|
 |
Hey Bulwark fam, I wrote about Renee Nicole Good again this week. The more I’ve thought about the senselessness of her killing, the more I’ve keyed in on the question of why she was so dangerous to Trump and his cronies up and down the administration.
Check out the latest edition of Huddled Masses—and as always thank you for reading and sharing. And please consider taking this opportunity to sign up for Bulwark+, too: We’d love to have you as part of our growing community.
I’m headed to Minneapolis to do some reporting on the ground. Feel free to send me tips or anything else you would like to share.
–Adrian
Why Renee Good Was, and Is, So Dangerous to Trump
There are many ways to define an enemy. One is someone who isn’t afraid of you.
|
| |||||||||||||||
 |
WHY THE HELL are federal forces brutalizing Minneapolis? Are the Twin Cities a bastion of undocumented immigrants? The Migration Policy Institute estimates around 100,000 people in all of Minnesota are in the country illegally. Sound like a lot? The organization’s estimates for Florida, Texas, and California are 1.2 million, almost 2 million, and just under 3 million, respectively.
Clearly, any immigration-enforcement pretext for a massive ICE surge is bullshit. The state’s childcare fraud scandal—a real problem first investigated years ago, which has been raised to public attention again thanks to the work of right-wing social media influencers—has allowed for a convenient White House narrative to differentiate the Minneapolis operation from other recent ICE actions: Minnesota must be saved from itself. Possibly through the invocation of the Insurrection Act.
It all amounts to one more scene in an ongoing production of political theater, as the federal agents themselves demonstrate by having their cameras constantly in hand, filming clips for DHS’s aggressive social media campaign supporting their actions. The problem is that they are real masked agents in tactical gear nonetheless, and they’re carrying real guns.
Unchecked violence, including against U.S. citizens, was a likely possibility built into the foundation of this scenario. But why did Renee Nicole Good have to die? And why did the Trump administration move so swiftly after her murder to disparage her, label her a domestic terrorist, and investigate her? They even targeted her widow—who, it should be remembered, was a witness to her wife’s killing and likely heard her being called a “fucking bitch” by the ICE agent who pulled the trigger.
Unfortunately, deaths at the hands of ICE are not a new phenomenon: In all my years covering immigration, I’ve learned that one of the most undercovered aspects of the story is how many immigrants die in detention. However, in this area, things have recently gotten much worse. Last year was the deadliest year to be in ICE custody in more than twenty years, with thirty-two deaths. A Wall Street Journal investigation additionally found that immigration agents shot into cars thirteen times since July, hitting eight people and killing two of them.
GOOD’S KILLING, which was captured in clips from multiple angles including that of the shooter, is the latest in a long line of shocking episodes witnessed over video by millions. Before her, there was video of Silverio Villegas-González being killed by an ICE agent in Chicago; those clips circulated in September. The circumstances of his death were similar to Good’s: He had just dropped off his 3-year-old son at daycare when an unmarked car pulled in front of his own. Less than a minute later, he was dead. DHS got out early with a made-for-TV story of a violent immigrant resisting arrest and dragging a heroic agent with his car before being shot. When the video came out, it showed the agent to be fully mobile after the shooting and describing his own injuries as “nothing major.”
The reason Good’s killing stands out is not because it was caught on video; it’s not because she was fearless in the face of an armed, hostile agent; and it’s not because she was calm and smiling and apparently in full control of her emotions—much more so than her killer—right until her death. What makes Good’s killing unique is that she was a blonde, white woman and a U.S. citizen.
It’s Good’s whiteness and her American citizenship that has made her so dangerous to the Trump administration. It’s what made Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem call her a domestic terrorist, almost immediately, with no facts to back up that baseless allegation. It’s what led JD Vance not just to blame Good but to announce federal agents doing immigration work have “absolute immunity.” (It was an appalling performance, even by JD Vance’s standards.) And it’s what led Trump to post, “the woman driving the car was very disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense.”