Bay Area Immigrant Defense Groups Report Surge in Support After Minneapolis ICE Killing

Local rapid response networks are reporting an increased interest in volunteer training after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot a Minneapolis woman on Wednesday.

Within 48 hours of the shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, officials with the North Bay Rapid Response Network said 30 individuals reached out to request legal observer training — the biggest surge they’ve seen since the last presidential election.

Local and Minnesota state leaders said Good was on the scene as a legal observer or a volunteer who monitors law enforcement operations during intensifying protests against ICE enforcement in Minneapolis.

Angel Ibarra, a co-director of the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership, which serves as Alameda’s rapid response network, said the East Bay organization has similarly received a flood of messages expressing interest in volunteer training. The networks provide resources for immigrant communities, including confirming immigration enforcement activity in real time.

“That just speaks to the resilience of our communities and how willing they are to put themselves out there to support and be allies,” Ibarra said. “We are already updating our trainings to include stronger guidance on situational awareness, legal observation, de-escalation and how volunteers can protect one another when they’re out in the community.”

Engels Garcia, a steering committee member for the Rapid Response Network in Santa Clara, said the network is also updating its training and procedures, adding that the group is committed to continuing its work.

“We know that this is intimidation not only to our legal observers and to the Rapid Response Network, but to the community in general, and we’re not going to be intimidated,” Garcia said. “Regardless of what transpired, no one should lose their life from recording ICE activity in our communities.”

Ibarra said Alameda’s rapid response network is also hearing from current volunteers in response to the shooting.

“This is what we do, this is our bread and butter,” Ibarra said. “The fact that now, you need to take this extra level of precaution to make sure that folks are being not just effective but safe in the face of federal law enforcement is something that, you know, we didn’t expect originally, but we are in that sad reality now.”

Within 36 hours of the high-profile killing, local advocates held a handful of marches and vigils across the Bay Area — and organizers said more are coming this weekend.

Demonstrations are already planned for Saturday in several cities, including Dublin, Livermore, Concord and San Francisco.

The night of the shooting, a group gathered outside of ICE offices in San Francisco.

“We saw what was happening in Minneapolis, and we said we couldn’t wait another day to actually get our voices out there and the community’s voices out there,” Adam Sheehan, an event producer with Indivisible SF, a group behind last year’s No Kings protest, told KQED.

Indivisible SF is also organizing a protest on Saturday, with other Bay Area chapters holding their own demonstrations and vigils.

Sheehan criticized the federal response to the shooting, citing comments made by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who initially described Good’s actions in the moments leading up to her death as domestic terrorism. Noem also accused Good of attempting to weaponize her vehicle against agents on the scene.

“[Noem] came out in the cowboy hat and said it was domestic terrorism, trying to run over an officer, and then the footage came out and didn’t speak to that at all,” Sheehan said.

At a press conference on Wednesday after the shooting, Noem said immigration officers were “carrying out lawful operations” in Minneapolis, and protesters gathered around an ICE vehicle that was stuck in the snow that morning.

“Law enforcement were attempting to push out this vehicle … when a mob of agitators that were harassing them all day began blocking them in, shouting and impeding law enforcement operations,” Noem said, referring to Good’s vehicle.

Footage from multiple angles sourced by the New York Times shows Good in a car nearby as officers begin advancing towards her maroon SUV. Good, the driver, appeared to try to turn right to leave the scene, but can first be seen appearing to wave the cars by, indicating for them to pass in front of her.

That’s when she was approached by immigration officers and ordered to exit the vehicle. Footage shows Good back the car up, then turn as if to evade the officers. As she began to pull forward, one officer fired three shots into the vehicle, shooting Good in the head. The FBI is currently investigating the shooting.

A day later, Customs and Border Patrol agents also shot and wounded two people in Portland.

“It was a completely unconscionable and lawless act — the murder of an innocent woman who was doing nothing illegal, simply legally observing ICE actions in Minneapolis,” Sanika Mahajan, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, one of the groups behind another San Francisco demonstration the night of Good’s death, said.

Rev. Deborah Lee is the co-executive director of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, a group that has organized recent protests against ICE actions and holds vigils outside of San Francisco ICE offices multiple times per week. Lee said the news of Good’s death was devastating and noted that it’s not the first time ICE has employed violence against people observing or protesting immigration enforcement activity.

“Even here in Oakland, right? They shot a pepper ball right into the face of one of our faith colleagues,” Lee said, referring to an October protest against potential ICE-enforcement escalation in the Bay Area, where a federal agent shot San Mateo pastor Jorge Bautista in the face with some kind of pepper powder at point-blank range.

Lee said this moment is also an opportunity to remember other deaths resulting from ICE actions, like Jaime Alanís, a farmworker in Ventura who fell off a greenhouse roof during an ICE raid in July and died of his injuries a day later.

2025 was also the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in more than 20 years. A total of 32 people died in ICE custody last year.

Limei Chen, an activist with the interfaith movement, regularly participates in those vigils. Last month, Chen, Lee and dozens of others were handcuffed and cited after they chained themselves to the doors of those offices to demand an end to ICE detentions of people showing up for court hearings or mandated check-ins.

“Our main goal is to let the folks there who are there for their ICE check-ins know that they are not alone. We are there. We are witnessing, and we are supporting them,” Chen said.

Chen said they were still processing the news of Good’s death and what it means for people like them who regularly encounter federal immigration enforcement.

“I was having this conversation with my mom about the action that we did a few weeks back, and she said to me, ‘I don’t want you to die.’ And I was thinking, well, that wouldn’t happen in the U.S.,” Chen said. “I’m sitting with my mom’s words. I’m sitting with the recent news. And I’m not quite sure how that might change my calculus.”