On January 7th, a woman was shot at in Minnesota, America, by agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The incident, which resulted in the death of the woman, has been a catalyst for widespread outrage and claims of injustice against the Trump administration.
According to the Episcopal News Service, during an operation by ICE, a woman (later identified as Renee Nicole Good, 37) appeared to be ‘using her SUV to block traffic’. ICE agents approached the vehicle and as she drove away from the scene, an officer fired at her. The vehicle crashed and Ms Good later died in hospital.
There is speculation as to whether Ms Good was attempting to obstruct the officers as a form of civil protest against the sustained presence of ICE agents in Minneapolis, an extension of the Trump administration’s campaign against immigrants.
The New York Times reports that local authorities confirmed that ‘the woman was not the target of any law enforcement investigation’ and witness videos appear to show her driving away before the shots were fired.
President Trump posted on Social Media soon after the incident that the woman was ‘obviously, a professional agitator’ and pronounced that the federal officer had shot her ‘in self-defence’. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the domestic SUV as a ‘weaponised vehicle’ and said that her manoeuvre was ‘an act of domestic terrorism’ at a press conference after the event.
It has been noted as significant that the incident took place in close proximity to where George Floyd was shot and killed in the city in 2020; an event which sparked global conversations about racism in the police force and social justice.
The Rt Revd Craig Loya, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, released a statement after the fatal incident.
It describes the ICE as having ‘a racially narrow lens’ and carrying out violence ‘with a cruel delight’ in the course of their duties. His statement urges Christians not to respond ‘in outrage or with reciprocal violence,’ to the ‘Herods of the world and their fear driven campaigns of terror’ but to gaze in ‘wonder and expectation for the joyful manifestation of Jesus wherever the poor, the outsider, the weak, and the oppressed are to be found.’
The Bishops of the Diocese of North Carolina have also Responded thanking Bishop Loya for ‘his wise words’ and his ‘clear and passionate affirmation of a Gospel-centered response to the ongoing presence of immigration forces in our local communities’.
The Rt Revd Sam Rodman and Rt Revd Jennifer Brooke-Davidson of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina say this ‘is a reminder of our call, as followers of Jesus, to stand in solidarity with those who are made vulnerable by the actions of those in power.’
Read the full statement by the Rt Revd Craig Loya, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, featured below.
Beloved in Christ,
Matthew’s account of Epiphany, the feast we celebrated yesterday, shows that there are two responses to the manifestation of a poor, helpless, migrant child lying in a feeding trough as the place where the God of the whole cosmos resides: fear and joy. King Herod meets the news of King Jesus with fear that quickly turns into a murderous rage as he slaughters an untold number of infants to eliminate the threat to his power. The wise men who had been watching the skies for a sign are overwhelmed with joy at the good news that Herod’s campaign of terror through violent force has met the unstoppable power of God’s love.
The Herods of the world, and their fear driven campaigns of terror, are ever with us. Today in Minneapolis, after deploying thousands of federal immigration agents in recent days, an individual was shot and killed by those agents. The news is crushing, to be sure, but we ought not be shocked. The federal government has been making good for a full year on its promise to enforce immigration policy through a racially narrow lens and with a cruel delight. An incident like the one today in Minneapolis was inevitable, and such violence is likely to remain a feature of our common life as long as federal agents are being deployed to cities seen to oppose the current administration for the sole purpose of provocation and intimidation.
As people of the Epiphany, our call is to stand in the midst of a world where Herod continues to flex and posture, not in outrage or with reciprocal violence, but gazing in wonder and expectation for the joyful manifestation of Jesus wherever the poor, the outsider, the weak, and the oppressed are to be found. As people of the Epiphany, in the midst of a world where cruelty tries to pose as power, we continue to rejoice in the assurance that absolute and final power resides in poor and crucified Jesus, who alone is the true king. Our Epiphany joy is not some naive and shallow notion that everything will be ok, when everything is so obviously not ok. Our Epiphany joy is the deep, defiant, revolutionary hope we have in the assurance that love is the most powerful force in the universe. Like the wise ones searching for Bethlehem, we wait, we watch, we follow where love leads, knowing that only God’s action in the world can finally and fully heal all that the lust for a false and hollow power had broken down, world without end.
See the statement from the Rt Revd Craig Loya, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota.
See the statement from the Bishops of North Carolina.
See a news article about the incident by the Episcopal News Service.
See an article about the incident by the New York Times.