In the days following the Jan. 7 ICE shooting death of Renee Good, the 37-year-old Minneapolis mother of three, thousands of city residents took to the streets to hold vigils, and angry protests. Over the past two weeks, ICE agents physically attacked and arrested peaceful protesters, as if their goal was to provoke violence and chaos.
As Vice President J.D. Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demonized Renee Good, blaming her for her own death, President Donald Trump has sent as many as 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minneapolis, the largest federal immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. Ratcheting up the tension even further, Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and placed 1,500 U.S active-duty military on standby for possible deployment to the Twin Cities.
In a direct attack on free speech, the Trump Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other state leaders, for what they claim is an investigation into whether state officials conspired to impede ICE operations. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. Here she talks about her group’s condemnation of the ICE killing of Renee Good, as she and other religious leaders across the U.S. call for accountability and and end to ICE violence nationwide.
RABBI JILL JACOBS: Well, this incident was obviously very shocking, that a woman who was in her car who was just there to see what was happening to protect her neighbors was just—I think many of us have seen the horrible videos—shot and killed. And she’s not the only one. There are more than 30 people who have been killed in ICE detention or by ICE officers as well as people who have been victims of other violence over the last year.
So it is very scary and violent and we’ve seen that ICE is just taking our neighbors off the street—not only people who have any criminal record, often without checking anything about a person, except maybe they hear them speaking another language or maybe they just aren’t white. And so we are in a very scary situation right now. And this is something that rabbis and the Jewish community feel very strongly about.
Many of us remember that our own families are only alive today because we were able to come into the United States during a time when immigration was more possible. And we are also in the Jewish community. We just recently started reading the book of Exodus in the yearly cycle. And the beginning of the book of Exodus tells the story of how our ancestors were welcomed into the land of Egypt, were comfortable there, had a comfortable life and all of a sudden there was a change of heart.
There was a new leader who decided that this foreign element was scary and decided that instead of welcoming our ancestors, this pharaoh was going to oppress them. And so that story is very live for the Jewish community. And so we’re really proud that our rabbis in Minneapolis have been out on the street. They’ve been doing ICE watch, they’ve been donating, they’ve been collecting materials and money to support their neighbors and have been mobilizing their own communities.
There was a very strong letter that came out from the Minnesota Board of Rabbis against the detentions that are happening. And this week there is a day of action happening on Friday afternoon. There was a call for faith leaders from across the country to come to Minneapolis to join with local Minneapolis clergy. And so we have several dozen rabbis from around the country who are planning to fly to Minneapolis to join their rabbinic and cantorial colleagues in Minneapolis for this day of action. And I also want to mention that besides what’s happening in Minneapolis, we have rabbis in Los Angeles, in Portland, in New York, really all over the country who are out on the streets protesting against ICE, trying to protect their neighbors who are protesting against companies like Target that are allowing ICE to operate on their premises. And so we really have rabbis, who along with their communities, are active in states all across the country, as well as of course, local Jewish communities and many other communities as well.
SCOTT HARRIS: I wanted to get your reaction to what Trump is doing in terms of focusing thousands of ICE agents in Minnesota. He’s demonized and criminalized a whole community there, the Somali community. Really leveled just blatantly racist attacks on the Somalis living in Minnesota. Right now, there are 3,000 ICE agents there. Many people in Minnesota and Minneapolis believe it’s a terror campaign to instill fear in the citizens there. And there’s a threat right now by Donald Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. And apparently, he’s put some 1,500 U.S. active duty soldiers on notice that he may call them up to deploy to Minnesota to confront or be aggressive towards the citizens there. Not long ago, Donald Trump said the most serious threat to the United States is “the enemy within.” We’re talking about some really dark future here if Trump is going to unleash the U.S. military on U.S. citizens.
What are your thoughts about what’s happening?
RABBI JILL JACOBS: It is a really scary time. We saw that Trump ran his campaign both in this election and also in the past two elections—one that he won, one that he didn’t—on fear of immigrants and on telling people that any problem that anybody might have: economic, social, etc., etc., is all the fault of immigrants. That is a classic fear technique. It’s a classic fear technique that is used by aspiring autocrats. And that’s what Trump is doing.
