Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried the killing of an unarmed Minneapolis mom by a federal immigration agent as “murder” and accused President Trump of lying about the shocking incident.
The progressive lawmaker said videos of the killing of motorist Renee Nicole Good show that the unidentified Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent had no reason to fatally shoot her, even though Trump called the victim a “domestic terrorist” and claimed the ICE agent had acted in self defense.
“We just saw them murder an American citizen in cold blood in the street,” Ocasio-Cortez said late Wednesday. “Despite whatever lies the president wants to tell, you can see what happened for yourself.”
AOC said the Minneapolis killing illustrates the danger of sending thousands of immigration agents into the streets of American cities with little to no training for domestic law enforcement.
“This has now become what we feared most about ICE for a long time—that it would be used as an anti-civilian force with no accountability,” she said. “At the end of the day, what we saw today was a murder, and murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted.”
Democratic congressional leaders also denounced the killing and the administration’s knee-jerk response to the backlash, although in more measured terms.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), the Democratic House minority leader, called the shooting a “heinous killing” and branded Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem a “stone-cold liar.”
“The killing of Renee Nicole Good was an abomination, a disgrace,” Jeffries said. “Blood is clearly on the hands of those in the administration who have been pushing an extreme agenda.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said the shooting was “absolutely sickening.”
“Looking at the video, there seems no just for what these agents did,” Schumer added.
After the shooting, Mayor Mamdani said New York City “stands with immigrants.”
“As ICE attacks our neighbors across America, it is an attack on us all,” Mamdani said.
Gov. Hochul called the shooting “a heartbreaking and entirely foreseeable tragedy.”
Republican lawmakers have mostly defended the ICE crackdown and the actions of the officer who killed Good.
“It appears to, I guess, anybody who sees the video from certain angles, that the driver of the vehicle weaponized that vehicle against law enforcement officers,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
The Trump administration has aggressively acted to send thousands of ICE and other Homeland Security agents to cities, especially in Democratic-led states, as part of its mass deportation campaign.
Critics say they should focus on the border and stay out of cities where they are unprepared to handle potentially difficult clashes with ordinary Americans who oppose their actions and tactics, especially their practice of wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves.
