Minneapolis shooting latest: demonstrations and vigils across US after Minnesota woman fatally shot by ICE agent | US politics
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Protests take place across US after fatal shooting of woman by ICE officer
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that protests have been taking place across the US following the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer taking part in the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown.
The shooting marked a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. Wednesday’s is at least the fifth death linked to the crackdowns, AP reported.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since the Department of Homeland Security announced the operation’s launch on Tuesday, at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
A crowd of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting to vent their anger at local and federal officers. In a scene that hearkened back to crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago, people chanted “ICE out of Minnesota” and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
Governor Tim Walz said he was prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary and expressed outrage over the shooting but called on people to keep protests peaceful.
“They want a show,” Walz said. “We can’t give it to them.”
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot Macklin Good. Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.
In other developments:
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US European Command said on Wednesday that it had boarded the Marinera, a Russian-flagged oil tanker, over alleged sanctions violations, bringing to an end a dramatic two-week pursuit that began in the Caribbean and concluded in the Atlantic. Separately on Wednesday, the US Coast Guard announced it had intercepted another dark-fleet tanker that is under sanctions, the M Sophia, in a pre-dawn operation in the Caribbean.
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The operation is likely to strain relations with Vladimir Putin, coming at a sensitive moment as negotiations over a potential peace deal in Ukraine continue and after the US capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, a longstanding Kremlin ally. Initial reports suggest the ageing tanker is empty, having been en route to pick up Venezuelan oil before changing course.
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An urgent meeting had been requested by the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark, which has said that any invasion or seizure of the territory by its Nato ally would mark the end of the western military alliance and “post-second world war security”.
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The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the UN’s population agency and the UN treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the US further retreats from global cooperation.
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The full Senate on Wednesday heard details of the 3 January attack, which involved US special forces from Delta Force swooping into Venezuela before dawn to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Republicans have rallied behind Trump’s characterization of the raid as a straightforward law enforcement action to arrest an indicted drug trafficker. Democrats warn of an illegal act of war that could plunge Venezuela into chaos and set a dangerous precedent for unilateral presidential action.
Key events
Maanvi Singh
Since early December, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations – many of them masked and brandishing rifles – have grabbed people at hardware stores and gyms, or outside homes and schools around the cities.
They have violently tackled undocumented immigrants as well as US citizens, including advocates and protestors.
By the time Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed on Wednesday – in broad daylight, as dozens of bystanders screamed in shock – local leaders and human rights advocates had been bracing for a catastrophe.
“Before this administration, I don’t think we’ve ever seen this kind of hyper-militarized enforcement, with surges of thousands of officers,” said Setareh Ghandehari, the advocacy director at Detention Watch Network, a non-profit that tracks deaths in ICE custody. Advocates like Ghandehari have warned that more deaths could come, and that shows of force make everyone in the country less safe.
“I don’t think we should be surprised that this has been happening.” she said. “And unfortunately I think there is definitely a chance of an incident like this happening again if the administration and ICE continue to be allowed to act with impunity and without any semblance of accountability.”
In Minneapolis, residents and organizers were bracing for more violence. Hours after Good’s death, about 3 miles (5km) from where she was shot on Wednesday, armed immigration officers descended on Minneapolis’s Roosevelt high school, tackled people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders, school officials told MPR.
“They don’t care. They’re just animals,” a school official told the station. “I’ve never seen people behave like this.”
Senate to vote on resolution to limit further military action in Venezuela
We won’t hear from Donald Trump today, per his official schedule. The president has several engagements, including a photo with US attorneys and a policy meeting, all of which are closed to the press.
However, our attention will turn to Capitol Hill later when the Senate will vote on a Democratic-led resolution to limit any further military action by the administration in Venezuela. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is leading the charge, alongside his Republican colleague and frequent Trump dissident Rand Paul, but will need to get at least three more Republicans on side for the measure to pass.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for that, as well as two votes in the House, one of which is a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies which lapsed at the end of last year. A reminder that a procedural measure, known as a discharge petition, picked up the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on the House floor. It’ll head to the Senate after that where its fate remains uncertain.
The lower chamber will also vote on a three-bill appropriations package which would fund key agencies, including the justice department, Department of Commerce, the energy department and the Environmental Protection Agency.
If it’s not threats of military action against Colombia and Cuba, or talk of taking Greenland from Denmark, it’s seizing oil tankers in European and Caribbean waters.
All of it has world leaders scrambling to figure out how to handle Donald Trump’s revived form of US imperialism.
Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Pulitzer-winning author Anne Applebaum about what to expect now that Trump has ushered in a new world order:
Here are some more images from the various demonstrations that took place yesterday:
More anti-ICE protests planned for Thursday
There are more anti-ICE protests planned across the United States today, with rallies expected in New York, North Carolina and Texas.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) in North Carolina’s Triangle region has organized a protest in Durham, North Carolina, scheduled for 6pm at CCB Plaza, a public square in the city center.
The same organization has also planned another protest in Fayetteville, North Carolina, taking place at 433 Hay Street, also at 6pm, according to local media reports.
Meanwhile, more demonstrations are planned in New York City later today after crowds gathered at Foley Square, marching to 26 Federal Plaza, a major US government building that houses homeland security offices, yesterday.
