Twin Cities Metro Area Local of the Socialist Party USA Statement on the Murder of Renee Nicole Good

passed by the SPUSA Twin Cities Metro Local (MN) January 9, 2026

On January 7^th, 2026, federal agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. Ms. Good was an American citizen serving as a legal observer of the ongoing, and unwelcome occupation of Minneapolis, MN, as part of the Trump administration’s brutal mass deportation efforts nation-wide. This was not a case of "self-defense" as the Department of Homeland Security claims, but an act of state violence carried out by a paramilitary force that has no place in a free or just society. Legal observers like Good are trained to document abuses of power without interfering with or impeding law enforcement officers. Whether or not those who caused Good’s death face legal consequences could set a precedent not only for police accountability, but also our right to protest and dissent itself.

As Socialists, we recognize that the police and federal agencies like ICE exist not to protect public safety, but for the sake of private property, and to maintain the status quo of exploitation, racism, and xenophobia. The killing of Renee Good is a stark reminder that the machinery of the state is inherently violent toward the working class, especially those who stand in solidarity with marginalized neighbors. Trump revealed in a hot mic moment months ago, that his focus after mass-deportations will be on ‘homegrown criminals,’ by this he means to target anyone who opposes him, with ICE serving as secret police to enforce his authoritarian regime. The repression will not stop with immigrants, this was not the first time, nor will it be the last time a US citizen suffers from these crackdowns.

Immigrants have always been on the front line of labor struggles, making themselves and those who stand up for the rights and dignity of American immigrants targets of the police and US justice system. In 1916, police murdered an immigrant protesting mine working conditions and low pay, sparking the Mesabi Iron Range Strike. This would lead to the mining company implementing an 8-hour workday. Immigrants made up the backbone of the 1934 Teamsters Strike in Minneapolis, where police would open fire on a crowd of striking workers, shooting sixty-seven and killing two. This was one of the most important general strikes in US history, leading to the Labor Relations Act, as well as the conviction of eighteen SWP members under the “Alien Registration Act,” or Smith Act in 1941.

Minneapolis has welcomed thriving immigrant communities for generations. Immigrants, regardless of their documentation, are our neighbors, comrades, and friends. We must fight to protect them from those who mean them harm, be it through spreading bigoted stereotypes and hatred, or the intended result of white supremacist propaganda: the over-policing, marginalization, exploitation, brutalization, and deportation of all non-white Minneapolitans. We call upon the working class, in Minneapolis and across the country to join in organized resistance against this authoritarian regime. We know first-hand the hollow promises of reform to a policing system that is corrupt to its core, we were promised this reform after the MPD murdered George Floyd just a few blocks away from where Ms. Good was murdered by ICE.  Though our current administration won’t even bother with symbolic change or pretend that ICE can be reformed into something worthwhile. No matter which face of capitalism we are presented, these deaths, deportations, and the exploitation of the working class will continue, unless we make progress and enact revolutionary change, a socialist society where the resources of the state are utilized to sustain life, rather than extinguish it. We have met the oppressive violence and suppression of the government with meaningful resistance, leading to working class victories in the past; we must do so again if we are to maintain our rights and freedom and build a more democratic, socialist future.