Hundreds gathered in downtown Eugene Thursday to protest the killing of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Similar rallies were held across the nation, from Minnesota to New York, Chicago to Evansville, IN.
The Eugene protest happened prior to the Thursday afternoon shooting of two people by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent in Portland. It follows a much smaller anti-ICE protest on Wednesday afternoon in the hours immediately after the Minnesota shooting.
To begin the rally, protesters joined in on a call and response chant at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza. A thin man in a bright orange cap yelled into a bull horn, “Say her name!” The large crowd yelled back, “Renee Nicole Good.”
Rally organizers took to the mic to describe Renee Nicole Good as a wife, mother and “legal observer” who was shot to death in her car during an ICE protest. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the ICE officer who killed Good.
Latiffe Amado is a legal observer, responding to notifications of ICE apprehensions for Rapid Response of Lane County. She told KLCC that when she gets a call, she shows up at the ICE field office in Eugene to witness how many community members are coming and going in vans. Amado said she understands the fear that Good must have felt while observing ICE actions in Minneapolis. She told the crowd she was recently racially profiled by ICE agents.
“I carried that fear for days afterwards. But you know what? I still show up,” she said. “And it’s not because I’m fearless but because fear doesn’t get to decide what’s right. The truth still needs witnesses. And legal observers know that bearing witness matters.”
Rob Fissette with Lane County Immigrant Defense Network told protesters they must “call a thing what it is.”
“ICE is a death squad,” he said. “Murders like [Good’s] are an inevitable part of the waves of violence that the Trump administration has unleashed across the country.”
Protesters waved signs which read, “Rule of Law not Rule of Trump,” “ICE murders moms,” and “Stop Trump.” After several speeches, the crowd marched to the Eugene Federal Building with warnings not to engage with ICE agents.
