(NewsNation) — Local leaders in Minnesota spoke on Wednesday about the escalating violence between ICE and protesters following the shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.
Ward leader Jason Chavez spoke about seeing ICE questioning people based on how they looked, calling it racial profiling and noting that non-white Minnesotans have had to begin carrying passports with them to prove citizenship if stopped.
“What we are seeing in Minneapolis and this state should not be normalized,” he said.
Chavez asked Minnesotans to support their immigrant neighbors, providing mutual aid, supporting businesses and using whistles to alert people of ICE actions.
Community leaders said ICE officers were escalating the violence on the streets, not protesters, saying they were destabilizing communities and making the streets less safe.
They detailed incidents, including arrests of U.S. citizens, car accidents caused by ICE and ICE officers pushing people into traffic.
One woman described being mocked and taunted by ICE after being detained and reported that an ICE officer told her that protesters needed stop mocking them because “that’s why that lesbian b—- is dead.” She described hearing people screaming and begging in the detention center where she was held as ICE officers made small talk and joked with each other.
The woman said her friend, who was detained at the same time, was offered expedited processing for any undocumented family members if he gave up the names of undocumented people or protesters to ICE.
Minneapolis City Council President Elliot Payne said he was observing ICE operations, including one officer who was pointing his taser at people, when an officer pushed him off the sidewalk from behind.
“You have the right to observe these operations,” he said. “You have the right to keep your door shut, you have the right to demand a judicial warrant and if they do not have a judicial warrant, you do not have to open your door.”
Local leaders also announced a new, regular livestream update on the situation in Minnesota, with details to come later.
Trump comments on death of Renee Good
President Donald Trump called Renee Nicole Macklin Good‘s actions before her death “pretty tough,” seemingly backing his administration’s interpretation of the highly contested ICE shooting in Minnesota.
Good’s father, a Trump supporter, is heartbroken that the administration labeled his daughter a “domestic terrorist” within hours of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shooting her last week, according to CBS.
“I want to say to the father that I love all of our people,” Trump said in an interview published Tuesday.
Federal officials have consistently claimed Jonathan Ross was justified in shooting Macklin Good, who they say was attempting to run him over. But activists and lawmakers alike in Minnesota contend she was merely trying to leave the scene when she reversed her vehicle.
Trump acknowledged footage of her shooting death “can be viewed two ways, I guess,” but said there are “a couple of versions of that tape that are very, very bad.”
“I would bet you that she, under normal circumstances, was a very solid, wonderful person,” he said. “But, you know, her actions were pretty tough.”
ICE officer who shot Renee Good had internal bleeding after: DHS
Ross suffered internal bleeding after the shooting, a Department of Homeland Security official confirmed to NewsNation on Wednesday.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has previously said Ross was hit by Macklin Good’s vehicle on Jan. 7, backing up the administration’s claims he shot her in “self-defense.”
“He went to the hospital. A doctor did treat him. He has been released, but he’s going to spend some time with his family,” Noem said last week.
Minnesota ICE shooting: Protests continue, prosecutors resign
Trump’s comments come on the heels of heated protests in Minneapolis, where demonstrators are admonishing the use of force in Macklin Good’s case and calling for federal immigration agents to leave the city.
On Tuesday, federal immigration agents deployed at least four rounds of flashbangs on crowds outside an ICE facility. Protests outside the newly fenced-in Henry Whipple Federal Building also escalated throughout the day.
ICE officers were seen busting a woman’s car window, pulling her out and arresting her Tuesday after she tried to drive down the street where a protest had broken out in front of a home ICE was raiding.
The woman said she was autistic and was trying to get to a doctor’s appointment.
The Trump administration officials have stressed that anyone who tries to stop or obstruct ICE officers is committing a felony.
Minnesota state and local officials have called the ongoing federal operation politically motivated and have sued the Trump administration to stop a further surge of personnel.
Meanwhile, six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned, citing pressure from the Justice Department to investigate Macklin Good’s widow and a lack of interest in investigating the shooting officer, according to the New York Times.