Vigils Held Around East End Following ICE Shooting in Minneapolis

Hundreds of residents gathered across the East End on Friday to hold vigils for all those injured, killed or questionably detained by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the last year.

The vigils were spurred by the Jan. 7 ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Good, a 37‑year‑old Minneapolis mother of three, was fatally shot by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jonathan E. Ross during a federal enforcement operation in south Minneapolis. Video and witness accounts show federal agents approaching Good’s SUV, which was stopped in a residential street, and at least one agent firing multiple rounds into the vehicle as it began to move away, striking Good and causing the vehicle to crash; she was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

In the moment before the shooting, Good could be seen on Ross’s cellphone camera saying, “I’m not mad at you.” She’s then told by masked officers to get out of the car and attempts to drive away from the scene, apparently making contact with Ross, who fires three shots, killing her and saying, “F_cking bitch,” as her SUV rolls away with her dead or dying inside.

The vigils on the East End were organized by Hampton Bays resident Anita Boyer, happening concurrently in Greenport, Riverhead, Hampton Bays, Southampton, Sag Harbor, Westhampton Beach, and East Quogue.

“We send our hearts to our immigrant neighbors, who we are here to stand up for and defend, who we love, who we know are integral parts of our community, and we cannot be silent while these things are happening,” Boyer said to the some 50-plus people gathered in the rain outside Macy’s in Hampton Bays Friday, while also promoting Organización Latino Americana’s (OLA) work warning local immigrants about ICE operations. “Something that’s been really helpful is the OLA initiative to let people know when ICE is close,” Boyer said, adding, “In June of last year, after ICE conducted sweeps of towns in Nassau County and Western Suffolk, OLA of Eastern Long Island, the East End’s largest Latino and immigrant focused nonprofit, launched Operation Stand and Protect to protect East End immigrants. Operation Stand and Protect, is a rapid response strategy that has created an active network of around 200 volunteers who are called to witness, act swiftly, peacefully and lawfully, to arrive on the scene when OLA is alerted that ICE might be sighted.”

On November 5, ICE agents reportedly arrested a dozen people in Westhampton and Hampton Bays as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing migrant deportation effort nationwide. “These agents descended on our communities and immediately began detaining civilians, causing fear and panic,” New York State Assemblymember Tommy John Schiavoni said at the time. “Thousands across the country are being snatched off the streets without due process. Not only is this an affront to the United States Constitution and the New York State Constitution, but the lack of transparency harms the relationship of trust between public officials, law enforcement, and the public, putting civilians and law enforcement in danger. I am deeply disappointed at this violation of due process and human dignity.”

Things have only escalated nationally and continue to ramp up as hundreds more ICE agents were brought into Minnesota on Sunday and Monday, and demonstrations there and around the country attract thousands of protestors, bringing tensions to an all-time high.

Stressing the importance of filming ICE actions on Friday, Boyer noted that things would be much different if someone hadn’t filmed Renee Good’s death. “Even with the footage, we’re not being told the truth — even with the footage we’ve all seen with our own eyes, we are being lied to,” she explained, referring to the Trump administration’s quick response blaming Good for her death, including U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem saying the ICE Watch member was involved in “an act of domestic terrorism” and that she attempted to run over Ross and other agents.

Boyer also noted that OLA is looking to triple its number of volunteers from 200 to 600 and encouraged people to join the effort. At all seven vigils, gathered protestors listened to a poem written by Good. The group then read a list of names of people, including Good, who have allegedly been killed by ICE or died in ICE custody over the last year, and they observed a moment of silence followed by a prayer.

President Donald Trump described Good as “very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense,” while Vice President JD Vance called it “a tragedy of her own making.”

Critics of ICE, however, say that Good was driving away from Ross, not into him, and it was not a justifiable shooting. The FBI is investigating the incident, but Minnesota officials have questioned if that probe’s results will be fair since state investigators were barred from participating in the examination.

On Saturday, an “ICE Out for Good” protest was organized by Nathalie Alenski in Hampton Bays from about 11 a.m. to noon. Boyer attended and said more than 120 people showed up to stand against ICE and some marched from Macy’s, up Main Street and back. “It was great,” she said, noting protests will continue at the same location this Saturday, January 17. “We are keeping actions coming until ICE is abolished.”