A candlelight vigil was held Friday, Jan. 9, on one corner of the Ogle County Courthouse Square in Oregon for Renee Nicole Good, the Minnesota woman who was fatally shot during a Jan. 7 Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minneapolis.

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A candlelight vigil was held Friday, Jan. 9, 2026 on one corner of the Ogle County Courthouse square in Oregon for Renee Nicole Good, the Minnesota woman who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. Approximately 100 people attended the Oregon event that was organized by Indivisible of Ogle County. (Earleen Hinton)

Approximately 100 people attended the Oregon event organized by Indivisible of Ogle County – the local chapter of the Indivisible Project network that has held several rallies in Oregon critical of the Trump administration’s policies and actions.

“We are gathered here tonight because of a profound and unnecessary tragedy,” said Abbey Harris, one of the Friday night event organizers. “We are here because a system designed to dehumanize chooses to treat lives as disposable.”

Friday’s vigil was part of a nationwide weekend of action, “Ice out for Good”, which organizers said was created to take action against ICE violence and “stand in solidarity with all the victims” to show “strength and compassion of our community”.

Harris, an Oregon native, said the event was held to recognize Good as well as “every victim of ICE violence”.

“Renee’s death is the direct result of the calculated cruelty of ICE and the regime that empowers them. There is no justice in a system that hunts our neighbors,” Harris said. “There is no security in a regime that uses power to terrorize communities. We call it out for what it is: state-sanctioned cruelty.”

Harris said the Trump administration designates peaceful dissenters as domestic terrorists.

“This is a dangerous weaponization of words. They attempt to criminalize our First Amendment rights and lie to us despite the video evidence of what actually took place. These lies pave the way for further violence,” Harris said. “Divisive rhetoric is not leadership. When our leaders choose a convenient lie over a difficult truth, they weaken the very foundations of our democracy.”

Jan Buttron of Chana, one of the organizers of the Oregon rallies, said the rallies are held to demonstrate free speech.

Veronica Mathews, of Oregon, said some social media outlets had rushed to defend ICE — and rush to vilify Good.

“Eyewitnesses at the scene said there were no protesters. That she was simply trying to go home. That she was given conflicting instructions by ICE — told by some agents to leave, and by others to stay," Mathews said. “Officials have claimed she attempted to run over an ICE agent. The President said agents were “lucky to be alive.” Kristi Noem labeled her a ‘domestic terrorist’. Video evidence tells a different story.“

Rev. Violet Johnicker, a United Methodist minister and executive director of Rockford Urban Ministries, told attendees that it was important to remember that they do not grieve alone and are not angry alone.

Johnicker said Good was volunteering as a legal observer to “look out for her neighbors, protect immigrants, and strengthen her community in Minneapolis”.

“When tensions escalated and she attempted to drive away, she was shot and killed by an ICE officer who had no cause or legal right to do so,” Johnicker told the crowd. “Despite video evidence and eyewitness testimony, people acting in bad faith from the federal government to our own neighbors and friends on social media have attempted to spin the situation and tell us we didn’t really see what we know to be true.”

Johnicker said some have argued that if Good had acted differently, her life would not have been at risk.

“We know this is a lie because ICE is not here to protect people or ensure anyone’s safety. More than 30 people have died because of ICE in the last year alone that we know of, and their names deserve to be known too,” Johnicker said reading the names of people she said have been shot and killed during ICE operations along with the names of people who she said have died in detention centers.

“As of mid-December, ICE had 68,440 people in detention, and nearly 75% of them had no criminal convictions,” she said. “But do you know what a detention center without due process and legal proceedings is called? It’s a concentration camp.”

She said said tax dollars are being used to operate those camps.

“We can’t have affordable health care or housing or groceries, but we can spend $45 billion on ICE,” Johnicker said.

Buttron, a member of Indivisible of Ogle County and organizer of rallies held in 2025, said Indivisible wants to “build a real democracy of, by and for the people” and “create a thriving community with liberty and justice for all.”

A statement released by Indivisible after the event urged members to continue to speak out against the Trump administration’s policies and actions:

“Our country has been shaken by increasingly brutal and even deadly ICE violence. These actions are meant to instill fear in hopes that we will turn our heads. In times like these, it is easy to let our anger consume us. But as the poet Nikita Gill reminds us, the rage we feel comes from the same place as our love.

“We are angry because we care. We know the benevolence we could have from our leaders and it hurts to see so much cruelty instead. Fascism tries to burn out our hope, but it cannot survive when a community stands together in long-term solidarity. Thank you for your continued action and for refusing to give up on the very promises this nation was founded on.”