Details of rallies planned today in Houston, Utah and San Diego have also been shared on social media.
Tim Walz, the Democratic governor who announced this week he would not run for a third term, posted on X that he had “seen the video. Don’t believe this propaganda machine. The state will ensure there is a full, fair, and expeditious investigation to ensure accountability and justice.”
Walz later said he had activated the state’s emergency operations center and “issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota national guard”.
“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,” Walz said.
To Minnesotans, Walz said: “I feel your anger, I’m angry.” He urged residents who plan on protesting to “please do so peacefully”.
Walz also said that the state did not “need any further help from the federal government”, adding: “To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough.”
Jeremy Barr
Cable news networks sprung into action on Wednesday to cover the breaking news of a woman killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis, rushing correspondents to the scene and bringing on former government officials and legal analysts to offer commentary.
The three main cable networks’ on-screen graphics framed the incident slightly differently. Fox News referred to it as a “Deadly ICE-involved Shooting”, while CNN said more plainly: “ICE Officer Kills Woman in Minneapolis.”
The progressive network MS NOW – formerly MSNBC – also characterized the incident in part as “Agent Kills Woman” in an on-screen graphic.
Both CNN and Fox News brought on former officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide analysis based on their government experience, though their conclusions differed.
John Sandweg, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Obama administration, questioned whether the federal agents had been properly trained and vetted.
“My immediate concern is this: to what extent has this rushing of hiring of people – this shortcutting on our training – to what extent might that have informed what happened here,” he said on CNN.
Rachel Leingang
When a federal agent shot and killed a woman during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis on Wednesday, the Guardian was nearby, shadowing observers who have trained for months to monitor and respond to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the state.
ICE vehicles, unmarked, lined the street, and yellow police tape cordoned off the area in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Dozens of protesters and community members were seen on the snowy street, shouting at ICE agents and at the local police. More agents arrived amid the chaos.
People yelled at Minneapolis police to arrest the ICE agent who shot the woman in a car.
“What were you taught by your parents?” one woman yelled at the agents.
A man on a bullhorn led some bystanders in a chant of “Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here.” People repeatedly yelled for ICE to leave, to go home and to get out of Minneapolis – a request that was echoed by Jacob Frey, the city’s mayor, in a Wednesday afternoon press conference.
“I do have a message for our community for our city and I do have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety and you are doing exactly the opposite. People are being hurt,” Frey said.
The mayor added: “Families are being ripped apart. Long-term Minneapolis residents that have contributed so greatly to our city, to our culture, to our economy are being terrorized, and now, somebody is dead.”
Wednesday marked the second day of an expected 30-day surge, which ICE has called its largest operation to date.
Witness footage appears to capture the moment a federal immigration agent shoots and kills the female driver of a dark red SUV in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
The incident occurred during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation.
The Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, disputed federal officials’ account of the shooting, and demanded ICE agents leave the city.
Protests take place across US after fatal shooting of woman by ICE officer
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that protests have been taking place across the US following the fatal shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer taking part in the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown.
The shooting marked a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major cities under the Trump administration. Wednesday’s is at least the fifth death linked to the crackdowns, AP reported.
The Twin Cities have been on edge since the Department of Homeland Security announced the operation’s launch on Tuesday, at least partly tied to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
A crowd of protesters gathered at the scene after the shooting to vent their anger at local and federal officers. In a scene that hearkened back to crackdowns in Los Angeles and Chicago, people chanted “ICE out of Minnesota” and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the operations.
Governor Tim Walz said he was prepared to deploy the National Guard if necessary and expressed outrage over the shooting but called on people to keep protests peaceful.
“They want a show,” Walz said. “We can’t give it to them.”
There were calls on social media to prosecute the officer who shot Macklin Good. Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said state authorities would investigate the shooting with federal authorities.
In other developments:
-
US European Command said on Wednesday that it had boarded the Marinera, a Russian-flagged oil tanker, over alleged sanctions violations, bringing to an end a dramatic two-week pursuit that began in the Caribbean and concluded in the Atlantic. Separately on Wednesday, the US Coast Guard announced it had intercepted another dark-fleet tanker that is under sanctions, the M Sophia, in a pre-dawn operation in the Caribbean.
-
The operation is likely to strain relations with Vladimir Putin, coming at a sensitive moment as negotiations over a potential peace deal in Ukraine continue and after the US capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, a longstanding Kremlin ally. Initial reports suggest the ageing tanker is empty, having been en route to pick up Venezuelan oil before changing course.
-
An urgent meeting had been requested by the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark, which has said that any invasion or seizure of the territory by its Nato ally would mark the end of the western military alliance and “post-second world war security”.
-
The Trump administration will withdraw from dozens of international organizations, including the UN’s population agency and the UN treaty that establishes international climate negotiations, as the US further retreats from global cooperation.
-
The full Senate on Wednesday heard details of the 3 January attack, which involved US special forces from Delta Force swooping into Venezuela before dawn to seize Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Republicans have rallied behind Trump’s characterization of the raid as a straightforward law enforcement action to arrest an indicted drug trafficker. Democrats warn of an illegal act of war that could plunge Venezuela into chaos and set a dangerous precedent for unilateral presidential action.
