MINNEAPOLIS — Drivers in a line of vehicles blared their horns Friday afternoon in a trendy Minneapolis neighbourhood as cyclists racing down nearby sidewalks blew on whistles.
It was a warning for the neighbourhood: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were in a vehicle at the front of the convoy.
The sounds of community members pushing back on an expanding federal immigration enforcement operation have been getting louder in this Minnesota city in the days since an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in the head.
Good’s death on Wednesday has rattled the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, now the scene of the Trump administration’s latest immigration crackdown. Rallies and protests continued Friday after Homeland Security shared a new video of the fatal altercation on social media that purports to show the view of the officer involved.
Members of the Trump administration said the video vindicates the officer’s actions, which they have insisted were in self-defence. Some Minneapolis residents are saying it does nothing of the kind.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told a news conference earlier Friday that his community fears the outcome of a federal probe into the shooting has been determined already.
“This is not the time to bend the rules. This is the time to follow the law,” Frey said. “This is not a time to hide from the facts. This is a time to embrace them, making sure that we are pushing for transparency every step of the way.”
Frey called for the Minnesota agency that probes shootings involving officers to take part in the investigation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said it does not have jurisdiction.
Frey said there is a perception abroad that the Trump administration has decided the outcome of the investigation already and it’s critical to include independent state investigators.
“We in Minneapolis want a fair investigation,” he said.
Frey and other local officials repeated their call for ICE to leave the area so that tensions can subside.
Community members have created a makeshift system to warn people of the presence of ICE officers.
When federal officials showed up at a home where construction workers were present Friday afternoon, neighbours ran out blowing whistles. The workers went indoors and neighbours continued sounding the alarm until the federal officers departed.
Elsewhere, people on bikes sat near 24 Somali Mall, talking about rumours that ICE had been seen nearby.
More than 2,000 ICE officers have descended on the area in what the Department of Homeland Security has described as the largest immigration enforcement operation ever.
Minnesota was a political flashpoint before the shooting. U.S. President Donald Trump has made multiple verbal attacks on Gov. Tim Walz — former vice-president Kamala Harris’s 2024 running mate — and derogatory remarks toward the state’s Somali population.
Trump last month called the Somali population “garbage” following a federal investigation into COVID-19 and medical aid fraud connected to organizations serving Somali immigrants and others.
Local resident Saleban Duale said the mistakes of a few don’t reflect the whole community and the Somali population has contributed greatly to Minnesota.
The Somali American Leadership Table organized a rally at the location of Good’s death to call for unity and accountability for ICE. Khalid Omar, who is involved with the organization, said it was also an opportunity to honour Good — who he said pushed back on ICE with a whistle and was killed by a gun.
“It’s a moral duty as a neighbour and as a person, as an American, as a Minnesotan, for us to stand up,” Omar said.
The Somali population is in ICE’s sights after Trump attempted to use the fraud investigation to frame the state as a hotbed of government fraud. Trump claimed last month that Somalis “contribute nothing” and “we don’t want them in our country.”
He has repeatedly made crude statements about Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is Somali-American. The president has said he would end temporary protected status for Somalis in Minnesota.
The controversy ramped up last month after a conservative influencer posted unconfirmed claims that daycare centres run by Somalis in Minneapolis were also committing fraud and didn’t have any children registered.
Citing concerns about fraud, Trump’s administration said Tuesday it would withhold funds from programs that support needy families with children in five Democratic-led states, including Minnesota. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent travelled to Minneapolis Friday to announce new measures to stop what he called “Somali fraudsters.”
Omar said the Somali community in Minnesota is afraid. He said community members are being questioned by ICE officers at their places of worship and when they shop for groceries.
“This administration is bringing a lot of fear and I think that’s their goal,” he said.
“We are greater than fear. We believe this storm is going to pass.”
Adding more fuel to the fire, federal immigration agents in Oregon shot and wounded two people in a vehicle outside a Portland hospital Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security said the vehicle’s passenger was “a Venezuelan illegal alien affiliated with the transnational Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” who was involved in a recent shooting in the city.
The department said that when agents identified themselves during a “targeted vehicle stop” in the afternoon, the driver tried to run them over.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 9, 2026.
— With files from The Associated Press
Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press
