01/09/2026
Rep. Robin Kelly is filing articles of impeachment against Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is calling for her resignation: "For months, Trump's DHS has wreaked lawless havoc in our neighborhoods. Tear gassing infants, families, and police. Firing their weapons at peaceful citizens. Killing innocent people. It's brutal, unconstitutional, and out of control. It must stop. Kristi Noem must go. Now."
Call your representative at (202) 224-3121. Demand they cosponsor. Renee Nicole Good deserves justice.
To help Renee's wife and son at this terrible time, there is a GoFundMe campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-renee-goods-wife-and-son
A Mighty Girl
Renee Nicole Good was a 37-year-old mother of three, a poet, a wife, and she died an American hero. "Loving, forgiving, and affectionate," her mother called her -- the kind of person who did not turn away when she saw her neighbors in danger. She was a peaceful resistor, exercising the most sacred of American rights: to be present, to bear witness, to hold power accountable. Yesterday, she drove out to watch over her community as federal agents terrorized their Minneapolis neighborhood. When she attempted to leave, an ICE agent fired three shots through her open driver's window, striking her in the head.
A frame-by-frame analysis of the shooting footage by CBS News, conducted with retired ICE agent Eric Balliet, showed that the agent who murdered Renee deliberately walked into the path of her car before he opened fire. It was obvious to Balliet -- a 25-year veteran who was himself injured in a vehicular assault in 2008 -- that Renee's wheels were turned to the right and she was not trying to strike the agent.
"She's trying to get around that vehicle. She's trying to get away," he observed. By positioning himself where he did, Balliet continued, the agent essentially created a pretext for shooting, noting: "You're almost inducing a shooting if that person decides to flee."
What happened next may be even more damning than the shooting itself. After Renee's car collided into a utility pole across the street, the agents refused to allow a doctor who was right there, begging to help, to administer first aid or even check for a pulse. "The ICE agents told him to back up and stay on the sidewalk," a witness reported to Sahan Journal. It took ten more minutes for an ambulance to arrive but the agents refused to clear a path to Renee's car, forcing emergency responders to approach on foot.
"They carried her body out, just like by her limbs, they didn't even have a stretcher," another witness said. "She was carried out like a sack of potatoes." One neighbor who witnessed paramedics performing CPR on Good in a snowbank said they "didn't rush her away, they didn't have sirens or anything."
Renee was already gone. She had died in her car surrounded by her six-year-old son's stuffed animals.
Her wife, Rebecca, rushed to Renee's side after the crash. A witness recounted how, covered in Renee's blood and brain matter, she collapsed in the snow sobbing and screaming: "They killed my wife. I don't know what to do. We have a 6-year-old at school... we're new here, we don't have anyone."
The Trump administration wasted no time in spinning lies about Renee's murder -- blatant, vile lies, easily refuted by the extensive video footage available from multiple angles.
Trump himself quickly turned to social media to post smears, calling the screaming woman "obviously, a professional agitator" -- his sociopathic dismissal of a woman shrieking in agony and horror, her wife's blood still warm on her face, moments after watching her be executed at point-blank range. He then turned his venom on Renee, shamelessly lying that she had "violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense."
"Self defense." It is the same lie they tell every time. In the last four months alone, DHS agents have fired on at least nine people while in their vehicles -- claiming "self-defense" in every single case. In case after case, video evidence has later contradicted the government's account. The playbook is now familiar: shoot first, lie immediately, smear the victim before the body is cold.
The full weight of the federal government's propaganda machine is now trying to turn a poet, a mother, a woman who spent her life taking care of others, into some kind of violent assailant. It is despicable. It is a disgrace. Renee Nicole Good was one of the best of America -- a person who refused to look away in the face of injustice.
We will not allow Renee's memory to be tarnished by the shameful lies of a rogue administration. So let us tell you about the woman they murdered.
Originally from Colorado, Renee lived in Minneapolis with her wife and youngest child -- a six-year-old boy -- just blocks from where she was killed. She described herself on Instagram as "poet and writer and wife and mom and sh*tty guitar strummer." She won an undergraduate poetry prize at Old Dominion University in 2020 for a poem called "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs." Her mother, Donna Ganger, called her "one of the kindest people I've ever known. She was extremely compassionate. She's taken care of people all her life."
Renee's murder by an ICE agent was extensively documented by multiple eye-witness videos -- and they tell a very different story than the one the Trump administration fabricated. The footage shows her burgundy Honda Pilot stopped sideways in the street. With her window down, she waves an ICE vehicle past her. This is the "violent rioter" who was trying to "kill" federal agents -- a woman politely waving them by. Then a gray pickup pulls up. Two masked agents get out; one yanks on her door handle and yells at her to "get out of the f*cking car."
She reverses, turns her wheels to the right, and pulls away from the agents. "She was probably terrified," her mother said later. A third agent walks toward the front of the vehicle. As the car begins to pull away -- wheels turned right, clearly trying to go around him -- he draws his weapon and fires three shots through the driver's side window as the car passes him. Her car continues forward and crashes into a utility pole across the street. After walking over to look at Renee's bloody body in the car, the agent who shot her quickly returns to his car and leaves the active crime scene.
