Deployed to track down irregular migrants, the federal operation carried out Monday in Minneapolis should never have crossed paths with Renee Nicole Good. However, it was this 37-year-old American citizen, mother and artist, who was shot dead by an immigration agent. A death which questions the usefulness, the method and even the legitimacy of an intervention that has become a symbol.
In the aftermath of the fatal shooting, the official story struggles to convince. The ICE agency assures that the victim tried to rush towards his agents, justifying the shooting “in self-defense”. But images circulating online show another picture: a car moving slowly, surrounded by armed silhouettes, before the projectiles pierce it.
In this friction between two realities – that of the federal state and that on the ground – a familiar anger surges.
A mandate, a message, a corpse
The Minneapolis operation is part of Washington’s current strategy: increase raids, strike hard and display a “zero tolerance” response to irregular migration.
But the death of an unarmed woman, who had no connection with the wanted people, shatters the triumphant narrative. The tragedy raises a chilling observation: in the shows of strength intended to reassure Americans, it is sometimes Americans themselves who fall.
For the Democratic authorities in Minnesota, this slippage is not an isolated accident, but the logical consequence of a federal power which frees itself from local safeguards. “Lies” and “propaganda” were even mentioned by several elected officials in response to the government’s first explanations.
The city that refuses to forget George Floyd
Minneapolis is not a neutral setting. Since George Floyd, every armed intervention by public forces has been scrutinized. Monday’s shooting reactivates a painful memory: that of a city where civilian life, especially when faced with a uniform, can change in an instant.
The first vigils brought together pro-immigration activists, civil liberties defenders and simple scandalized residents. They all ask the same question: how does an operation meant to enforce the law end up violating the most sacred boundary – the one that separates legitimate force from unnecessary brutality?
An investigation, doubts, and a political battle already underway
An investigation has been opened. But the intervention having been carried out by a federal agency, it is still the federal state which pulls the first threads.
In a country where police impunity remains a very living specter, many already doubt that the procedure will result in anything other than a carefully written administrative report.
Meanwhile, the White House poses as a defender of agents “facing danger,” while the Governor of Minnesota,
Tim Walz and Mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, are demanding a restitution of the truth and a redefinition of the balance of power with Washington.
Her name was —
RENEE NICOLE GOOD! SAY HER NAME!!!! — She really was a GOOD person. #Rip #Minneapolis #Minnesota #ICE #DefundICE pic.twitter.com/TTWWzKsafG— Mannwell D. Glenn ♏️ (@theclassixjawn) January 7, 2026
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