ICE

Jacob Sullum | 1.14.2026 3:45 PM

A few hours after an immigration agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis last Wednesday, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the 37-year-old activist was engaged in "domestic terrorism" at the time of her death. "This is classic terrorism," Vice President J.D. Vance agreed the next day. Noem reiterated that description during a contentious interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday, saying, "If you look at what the definition of domestic terrorism is, it completely fits the situation on the ground."

FBI agents charged with investigating the shooting reportedly are now trying to support that characterization by examining Good's ties to groups that oppose the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdown in Minneapolis. Federal investigators are also looking into protest activities by Good's widow, who was with her when ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed her. That focus on anti-ICE activism, which on Tuesday prompted the resignation of six career prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota, raises new questions about a probe that is supposed to determine whether Ross' use of deadly force was legally justified.

The reliability of that investigation was already in doubt for two reasons. First, Noem, Vance, and President Donald Trump have prejudged the outcome by declaring that Ross acted in self-defense. Second, Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, complained that the U.S. Attorney's Office, after initially indicating that his agency would be included in the investigation, reversed course, saying the probe "would now be led solely by the FBI."

The FBI's interest in Good's history of activism suggests an attempt to obscure the central legal issue raised by the shooting: Did Ross reasonably believe, given "the totality of the circumstances," that shooting Good was necessary to protect himself, his colleagues, or the general public from the threat she allegedly posed when she began to drive away after she was confronted by ICE agents who ordered her to get out of her car? The FBI's investigative tangent also raises the question of exactly what Noem and Vance mean by "domestic terrorism"—in particular, whether they define that term so broadly that it includes conduct protected by the First Amendment. Spoiler alert: They do.

On the day of the shooting, Noem said Good was a domestic terrorist because she "weaponize[d] her vehicle" by "attempt[ing] to run a law enforcement officer over," which "appear[ed] to be an attempt to kill or to cause bodily harm to [ICE] agents." She said Ross, "fearing for his life and the other officers around him and the safety of the public," fired "defensive shots." Vance........

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