In recent days it has happened to see on social media and newspapers the video in which a federal agent of theICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)fires three direct shots at Renee Nicole GoodAmerican citizen with no criminal record, in Minneapolis (7 January 2026).
Good’s case is not an isolated case, nor the last: precisely as part of the protests over his death, in the same city an officer shot an immigrant, seriously wounding him.
But what exactly is this ICE, now at the center of a new political and media storm?
What ICE does and who the agents are
THE’ICE is an American federal agency established way back in March 2003 as an anti-terrorism force after the attack on the Twin Towers, whose budget is around eight billion dollars. The agency would have at least 21,800 people, divided into two sections:
- theI was (Enforcement and Removal Operations), which is the operational part, with armed agents who deal with immigration, arrest, detention and expulsion of immigrants without a residence permit and awaiting expulsion.
- THE’Hsi (Homeland Security Investigations), i.e. the investigative section that deals with trafficking of drugs, weapons and human beingscyber crime, customs crimes, financial fraud, smuggling and terrorism.
ICE has reached the “honours” of the news especially under the Trump presidency because of the level of violence of those operating within it: since the president took office, ICE has recorded more than 32,800 arrests in the first 50 days of his mandate alone (Under Joe Biden, ICE had made just over 33,000 arrests in an entire year).
The violence committed by the agents is numerous, and the tactics decidedly strong: they include dawn raidthe use of masked officers without visible identifiers and civilian vehicles for surprise arrests, not to mention theuse of lethal force in unnecessary situationsagainst defenseless citizens. Under the Trump administration the agency expanded the operations in sensitive places (schools and hospitals), and employed technologies facial recognition And drones for urban surveillance. For all these reasons, ICE began to be called by the American president’s opponents the “Trump’s Gestapo” (the Gestapo was the secret state police of Nazi Germany), and many web users agree, given the ferocious methods.
What’s happening in Minneapolis: reconstruction
Last morning January 7, 2026in a residential neighborhood of South Minneapolis some federal agents were engaged in an enforcement operation, i.e. an operational action by the police “to enforce a law”.
The victim, Renée Nicole Good, had just dropped their son off at school and, according to reports, got out of the SUV to observe what was happening on the street when ICE agents surrounded her. The woman got back into her vehicle, probably scared, trying to leave. An officer tried to force the door, and Good started the car. Just in those moments, the woman was hit by three shots fired at point blank range from another agent.
Kristi Noemsecretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (which also coordinates ICE), said that the woman was “a danger to her agents” and that “she had gotten into the car to run over one of them”. The version, later taken up by Donald Trump and other political exponents of the US right, was promptly denied by video shot by people on the street at the time protesting against ICE operations. The testimonies circulated on the web also attest that the officers prevented even a doctor from providing aid to the woman (not being able to get closer, they could not have known that the woman was already dead).
In the days following Good’s murder – which has been compared to the well-known murder of George Floyd because, although operated by the police in that case, once again, it made Minneapolis the symbol of a death that reignites the clash over theabuse of power – the movement has intensified in many American citiesICE Out For Good” (a play on words that can be translated as “goodbye ICE forever”), with demonstrations throughout the United States calling for the elimination of this often very violent federal agency.
Jacob Freymayor of Minneapolis, publicly condemned the operation, telling ICE to “go away” and accusing federal agents of “creating chaos.” Congressional Democrats asked investigations in-depth,
going so far as to threaten to condition the funds (or even block them) to the Department of Homeland Security after the shooting.
The political and social debate
The issue has raised urgent questions: what is the limit of federal power, if any?
In theory, Washington can enforce federal laws with its own agents, and states cannot “block” it directly, but states can refuse to cooperatethat is, not employing the police or leaving local facilities and resources at the service of federal operations. After the incident, some also soon emerged legislative proposals at the state level think for limit or condition how federal agencies act (such as the use of masked agents or interventions in sensitive locations).
But Good’s case also put a spotlight on what ICE is becomingwhich in the eyes of many people is no longer just a “technical” immigration agency, but an actor of national security and internal public order with an increasingly ruthless and militarized way of doing things.
The result? A climate of growing voltage especially on the outskirts of cities, where ICE is perceived by citizens as an increasingly paramilitary body, and a wave of protests from Washington to New York that show no signs of abating.