No agents were in front of the car when shots were fired. No officer was run over. No officer appeared injured. The Guardian reported "no visible sign in the videos" of any injuries to ICE agents, and the agent who fired is seen on video, walking away and holstering his weapon moments later, unharmed. Yet Noem claimed he was "hit by the vehicle" and had to be treated at a hospital. Trump, with characteristic disregard for the truth, posted that "based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe [the agent] is alive."
Kristi Noem went on to call Renee a "domestic terrorist," claiming that she had "attempted to run [the ICE officers] over and rammed them with her vehicle. An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot, to protect himself and the people around him.” Blaming her for her own murder, Vance monstrously called her death "a tragedy of her own making." DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused her of being a "violent rioter" who "weaponized her vehicle" to "kill" federal agents.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey's response to the Trump administration's lies was unequivocal: "Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly, that is bu****it. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed. The narrative that this was just done in self-defense is a garbage narrative. That is not true. It has no truth."
Governor Tim Walz was equally direct: "I've seen the video. Don't believe this propaganda machine." At a press conference, Walz called the shooting "the consequences of governance designed to generate fear, headlines and conflict." He continued: "We have someone dead, in their car, for no reason whatsoever. We've been warning for weeks that the Trump administration's dangerous, sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety, that someone was going to get hurt. Just yesterday, I said exactly that."
Even Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, careful not to prejudge the investigation, couldn't hide his concern: "In any professional law enforcement agency in the country, I think they would tell you it's obviously very concerning whenever there's a shooting into a vehicle of someone who's not armed." He added that while deadly force "is possible, and at times it is justified," "most law enforcement agencies in the country have trained very intensely to try and minimize the risk" of using deadly force.
Renee's killing, while shocking, should not be surprising given what we know about ICE's current workforce. Her murder is the culmination of a disturbing pattern of misconduct that experts have linked directly to the Trump administration's aggressive push to rapidly expand ICE's ranks.
Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, set a quota of 3,000 arrests per day in a meeting where he reportedly berated ICE officials and threatened to fire field office leaders who posted the lowest arrest numbers. To meet these demands, the administration has embarked on a frantic hiring surge, doubling its ranks in the past year, hiring over 12,000 new agents -- a 120% increase that brought the agency from roughly 10,000 personnel to more than 22,000.
Multiple investigations have revealed the devastating consequences of this rushed expansion: training has been slashed from six months to as little as six weeks, the traditional interview process has been essentially eliminated in favor of online application reviews and provisional clearances, and recruits have been rushed to the training academy before background checks were completed. More than one-third of recruits have failed basic fitness tests, and roughly half have failed open-book exams on immigration and constitutional law.
History offers a cautionary tale: after a similar hiring surge at Customs and Border Protection in the late 2000s, misconduct arrests of border control officers rose 44 percent. Between 2005 and 2012, there were 2,170 misconduct arrests of CBP officers and agents -- ranging from corruption to domestic violence to taking bribes to smuggle drugs and people -- meaning one CBP officer or agent was arrested every single day for seven years. Even by 2017, a decade after the hiring surge, the pace had only slowed to one arrest every 36 hours.
Former ICE Director John Sandweg described what happened as a result of such rushed hiring practices: "When we rushed to hire Border Patrol agents, we ended up getting individuals who just weren't well suited for some of the stressful encounters you have as a law enforcement agent. They resorted to force too quickly. They resorted to force that was unreasonable."
This is not speculation. We saw this pattern in October in Chicago, when Border Patrol agent Charles Exum shot Marimar Martinez five times -- leaving her with seven gunshot wounds -- after she allegedly bumped his vehicle. Exum then drove the government SUV, a key piece of evidence, 1,100 miles back to Maine. When text messages from Exum surfaced in court, they revealed him boasting about his shooting skills to fellow agents: "I fired 5 rounds, and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys."
When Exum learned he was being deployed to another city, he texted the group chat: "Cool. I'm up for another round of 'f*ck around and find out.'" The charges against Martinez were ultimately dismissed after a federal judge found serious discrepancies in the government's case and evidence handling.
He has no reason to fear consequences. Thanks to the Supreme Court, you effectively cannot sue ICE or Border Patrol agents for violating your constitutional rights. In 2022, in Egbert v. Boule, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Border Patrol and ICE agents are categorically exempt from civil liability for constitutional violations they commit in the course of their work -- even excessive force, even retaliation, even violence against American citizens on American soil. The ruling built on earlier decisions in Ziglar v. Abbasi (2017) and Hernández v. Mesa (2020) that steadily narrowed the ability of victims to seek damages from federal agents.
