US protests condemn ICE killing of Renee Good and ‘a regime that is willing to kill its own citizens’ | Protest

On a rainy Saturday in Philadelphia, two separate protests, both with a few hundred people, marched from city hall to the federal detention center. They differed slightly in solutions as well as crowd makeup – white older adults dominated the morning’s march organized by the groups behind the No Kings protests, while a more racially diverse crowd swathed in keffiyehs and N95 face masks led the afternoon’s, planned by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. However, both groups shared a goal: for ICE to get out of American communities and to put an end to Donald Trump’s warmongering in Venezuela.

“From Venezuela to Minneapolis, all we’re seeing is a regime that is scrambling, willing to kill its own citizens, willing to kill foreign citizens, to maintain its power,” said Deborah Rose Hinchey, co-chair of the city’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter.

Philadelphia’s protests were just two of more than a thousand planned for this weekend in the wake of three ICE-related shootings, one fatal, in the week since the Trump administration’s seizure of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president. Many of the events, such as the Saturday morning protest in Philadelphia, were planned as part of the ICE Out for Good weekend of action called by national organizations, including Indivisible and the American Civil Liberties Union, following the ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday. The Democratic Socialists of America had also planned a national day of action to stop Trump’s “illegal war” in Venezuela.

“They’re murdering legal observers. They’re being blatant about the reality that they’re invading countries for oil. This is not a fringe radical thing. This is murder and illegal war crimes,” said Rick Krajewski, the Pennsylvania representative, who represents parts of west Philadelphia, after addressing the crowd at the afternoon’s protest.

With planned actions in all 50 states, events will continue into Sunday. Large crowds marched on Saturday in Boston, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. In snow-covered Minneapolis, crowds reached into the thousands, chanting: “Fuck ICE, ICE out!” and Renee Nicole Good’s name. That morning, the US representatives Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig had attempted to enter a Minneapolis ICE facility, later accusing the agency of unlawfully denying them entry.

Protests have popped up across the country since Good’s killing, with tensions rising between authorities and protesters. On Thursday night, vehicles believed to be operated by ICE agents veered into a crowd of protesters in Hartford, Connecticut, and three protesters were arrested; Hartford police are looking into criminal charges over the car incident. That same night, six protesters were arrested in Portland, the site of another ICE shooting.

Elected officials in Minnesota, where protests have been particularly inflamed, announced on Saturday that 30 protesters had been arrested over “property damage” during protests on Friday night. This morning in the city, an Associated Press photographer observed two ICE agents with long guns approach a protester who had been following them, telling him it was his “first and final warning” before ultimately driving off. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey and governor Tim Walz, both Democrats, expressed support for local law enforcement. But the local police union issued a statement in support of ICE – a far cry from the Democrats, including Frey, who told ICE to “fuck off”.

In Philadelphia, police did not halt or appear to make any arrests at either march on Saturday. Anna, a history teacher carrying a Philadelphia Federation of Teachers flag, came to the morning march after her students had brought up Good’s killing in class. (All but three of those who spoke with the Guardian on Saturday requested pseudonyms, speaking to the anxiety plaguing protesters after Good’s killing.)

“Most of my students are Black, and they’ve already experienced violence from the system and from police, and they see this and realize there’s just another force out there,” she said.

An older woman named Ellen said she’d been protesting ICE in Philadelphia for 15 years, since the agency targeted local cabdrivers in a sting operation. “It’s been years and years since they have been committing outrageous acts against our friends and neighbors,” she said. “Now they’re murdering Americans along with harassing and detaining innocent immigrants.”

Mary and Cara, two women who came to the morning Philadelphia protest together, were motivated by their horror at what’s been happening with ICE since Trump retook office last year. “I’m Jewish, I’ve been studying the Holocaust since before I can remember, and this is how this happens,” said Mary. “The more crazy shit happens, we just get more and more numb to it. I think it’s really easy to become complacent.”

Several of the protesters criticized the current state of economic affairs for Americans, particularly how much American money is spent on immigration enforcement versus citizens’ basic needs. “Personally, I think that until we have every child fed and housed, there’s no reason to put any money into immigration enforcement,” Cara said.

That sentiment was echoed by one of the afternoon protest’s speakers, Francesca, a member of the national DSA’s national political committee as well as Philadelphia’s DSA. “Things are piling up. Things are accumulating. The genocide in Gaza and then the aggression against Venezuela, the illegal kidnapping of Maduro,” she said. “And now this violence and, really, state executions carried out by ICE – I mean, there’s only so much people can take of this.”

They also noted that people are struggling to pay rent, for healthcare and the increasing cost of groceries. “They can’t make it to the end of the month – but there is always money for war,” Francesca said.

Organizers believe that this impossible dissonance will continue to push people into protest. “I think that the more the American public sees exactly what this totalitarian dictatorship and regime is doing, the more we’re going to see days like today or yesterday, with thousands and thousands of people in the street, in pouring rain,” said Hinchey.