On Wednesday, January 7, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot 37-year-old Renée Good as she accelerated her vehicle in the direction of the officer, who had positioned himself in front of the car. The shooting ignited a national firestorm, with Good’s actions being described as both “domestic terrorism” by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and simply the behavior of a “compassionate neighbor trying to be a legal observer on behalf of her immigrant neighbors” by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on January 24 did little to assuage the political strife wreaking havoc on American public discourse. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot multiple times by two officers—a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer—in a situation that President Trump described as “terrible.”
In light of these events, multiple residents of the greater Chattanooga area spoke before Hamilton County commissioners on Wednesday, January 28, expressing their disapproval of the county’s cooperation with ICE under Section 8 U.S.C. § 1357(g) (commonly known as Section 287(g)), which authorizes “a State, or any political subdivision of a State … to perform a function of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension, or detention of aliens in the United States.”
“The time has come to end this contract,” community member Daniel Garner said during the meeting. Enacted in 1996, Section 287(g) is certainly not a new piece of legislation. However, advocacy groups including the Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality, and Benevolence (CALEB), are “demand[ing] an end” to the county’s cooperation with ICE.
Various small-scale demonstrations have arisen across Chattanooga. Residents in Signal Mountain and East Ridge protested the agency’s actions on Wednesday.
“What's going on right now has gone too far. People's constitutional rights have been trampled on. We don't want to treat our fellow citizens in an inhumane way. We're better than this,” protester Susan Bank told Channel 9 News.
In response to the shooting of Alex Pretti, both officers involved have been placed on leave. Additionally, outlets reported that Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has been removed from his position in Minneapolis and locked out of his social media accounts. Meetings between President Trump and Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota concerning the events have been “very good” and “productive” according to both Trump and Walz.