Josh Imhof | features editor

Brisk winds and snow flurries covered Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood on Sunday as hundreds of protesters marched to mourn the death of Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis resident killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer last week.

The protest, organized by Indivisible Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Women for Democracy and other Pittsburgh-based organizations, began at the intersection of Hot Metal Street and South Water Street in the South Side. Other protests were also scheduled for locations across Pennsylvania, including Greensburg and Philadelphia.

In Pittsburgh, demonstrations remained peaceful.

Protesters marched to the ICE facility located at 3000 Sidney Street where speakers read the names of people detained by ICE in Allegheny County, people who died in ICE custody and people killed as a result of ICE operations.

As of Jan 14, there are currently 68,990 people in ICE detention across the U.S., according to agency data. In 2025, 32 people died in ICE custody nationwide, also according to agency data.

Attendees laid flowers at the sign outside of the building as a tribute to those who died.

Dana Kellerman, co-director of Indivisible Pittsburgh, said the goal of the protest was to tell ICE and the Trump administration that the shooting of Good should not have happened and they stand with their immigrant neighbors.

“I was horrified, but honestly not surprised,” she said in response to the Minneapolis shooting.

Video footage of the Good shooting quickly spread online, sparking intense debate. The footage depicted an unnamed ICE officer approaching Good’s vehicle and repeatedly asking her to get out.

Good then quickly reverses and drives toward Jonathan Ross, who opened fire and killed her.

Last June, Ross, the ICE agent who fatally shot Good, was dragged from a car after attempting to arrest an immigrant who refused to exit their vehicle, according to the Department of Homeland Security. During that incident, Ross deployed his taser, something Kellerman questioned.

“He did not resort to lethal force at that point, and that seems like it was a way worse situation,” she said.

Other protesters, like Jennifer Larrabee, worried about the precedent this shooting set for future interactions with ICE agents.

“It kind of just shows we’re all in danger. It doesn’t seem like there’s any repercussions,” she said. “I know not all of them are violent … I just want people to be seen.”

In response to the demonstrations, DHS released a statement that condemned destructive forms of protest. DHS also claimed assaults against ICE agents have gone up by 1300%.

However, the federal government has not publicly provided data backing up that statistic.

Some organizations, like WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, have also disputed the DHS claim.

The NPR affiliate did find that assaults against ICE officers have increased, but by 25% through mid-September 2025 when compared to the same time in 2024, according to an analysis of public court records.

DHS has repeatedly declined requests by NPR to provide data to back its claims of a 1300% increase.

Unreported crimes

Also in attendance at the protest was Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Barbara Warwick, who spoke to the crowd in front of the Hot Metal Street Bridge.

“Law enforcement is intended to keep communities safe, and the Trump administration and Kristi Noem, Homeland Security and ICE are making us less safe each and every day,” Warwick said.

Acting Pittsburgh Police Chief Jason Lando said this fear is not unique to Western Pennsylvania.

Prior to coming back to Pittsburgh, Lando served as the chief of the Frederick Police Department in Maryland, where 20.5% of residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census data.

During his time in Frederick, Lando said that members of the Hispanic community told his department that they were afraid to call the police out of fear for family members who may not have legal immigration status.

“They were afraid that we were going to come and take that person, send them away,” he told The Duke.

“We can’t have that. We can’t have crimes going unreported because people are scared of the police.”

On Jan. 11, Mayor Corey O’Connor told WTAE that Pittsburgh will continue not to assist with ICE operations, a policy that has been continued from former Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration.
Lando reaffirmed this on Sunday

“ICE does whatever they do, but that’s not our job,” he said. “Our job is to enforce local and state laws.”

“Wildly unlawful”

Warwick told The Duke that in addition to not collaborating with ICE, she hoped that the Public Safety Bureau was looking to the future.

“I would also want to be sure that our Public Safety Bureau is thinking very seriously about how our public safety team … is going to mobilize to keep Pittsburgh safe in the face of this wildly unlawful activity that we are seeing from ICE, should that type of activity begin to happen here,” she said.

Lawmakers in other states have accused ICE of unlawful activity, including in Minnesota where Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a federal lawsuit against DHS on Monday.

The lawsuit alleged that Minnesotans were being racially profiled, harassed and assaulted by ICE and called for an end to the “surge” of DHS agents in the state.

Despite questions of legality, federal law prevents local and state law enforcement from interfering in ICE operations.

“It’s not that officers wouldn’t want to intervene, it’s simply that we just lack the legal authority to do so,” Lando said.

In addition to this, Lando said that because Pittsburgh does not cooperate with ICE, they do not alert city officials when ICE operations will be conducted. This makes planning for potential activity a guessing game.

“We get calls from the community saying ‘What’s going on?’ and we just don’t know, because we’re not privy to that information,” he said. “It puts us in a very difficult and awkward position because we just don’t have any answers.”

DHS and ICE could not be reached for comment regarding the notification of local law enforcement.

Lando also said Pittsburgh residents should continue to follow federal law in order to stay safe.

“Don’t resist,” he said. “We certainly want people to be aware of their rights and to exercise those rights, but to interfere, to physically obstruct, to assault, that puts those residents in a very difficult predicament where they can be charged with a federal crime.”

Silence and complacency

After marching to the ICE facility, protesters returned to the intersection of South Water Street and Hot Metal Street where they dispersed peacefully around 3:30 p.m. Some protesters relocated to the old Rite Aid location South 27th Street and East Carson Street where they continued to chant and sing.

Larrabee said that it is important for people to continue speaking out.

“If you’re just silent, you’re complacent,” she said.

Josh Imhof can be reached at imhofj@duq.edu