At 7 o’clock on Friday night, under the street lights of 11th Street, about a hundred people gathered at the southern gates of the state’s Capitol building. Many hoisted signs, one reading “ICE out of Austin,” another “Abolish ICE!,” and several reading “Justice for Renee Good.” Two Mexican flags rose above the crowd. Green-clad officers watched the scene from behind the gates.
“¡Fuera, ICE!” the crowd chanted. “When immigrants are under attack, what do we do?” one organizer cried in a megaphone. “Stand up, fight back!”
Days of protest against ICE in the Austin area and across the country were sparked by the Jan. 7 death of motorist Renee Nicole Good, who was shot three times at point-blank range and killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer Jonathan Ross as she was legally observing ICE operations in her Minneapolis neighborhood. The nation watched bystanders’ videos of the shooting in horror as they swept social media feeds.
On Thursday night, about 150 people gathered outside of an unmarked facility operated by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security in Pflugerville. Friday night, protesters convened at the Capitol. On Saturday afternoon, Austinites gathered outside of City Hall, and again in front of the J.J. Pickle Federal Building that night, where law enforcement officers deployed pepper balls and a chemical irritant gas against protesters.
“We need to show that we are the vast majority, and are willing to stand up against this ICE terrorism,” Brianna Griffith of the Austin Party for Socialism & Liberation, which organized the Pflugerville protest, told the Chronicle Thursday afternoon.
Five were arrested on Saturday night, according to the Austin Police Department, which said protesters obstructed the roads and placed drivers and bystanders in “dangerous positions.”
“Many people are justifiably frustrated, fearful, and angry with how their national government is acting,” Mayor Kirk Watson said in a statement to the Chronicle. “Austin will protect the right for people to peacefully protest and speak out. However, Austin cannot allow destructive activities or violations of law.”
Good’s death followed President Donald Trump’s early January order for the “largest DHS operation ever,” deploying 2,000 federal agents and officers in Minnesota, citing fraud allegations involving child care centers operated by Somali residents. Two hours after Good’s death, before an investigation had taken place, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist,” claiming Good had tried to hit Ross with her vehicle and that the agent’s decision to shoot and kill her was an act of self-defense.
The Trump administration echoed Noem, even as the widely circulated videos appear to show Good turning her tires away from Ross, attempting to leave, as Ross pursues the moving vehicle and takes out his gun. He fires thrice through the window and windshield.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was quick to defend his city’s residents, characterizing DHS’s version of the shooting as “bullshit.” “Get the fuck out of Minneapolis,” he told ICE that afternoon in a press conference regarding the situation.
Good’s killing at the hands of an ICE agent follows the 32 deaths of people held in ICE custody in 2025, the highest count in over two decades, per The Guardian reporting. Protest organizers have connected Good’s killing to that of Chicago father Silverio Villegas González in September, who was also shot and killed at close range by an ICE officer at a traffic stop.
At the Capitol gates on Friday, Jesse Valdelamar of the Austin Immigrant Rights Action Committee, which organized the protest, spoke to the crowd. “Despite what the Trump administration may want us to believe, Renee does not fit the profile of a criminal,” Valdelamar began.
“She will be remembered as a prize-winning poet, lovely guitarist, a celebrated member of her community, and … a mother,” he continued. “Motivated by her compassion for human beings, she felt compelled to become a legal observer. It was in this capacity that ICE struck her down in cold blood and left her children without a mother.”
Several protesters called out, “Shame!”
On Jan. 8, Austin City Council member Mike Siegel called for local law enforcement to “protect our communities in the face of lawless federal agents. If such an incident were to happen in Austin, I would expect immediate action to arrest the shooter, just as we would in any instance of such well-documented criminal action,” Siegel wrote in a statement.
The weekend’s protesters also called for city leadership and APD to protect the city’s immigrant community and refuse a higher level of partnership with ICE, called the 287(g) Program, a decision which must be made by the end of the year by local Texas sheriffs under Senate Bill 8. The bill became law Jan. 1.
“For city leadership who are listening, it’s important that proactive steps are taken to ensure that communities are truly safe,” Griffith said on Thursday. “Because what we’ve seen from the Trump administration is, frankly, nothing short of terroristic attacks on immigrant communities.”
“I think it’s the responsibility of every member of our law enforcement … to recognize the moment that we are in,” Arshia Papari, a protester and Texas congressional candidate, told the Chronicle on Friday. “The lack of accountability going on, the lack of justice being served, and to … make a conscious decision to not follow orders that continue to bring terror to our communities.”
At the foot of the state Capitol Friday night, Austin residents took the megaphone in turn, expressing solidarity with the immigrant community and refusing to normalize the violence of the federal agency. “We’ve been fed constant lies to justify these extreme methods of violence,” one student protester told the crowd.
“We’ve been sold the lies that our immigrant friends, family, and neighbors are violent and dangerous criminals,” she continued. “In reality, time has gone on to prove that the real threats to our safety are ICE. The threats are our own government.”
See more of John Anderson’s photographs from a weekend of anti-ICE protests.
This article appears in January 16 • 2026.