By Sofia Martinez
On Wednesday, Jan. 7 an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent more commonly referred to as ICE, identified as Jonathan E. Ross shot and killed a 37 year old American woman named Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota according to an article by the New York Times. A couple weeks later on Tuesday, Jan. 24, another American citizen, Alex Pretti was filmed from multiple angles being shot numerous times by an ICE agent, while Pretti was trying to help a woman to her feet after she had fallen on the sidewalk. In the footage, both individuals appear to be non-violent which is crucial when the government has taken to the media. Vice President, JD Vance, in a press conference clip in response to Good’s death saying “You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action, that’s a federal issue, that guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job.” The defense of Good’s murder should terrify everyone. If a white, blonde, blue-eyed woman can be shot and killed in broad daylight while being protected by the government, then no American is safe. It is not the job of ICE agents to shoot innocent Americans nor criminals unless the officers’ lives are in danger. According to an article published by BBC, ICE agents have limited authority to even just detain US citizens if they are interfering with an arrest or assaulting an officer. This means those ICE agents were obligated to detain Good and Pretti if they felt they were interfering with their operations, not shoot them. Yet it was declared publicly, “the agents were just doing their jobs”. In the United States of America, nobody is entitled to full immunity, not even real police officers. Claiming that ICE agents, who aren’t even a real police force have full immunity and allow them to fatally shoot American citizens without repercussions, and then lie about the events that occurred is absolutely terrifying. Neither agent has been charged with any crimes and innocent Americans continue to be wrongfully detained by authorities and have been reporting these detainments as racial discrimination. This makes me scared for our country and the safety of my community because if this is happening in Minnesota, it’s only a matter of before it starts happening in our community. We have government sent agents that have been terrorizing the streets of our country when we were told they were supposed to keep us safe. The lies we have been fed about them only going after “the worst of the worst” have been unraveling for months, and we can finally see clearly they were never only after illegal criminals to begin with. Our own citizens are being killed. All over the country numerous strikes and protests are taking place, and despite the gravity of the situation little law enforcement action has been taken by the administration to hold the perpetrators accountable. We are seeing brutality and violence emerge further from the ICE agents at protests like the ones where the shootings have occurred. If this is happening in one part of our country, it is up all of us to use our collective voice to speak out, because if two American-born citizens can be killed anyone of us can be next.