The ACLU has explained the consequences: "By further cutting off the ability to seek money damages under Bivens, the court has narrowed the options available to seek justice for border agents' frequent violations of constitutional protections." A state trooper who conducts a warrantless arrest can be sued under Section 1983. An ICE agent doing the identical thing cannot be sued under Bivens. ICE agents now operate without fear of being sued for damages -- a level of immunity that would be unthinkable for state or local police.
This means the agent who killed Renee Nicole Good faces no civil liability for his actions. Without the ability for victims' families to seek damages, agents operate with effective impunity. Congress could fix this by passing legislation to restore Bivens remedies or by amending Section 1983 to cover federal officers -- but such legislation is unthinkable while Republicans control Congress.
Criminal prosecution remains theoretically possible. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has confirmed her office has jurisdiction to charge the agent if warranted. Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez has called for the agent to be "arrested and fired," saying: "This was murder by ICE officials. They did not need to shoot somebody that was leaving the scene. The video shows ICE being untrained, unmanageable and not being able to deescalate a situation."
But even that narrow path to any accountability -- any justice for a woman's murder -- is closing. This morning, the Trump administration shut out Minnesota state investigators entirely. The FBI informed the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that the U.S. Attorney's Office had "reversed course" -- just hours after agreeing to a joint investigation.
The state agency has been cut off from all case materials, scene evidence, and witness interviews. "Without complete access to the evidence, witnesses and information collected, we cannot meet the investigative standards that Minnesota law and the public demands," BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said. "As a result, the BCA has reluctantly withdrawn from the investigation."
This is a striking departure from standard practice. The FBI's own policy states that state and local agencies are "not subordinate to the FBI" and that investigative resources are typically "pooled in a common effort."
Criminology professor Geoffrey Alpert said this case requires "two thorough parallel investigations" -- one administrative by ICE, "and then state officials should be conducting a thorough criminal investigation as well." Instead, Trump's FBI has seized sole control, blocking the very independent oversight mechanism that Minnesota created after George Floyd's murder to ensure accountability when officers use deadly force.
The implications are damning: the same federal government that deployed the agent, that immediately labeled Renee a "domestic terrorist," that lied about what the video showed -- is now the only entity investigating whether the shooting was justified.
A woman is dead because she went outside to look out for her neighbors. And an ICE agent shot her in the head because she tried to drive away from masked men surrounding her car, yanking at her door.
This is what happens when a president spends weeks calling an ethnic community "garbage" and saying they "contribute nothing." This is what happens when viral videos full of lies are used to justify deploying thousands of armed federal agents to terrorize American neighborhoods. This is what happens when training is cut, standards are lowered, and agents are rushed into the field without proper vetting. This is what happens when federal agents operate with effective immunity from accountability. This is what happens when no one stops them.
Governor Walz urged Minnesotans to remain calm, warning them not to "take the bait" from the Trump administration. "Do not allow them to deploy federal troops into here," he said. "Do not allow them to invoke the Insurrection Act. Do not allow them to declare martial law. Do not allow them to lie about the security and the decency of this state."
But calm cannot mean acceptance. This cannot stand.
Americans of all political stripes must recognize what is happening. This is not immigration enforcement. This is not fraud investigation. This is a federal agency operating with impunity in American cities, shooting American citizens in the street, lying about it immediately afterward, and facing no consequences.
Renee Nicole Good went outside to protect her neighbors. She will never come home. Her six-year-old will grow up without her. Do not allow her death to be in vain.
Call your elected officials. Demand accountability and a fair investigation. Demand that this rogue agency be reined in before more Americans die.
Rep. Robin Kelly is filing articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is calling for her resignation: "For months, Trump's DHS has wreaked lawless havoc in our neighborhoods. Tear gassing infants, families, and police. Firing their weapons at peaceful citizens. Killing innocent people. It's brutal, unconstitutional, and out of control. It must stop. Kristi Noem must go. Now."
Call your representative at (202) 224-3121. Demand they cosponsor. Renee Nicole Good deserves justice.
Protests demanding justice for Renee are being organized nationwide for this weekend -- to find one in your area, visit https://tinyurl.com/yeyffdp8
To help Renee's wife and son at this terrible time, there is a GoFundMe campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-renee-goods-wife-and-son
There is now a very comprehensive compilation of the many witness videos taken of the scene before, during, and after Renee's killing that offers a clear and definitive analysis of how events unfolded, step by step, at https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000010631041/minneapolis-ice-shooting-video.html?smid=url-share
For the CBS expert video analysis: https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/ice-shooting-minneapolis-retired-agent-video-analysis/
To read more about how the Trump administration is blocking Minnesota officials from investigating Renee's murder, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/us/minnesota-ice-shooting-news.html?unlocked_article_code=1.C1A.l2gW.DhSTc_7vPV94&smid=url-share
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For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364
For books for tweens and teens about girls living under real-life authoritarian regimes throughout history that will help them appreciate how precious democracy truly is, visit our blog post "The Fragility of Freedom: Mighty Girl Books About Life Under Authoritarianism" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=32426
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Thanks to TRM for sharing this image!
