NEW YORK, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Rallies erupted in dozens of U.S. cities on Saturday after a federal immigration agent fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, intensifying nationwide anger over immigration enforcement under the Donald Trump administration.
Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot dead on Wednesday by an agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The killing sparked outrage in the Democratic-led state and beyond, triggering protests and vigils aimed at ICE and federal immigration policy.
Demonstrators gathered in major cities, including New York, Washington, D.C., 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.
In Manhattan, protesters braved the rain, chanting "ICE Out for Good" and carrying signs reading "Freeze ICE," "ICE Off Our Streets For Good," and "No War on Our Cities."
"We demand accountability for the killing of Renee Nicole Good and for all the lives lost at the hands of ICE," said Julia Layne, a participant in the New York march. "The violence must stop."
Organizers said more than 1,000 protests and related events were planned nationwide over the weekend, responding not only to Good's death but to what they described as a pattern of unchecked violence by federal immigration enforcement agencies.
"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 federal immigration enforcement.
"These tragedies are simply proof of one fact: the Trump administration and its federal agents are out of control, endangering our neighborhoods and trampling on our rights and freedom," she said.
The protests coincided with broader mobilization by anti-ICE groups. The 50501 Movement, a grassroots organization, announced a nationwide letter-writing campaign urging Congress to abolish ICE and hold the administration accountable. The group said it was backing hundreds of "ICE Out For Good" demonstrations across the country over the weekend.
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. ■
