Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was killed in Minneapolis after dropping her 6-year-old son at school. A masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fired into her car, shooting her in the face. Instead of investigating the murder, federal officials rushed to justify the shooting, contradicting video evidence, and labeling her a “domestic terrorist.” Our government’s first responsibility is to keep people safe — not to kill its own citizens and obscure the truth. Full transparency and independent accountability are the minimum standards for any democracy. This incident is not isolated. In just four months, federal immigration officers have shot at least nine additional people across multiple states and Washington, D.C. How many thousands of other people has ICE brutalized, sprayed with chemical agents, indiscriminately grabbed off the streets or out of their homes, shoved into unmarked vans, held in detention centers without access to lawyers, or deported without due process? Across the country, Americans are protesting because this pattern of behavior is wrong. We deserve a government we can trust – not one that deploys masked agents, uses deadly force with impunity, and then attempts to rewrite reality and tells us our eyes and ears are lying to us. Congress has both the power and the obligation to act before ICE turns our country into a police state. Every American who believes in justice and the rule of law must demand a full investigation into ICE’s abuse of power.
David B. Kyle, New Columbia