The shooting death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, could have been easily avoided. Instead of telling his constituents that the state of Minnesota was at war with the federal government, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) could have cooperated with federal law enforcement. Instead of banning federal agents from city property and accusing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials of “terrorizing” the community, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey could have worked with ICE to ensure federal law was enforced as safely as possible.
Instead, Walz, Frey, and countless Democrats nationally demonize ICE agents at every turn. Walz has called them the “Gestapo,” Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Delia Ramirez (D-IL) have called ICE a “terrorist organization,” and Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) has compared ICE to “slave patrols.”
Given this rhetoric, is it any surprise that impressionable Democrats and others on the Left are taking matters into their own hands?
There is still a lot we do not know about Good, or why she was on Portland Avenue at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 7, but we do know that she and her wife had recently moved to Minneapolis from Missouri and had dropped Good’s third child off at day care shortly beforehand that morning. Good reportedly has three children, two from her first marriage who live with her first ex-husband, and the third from her second marriage.
What we know, and what has been confirmed by Minneapolis Police, is that, for some reason, Good chose to block Portland Avenue with her SUV, preventing clearly marked ICE vehicles from lawfully using the road. Two ICE officers then approached her vehicle and ordered her out, at which point she accelerated forward, striking an ICE agent, who fired through the front windshield, killing her.
Democrats have since poured more gasoline onto the fire, with Frey telling ICE to “get the f*** out of Minneapolis” and Walz repeating his claim that Minnesota was “at war” with the federal government. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) has even labeled the shooting a “murder” and called for the ICE agent to be prosecuted.
As unfortunate as Good’s killing was, however, the ICE agent had every right to defend himself. Despite what many Democrats say, ICE is a perfectly legal federal law enforcement agency and may arrest anyone who is impeding its efforts to enforce federal immigration law. It does not matter that Good was a U.S. citizen or that she did not violate immigration law. No citizen has the right to obstruct federal law enforcement — in fact, it is a felony to do so.
The First Amendment to the Constitution does not protect all forms of protest, no matter how passionately protesters hold their views and wish to express them. What is protected is speech. And the reason speech is protected is so protesters do not resort to other means, such as violence or blocking the road with their cars.
Nor are law enforcement officers obliged to let a criminal go just because he or she is behind the wheel of a large vehicle. In fact, it is settled Supreme Court precedent that a police officer may use deadly force against a fleeing suspect if he has a good-faith belief that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer. Here, all the evidence supports the conclusion that the officer had good reason to believe the suspect posed a significant threat. Not only does the video evidence show the SUV accelerating toward the officer before he shot, and not only does the windshield clearly show a bullet entered through the front of the vehicle, but the officer was struck by the vehicle. Anytime a thousand-pound vehicle strikes a human being, there is a significant threat of serious physical injury.
We understand that Democrats, including Walz and Frey, strongly believe that ICE should not be in their state or in their city. In fact, many Democrats are falling back to their 2020 position that ICE should be abolished entirely. This would be a huge mistake.
Enforcing immigration law is messy and makes many people uncomfortable. But it has to be done. If the policy of the United States is that anyone who sneaks across the southern border and makes it north to Minnesota is thereby immune from deportation, we wouldn’t have a legal immigration system at all. If we are going to be a sovereign nation with laws, then we need a federal law enforcement agency in charge of finding illegal immigrants and deporting them.
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There is a reason no shootings that have involved ICE since President Donald Trump began enforcing immigration law have happened in red states: Red states cooperate with federal agents to ensure the peaceful enforcement of federal law. It is the Democratic Party, its rhetoric, and its decision to support illegal immigrants against federal law enforcement that is causing chaos in blue states.
Democrats can oppose immigration enforcement without inciting chaos. Demonizing federal agents, encouraging obstruction, and declaring “war” on lawful authority predictably invites confrontation. Cooperation saves lives. Rhetoric that treats ICE as enemies doesn’t protect immigrants. It endangers citizens, officers, and bystanders alike, and it must stop before more people pay the price with their lives.