The Trump administration is escalating its immigration crackdown in Minnesota, deploying hundreds more federal officers to the state just days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed a woman during an operation in Minneapolis.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that additional ICE and Border Patrol agents would begin arriving immediately, despite nationwide protests and mounting criticism over the killing of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot Wednesday.
“We’re sending more officers today and tomorrow,” Noem said in an interview on Fox News. “There will be hundreds more, in order to allow our ICE and our Border Patrol individuals that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely.”
A neigbhor who saw what happened told local MPR news: “She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in — like, his midriff was on her bumper — and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times” / Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Good was shot by ICE officer Jonathan Ross during a confrontation on a residential street. Video footage recorded by bystanders — and by Ross himself — shows Good sitting in her SUV speaking with officers as her wife stood outside the vehicle. Moments later, as the car began to move, Ross fired multiple rounds into the vehicle, killing her.
An eyewitness told NBC News that he was startled by the gunfire and did not believe the vehicle was about to strike anyone.
Despite that, Noem has repeatedly characterized Good as a “domestic terrorist,” insisting that video shows she “weaponized” her car. She maintained that claim again Sunday, even as local leaders and civil rights advocates accused the administration of attempting to preemptively justify lethal force before a full investigation.
The federal response has gone well beyond the shooting itself. Noem made clear that the expanded operation in Minnesota is now aimed not only at immigration enforcement but also at protesters opposing ICE activity.
“If they conduct violent activities against law enforcement, if they impede our operations, that’s a crime,” Noem said. “And we will hold them accountable.”
Minneapolis has become a focal point of President Donald Trump’s broader immigration agenda, fueled by long-standing tensions with Minnesota’s Democratic leadership, a years-old fraud investigation involving social services, and Trump’s repeated attacks on the state’s Somali community. Trump has previously referred to Somali residents in derogatory terms and singled out the city as emblematic of what he calls “lawless” Democratic governance.
Roughly 2,000 federal agents are already deployed across Minnesota — a force more than three times the size of the Minneapolis Police Department. The latest surge will add hundreds more.
Trump and Noem have both defended Ross’s actions as lawful and necessary. Asked whether deadly force was justified, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Good was “highly disrespectful of law enforcement” and part of a group of “professional agitators.”
Minnesota officials strongly dispute that narrative. Gov. Tim Walz warned residents not to believe what he called the federal government’s “propaganda machine,” while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said publicly that available evidence contradicts the administration’s claims of self-defense.
Both Walz and Frey have raised concerns about the integrity of the investigation after local and state law enforcement agencies were removed from the process, leaving the inquiry solely in the hands of the FBI.
The killing has sparked protests in Minneapolis and cities nationwide, with demonstrators condemning both the shooting and the rapid expansion of federal forces in response. Critics say the administration’s decision to answer public outrage with a show of force risks further inflaming tensions rather than restoring trust.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for additional comment.
