'We're Trying To Look Out For Our Neighbors:' LI Residents Protest ICE After Renee Good's Death

PLAINVIEW, NY — In the wake of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good's death, protests and rallies have erupted across Long Island.

The public and Nassau County officials reacted to the news that the 37-year-old mother was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent while behind the wheel of her car on Jan. 7.

Rachel Klein, founder of Engage Long Island, a registered Indivisible group, organized a protest on Saturday morning in Plainview.

"This was a direct response to Renee Good," she said. "We can't normalize that masked agents can shoot a mother point-blank in the face. People are excusing it, and the government is lying about it."

Klein said the protest was for visibility and awareness. Members stood on the overpass of Route 135 on both sides, holding signs that spelled out on one side: 'ICE OUT NOW' and on the other, 'ICE OUT FOR GOOD.'

She said they kept the attendance to 30 members for safety reasons, as it was near a busy main road.

The grassroots group leader said her group is very active and focuses on community service and mobilizing volunteers to fight for democracy. She founded Engage Long Island in 2018, and the group has grown to more than 3,000 members online and about 1,000 in-person members.

"The government is trying to say 'it's only the violent criminals,' but what we're witnessing and experiencing is not what we're being told," she said. "It's more important than ever to do this."

On the debate of whether Good was an activist, Klein said: "It doesn't matter if she was or wasn't. You don't get to murder someone you don't agree with. It's a scary time."

Klein continued, sharing why her group has been speaking out about what's happening in their LI immigrant community. She said they have done other protests, such as a Hands Off Protest and No Kings Protests.

"ICE is escalating everything by going door-to-door armed," she said. "We can't normalize this in the United States. Unidentified armed agents shouldn't be showing up at people's homes looking for anyone they don't find desirable in our country. That's terrifying to me."

Klein argued that ICE’s current enforcement tactics go beyond targeting violent criminals and instead harm everyday people simply trying to make a living and support their families.

"A lot of people would agree that if there are violent criminals that don't belong in the U.S., by all means give due process and deport them, but that's not what's happening," she began. "They're going to schools and workplaces and picking up day laborers. They're terrorizing communities, and it's making things less safe."

Comments on social posts about Good have been disrespectful, Klein said. She said that some were misogynistic and turned into memes.

"It's so disheartening people would say these things about a woman who was killed," she said. "It doesn't reflect well on humanity."

"It's disturbing to me to be sending people with minimal training, if any– armed and concealed faces," she said. "Who knows when people show up, if they actually even are ICE. It's creating so many unsafe situations for real law enforcement, for regular civilians, for protesters, for immigrants. I'm very scared it will find its way to our community."

Klein said her group will be giving out kits to rapid response groups, including whistles, but she doesn't want to put people in harm's way.

"We want people to be upstanders, but also not put people at risk. It's a really scary time right now. She could've been any one of us. We're trying to look out for our neighbors."

ICE was not immediately available for comment when Patch reached out.