Protesters gathered at Jersey City Hall to protest the recent fatal killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent officer. (Jordan Coll / SOC images)
A chilling video showing the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year old mother from Minneapolis, leaving three children behind, drew protesters to denounce the action of an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, and the rally was taken to the front of the steps of Jersey City City Hall over the weekend.
The rally was planned out by organizers such as Spirits of Liberty (SOL) Jersey City, along with the North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Knitty Gritty JC, Estamos Unidos, CAIR Action NJ, Party for Socialism and Liberation NJ and Food Not Bombs JC.
What Was Said At The Jersey City Rally
A protester who attended the demonstration invoked the names of several inmates including Mary, a wife, who she said is currently being detained in Delaney Hall, an immigration holding center, emphasizing the non-criminal nature of their situations and calling for an end to family separations.
“This is inhumane. Where are their human rights?” Stephanie, a speaker affiliated with Spirit of Liberation, a grassroots organization focused on human rights advocacy work, echoed. “We are practicing hope by just being here. We are practicing hope by supporting one another. This is an administration that inflicts violence on our community members.”
The site drew national scrutiny after oversight visits by Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), who was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors following a confrontation last year involving elected officials, protesters and federal law enforcement.
Stephanie spoke on the testimony of Theresa who said her family has been going through a “difficult situation” after her husband was arrested without a warrant, despite having no prior criminal record.
She said the ordeal has taken a severe emotional toll on her five-year-old daughter, who now suffers from depression, anxiety and panic attacks. The family’s financial situation deteriorated so rapidly, Theresa said, that she came close to homelessness with her two children.
Adding to the hardship, Stephanie said she was defrauded of $13,000 by a lawyer who falsely promised that her husband would be released on bail.
“I felt like dying and she left me with nothing, but one day we will see God’s justice. I will keep fighting for my husband,” added the protester, addressing the crowd at City Hall.
Mayor-elect James Solomon, a progressive Democrat who campaigned on expanding sanctuary protections, was in attendance on Sunday and used the moment to link the Minnesota incident to what he called “authoritarian” federal policy under the Trump administration.
“We knew this was going to happen,” said Solomon, referring to the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good. “We have seen this all across the state of New Jersey, families who only are trying to live their lives and kids in the public schools who work their jobs have been ribbon with fear.”
Solomon pledged that one of his first official acts would be an executive order mandating citywide sanctuary training—signaling early executive action on immigrant protections.
Other rising local officials offered a collective strife against ICE agents.
Ward B Councilman-elect Joel Brooks framed immigration enforcement as a global economic injustice, and shared the recent encounter of ICE, deporting an immigrant from the Jersey City Heights.
“He told me, ‘I came here to build, not to destroy.’ And he was deported. So these are the people that ICE is picking up, abducting, kidnapping and deporting,” Brooks stated.
Brooks, a native from Honduras, who will be sworn in along with a new set of city council members, said migration is driven in part by economic exploitation in migrants’ home countries.
Brooks pointed to the Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, saying the deal has allowed multinational corporations in Honduras to pay workers less than the country’s minimum wage. In tandem with Brooks’ statements, Jake Ephros, who is the councilman-elect for Ward D, voiced out the need for residents to stand together against ICE agents.
“Let’s get ICE the hell outta here,” said Ephros, a democratic socialist. “If you have ever asked yourself, ‘what would I do if I lived in times where the right wing was ascendant, where fascism was on the rise…where a police state were starting to come after my neighbors, what would I do?” he asked.
District 5 Hudson County Commissioner candidate Ron Bautista, also took to the mic at City Hall and said that many residents are in a state of uncertainty with the recent ICE arrests in Hudson County.
“My dad, may he rest in peace, his fear back then was like, he would tell me, ‘It’s not that they will…just send me home, is they will put me in jail first, that they will treat me like a criminal when all I wanted to do was to give a good future for my kids, my wife, for my family,” he stated.
Outgoing Hoboken Mayor and Assemblyman-elect Ravi Bhalla pledged to pursue state and federal legislative solutions, including the eventual abolition of ICE as an institution.
“This is totally antithetical to everything that is about being an American. They are actually doing the opposite, they are oppressing U.S. citizens and violating our human rights,” said the outgoing mayor who will ascend into a state assemblyman representing the 32nd Legislative District.
“We have to resist at all levels in all ways.”
Bhalla told Slice of Culture, referring to the rise in ICE agent encounters.
What ICE Looks Like On A National Scale, And How It Trickles Down Locally
The protest is part of a broader national backlash to ICE’s expanded enforcement footprint, particularly in sanctuary jurisdictions. Advocates argued that incidents like the death of Good— and ICE’s use of federal funding to conduct operations in large cities—underscore the urgency of local protection strategies.
ICE got a congressional new price tag as lawmakers approved roughly $75 billion for ICE over four years, about $18.7 billion annually—to bolster arrest, detention and deportation operations.
Combined with the $10 billion Congress already appropriated for fiscal year 2025 in March, the agency now has $28.7 billion to spend this year alone, nearly triple its total budget in FY24 and a scale-up that underscores Washington’s renewed focus on enforcement, according to data by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute.
Six months into his U.S. presidency, Donald Trump leaned heavily on extending the network of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities to hold and deport immigrants, with some detainees kept for weeks without formal charges.
The administration is now pressing Congress for additional funding to scale up ICE enforcement and expand detention capacity nationwide.
The rally at City Hall harks on how immigration policy has become a polarizing flashpoint ahead of the state legislature’s next session in Trenton.
Speakers explicitly tied support for the Immigrant Trust Act to broader efforts to codify sanctuary protections across New Jersey—a key plank for progressive lawmakers who see state action as a counterbalance to federal enforcement.
“This is something at a community level that can change and that involves doing what you can for your neighbors. We need to remember that we are the ones that keep us safe.”
A local organizer, who requested to be anonymous, told Slice of Culture at the protest.
