(AFP) – US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that hundreds more federal agents were heading to Minneapolis, brushing aside demands by the city’s Democratic leaders to leave after an immigration officer fatally shot a woman protester. In multiple TV interviews, Noem defended the actions of the officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, whose death has sparked renewed protests nationwide against President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
Noem reiterated her claim that Good’s actions in the Midwestern city on Wednesday amounted to “domestic terrorism,” and that the agent acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Good in her car. Prominent Democratic officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have strongly disputed this narrative, saying viral footage from the scene shows Good’s vehicle turning away from the agent and posing no threat to his life.
Noem, when pressed repeatedly by CNN about how she could make such definitive statements while an investigation into the incident had just begun, insisted she and the administration were in the right. “Why are we arguing with a president who’s working to keep people safe?” she said. Speaking separately to the conservative Fox News network, Noem said hundreds more officers will arrive Sunday and Monday, to allow immigration agents “that are working in Minneapolis to do so safely.”
“If protesters ‘conduct violent activities against law enforcement, if they impede our operations, that’s a crime, and we will hold them accountable to those consequences,'” Noem told “Sunday Morning Futures.”
– ‘Extremely politicized’ –
Meanwhile, confrontations between federal agents and protesters continued Sunday in Minneapolis, with officers seen using pepper spray against people holding signs outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the city. Noem accused Democrats of encouraging violence against immigration officers. “These locals, if you look at what Governor Walz has said, if you look at what Mayor Frey has said, they’ve extremely politicized and inappropriately talked about the situation on the ground in their city,” she told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“They’ve inflamed the public. They’ve encouraged the kind of destruction and violence that we’ve seen in Minneapolis the last several days.” Since Wednesday’s shooting, thousands of people have demonstrated, largely peacefully, in several cities across the country including Minneapolis, where 29 people were detained and then released Friday, according to police. The protesters have demanded a full investigation into the circumstances of the deadly encounter.
Democratic officials are particularly critical of the fact that local authorities have been excluded from the investigation, which is being conducted by the FBI. “It should be a neutral, unbiased investigation where you get the facts,” Frey told CNN. He also described as legitimate activists’ actions to disrupt immigration enforcement operations, such as one in which Good was involved. “You need to enforce laws, of course, but there’s also a requirement that you carry out laws and carry out enforcement in a constitutional way,” Frey added. “We’ve got pregnant women getting dragged through the street. We’ve got high schoolers just getting — American citizens, by the way — getting taken away.”
On Sunday agents were carrying out Trump’s immigration crackdown and were seen detaining people in residential areas. People were also seen laying flowers at makeshift memorials honoring Good. The federal security operation in Minneapolis occurred amid a highly politicized fraud investigation in Minnesota.
– Kerem Yucel, with Raphael Hermano in New York
© 2024 AFP
