Following the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis and another shooting in Portland, Oregon, in which two people were injured, activist groups – including the organizers of last year’s “No Kings” and “Hands Off” demonstrations – called for a weekend of “national mobilization.”
There is talk of at least a thousand events that took place throughout the United States between Saturday and Sunday, not only in large cities and Democratic-led states, but also in Republican states. Demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were seen in Texas, Georgia, South Carolina and Oklahoma, as well as in small towns in North Dakota, Idaho and Iowa.
North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis has publicly expressed his skepticism about the Department of Homeland Security’s handling of the investigation into the Minneapolis shooting.
In New Jersey in Roxbury, a suburb of Morris County with a Republican majority, citizens organized a demonstration which also involved the Republican mayor and the city council, who underlined how opposition to ICE transcends political divisions.
Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of the activist group Indivisible, said people are coming together to “express grief, honor those we have lost and hold to account a system that has operated with impunity for too long. ICE violence is not a statistic: it is linked to names, families and broken futures, and we refuse to look away or remain silent.”
In New York, demonstrations have been held every day since Good’s murder. On Sunday, thousands of people gathered in the southern area of Central Park and formed a march that passed in front of the increasingly armored Trump Tower. “It’s a shame that in 2026 we find ourselves here fighting a fascist government,” said Brooklyn City Councilwoman Alexa Avilés in a brief rally before the march departed, which also included Brad Lander, former city auditor and current congressional candidate, and Ombudsman Jumaane Williams.
“This is an urgent time for everyone to stand up and fight fascism at home and abroad,” Lander said. We have a rapidly rising authoritarian regime and we are here to say we will not tolerate it. We will not allow them to kill our neighbors, kidnap immigrants, and take control of foreign countries. That’s why we are here.”
«Trump talks about governing Venezuela, while in the United States people are struggling to survive – said Gustavo Gordillo, co-president of the Democratic Socialists of America of New York City – A quarter of Americans are out of work, rents are unaffordable».
«We are frustrated, we need direction, leadership, and we are looking for it – says Samuel, 48, who brought a sign to the march with a caricature of the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer. – We cannot fight these outrages one at a time. We must eliminate the cause through nonviolent resistance: that’s why we say Trump must go. I hope that history remembers that, as human beings, we have not remained silent.”
Thousands of people also demonstrated in Minneapolis, as has been happening for days now. On Sunday the streets were full, despite the fact that the previous evening hundreds of city and state police officers had intervened for a “noisy protest” in the center of the city, in front of the hotel that houses the ICE agents. For hours the citizens sang, played drums and banged ladles against pots. A group then separated from the main march and began damaging the hotel’s windows.
During a morning press conference, the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, condemned the acts of violence, but praised what he called the “vast majority” of protesters, who remained peaceful.
The federal government’s response came from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. In an interview with Fox News, Noem announced that, despite the Department of Homeland Security having declared that the one underway in Minneapolis is already the largest immigration control operation ever conducted, hundreds more federal agents will arrive in the city on Monday, ignoring the calls to leave made by the Democratic leaders of the city and the State, who the Secretary accused of inciting citizens.
