Several hundred people gathered in Centennial Park Thursday night for a candlelight vigil in honor of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis earlier this week.
Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was fatally shot in the head by an ICE officer on Wednesday morning — just a few blocks from where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in 2020. Her killing, captured on video by witnesses, has sparked protests across the U.S. from those criticizing federal immigration crackdowns and violent activities by ICE.
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The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition organized Thursday night’s vigil to mourn Good’s death and demand an end to ICE activity in the state. Faith leaders and community organizers spoke at the gathering, where many referenced a massive ICE operation in Nashville in May as well as other more recent local sightings of the agency.
“While 2026 has started in such a grim way, we want to be clear,” said Arturo Salomon, a community organizer and ministry director at social justice advocacy group The Remix Way. “We are not going anywhere. We have lived in a world where ICE didn’t exist. Another world is possible.” Salomon also praised the work of Music City MigraWatch — the Scene's 2025 Nashvillians of the Year — in fighting deportation in Nashville.
Several speakers cited the deployment of the National Guard, ICE and other federal agencies in Memphis as a part of what they say is authoritarianism and militarization carried out by the Trump administration.
“No matter where we are, everyone deserves to be safe,” said the Rev. Eric Mayle of Edgehill United Methodist Church. “No one deserves to grieve and to suffer the pain of losing a loved one to political violence, yet [the Trump] administration continues to normalize political violence. This administration continues to encourage political violence. This administration continues to perpetuate political violence against us, against our communities.”
Also among those in attendance was state Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville), who condemned the shooting and criticized the federal government’s response. Trump administration officials have largely characterized Good as a domestic terrorist and alleged that the fatal shooting was an ICE agent's act of self-defense.
“I think people all over the country have seen the video, and people are understandably scared, angry, sad and want to come together to say this isn’t what America’s about,” Yarbro tells the Scene. “We’re not supposed to live in a country where a 6-year-old can be orphaned and the government comes out with propaganda that’s inconsistent with what we’re seeing with our own eyes.”
