” a misapplied term he likely confused with “qualified immunity,” but that more accurately describes the approach the federal government is taking in the investigation. Vance went on to blast the “media” for “prejudging and talking about this guy as if he is a murderer,” referring to the agent, whom he said deserves “a debt of gratitude.”
Other Republican lawmakers have issued similar judgements.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) said on Newsmax that “if you get in the way of the government repelling a foreign invasion, you’re gonna end up just like that lady did yesterday.”
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Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) said in an interview that her death was “completely avoidable” had she only complied with ICE instructions. “The bottom line is this: When a federal officer gives you instructions, you abide by them and then you get to keep your life.”
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), chair of the House GOP, defended the killing. “This is what happens when Democrats continue to DEMONIZE LAW ENFORCEMENT,” she wrote on social media. “Praying for all our brave ICE agents who are working to keep us safe.”
Right-wing commentators also leapt to the agent’s defense, while blaming Good for her own death. Daily Wire host Matt Wash wrote on social media that Good had courted her own death. “She was trying to stage an illegal blockade of the road to interfere with ICE agents and then rammed her car into one of them when they attempted to apprehend her,” Walsh wrote. “This isn’t even a close call. Entirely justified. She is 100 percent to blame for her own death. The victims are the ICE agents who are continually harassed and assaulted while trying to do their job and uphold the laws of the United States.”
“This lesbian agitator gave her life to protect 68 IQ Somali scammers who couldn’t give less of a shit about her,” Walsh added. “The most disgraceful and humiliating end a person could possibly meet.”
Fox News host Jesse Watters bizarrely chose to emphasised Good’s sexuality during his Wednesday night broadcast, noting that Good had listed her pronouns (she/her) on her social media pages and that she “leaves behind a lesbian partner and a child from a previous marriage.”
“She was a disrupter,” Watters added, “though she considered herself a ‘legal observer.’”
The push to normalize the killing of individuals — both citizens and migrants — by federal authorities is no accident. For a year now, the Trump administration has publicly celebrated the increased militancy and cruel spectacle of its immigration enforcement operations. Raids on buildings in Chigaco, mass deportations to torture prisons in El Salvador, and detention camps in gator-infested swamp land are just some of the headline-grabbing abuses orchestrated by Trump and Noem’s DHS, before the surge of ICE agents to Minneapolis earlier this week, which led to the death of a U.S. citizen.
The administration is doing everything it can to shirk accountability for any of this, including Good’s killing. On Thursday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) reported that it was not able to access evidence related to the case after the investigation was taken over by the FederaL Bureau of Investigation.
“The BCA would no longer have access to the case materials, scene evidence or investigative interviews necessary to complete a thorough and independent investigation,” the agency wrote. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz added that the full takeover by the FBI — already riddled with shoddy investigative work and partisan hackery under Director Kash Patel — meant it would be “very difficult” to “get a fair outcome.”
ICE had one of the deadliest years on record in 2025, and 2026 promises to be more of the same if the year’s first week is any indication.
On Wednesday, Kristi Noem declared that “anyone who is a citizen of this country or is here legally has nothing to fear,” from DHS or ICE. It’s a bold-faced lie. Immigrants, residents, and citizens alike have plenty to fear from the dubiously trained agents snatching people out of cities across America, especially when any abuses of power seem to have the full protection and backing of the state.
From Rolling Stone US
