Thousands of protesters turned out across Ohio on Saturday, days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis shot a protester there in the face, killing her. As the protests took place, advocates worked to organize responses to future ICE actions in the Buckeye State.
In Columbus, people turned out at the intersection of North Broadway and High Street, carrying signs and chanting condemnations of the shooting.
A Columbus police officer said that Saturday protests there are routine. But where they normally draw crowds numbering in the dozens, he estimated Saturday’s to be about 300.
Lynn Tramonte, founder of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, said that large crowds also turned out to protest in Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown.
They were protesting a masked ICE agent’s shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. Good was behind the wheel of her SUV when the agent, Jonathan E. Ross, shot her from point-blank range.
Just after the shooting, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and later President Donald Trump claimed that Good was trying to run over the masked agent.
A New York Times analysis contradicted that claim. It displayed video evidence showing that Good was steering her vehicle away from the agent when he shot her.
The killing comes after an ICE supervisor in Ohio was accused last month of multiple violent attacks against his much-younger, noncitizen partner. They also follow the sentencing last year of another Ohio officer who extorted sex from a vulnerable immigrant who was in his care.
In Columbus, people lined the wet streets, carrying signs that said things like “Ice Out,” and “No Kings, No Thugs. Stop the Chaos, Cruelty, Corruption.”
Many passing vehicles honked their horns in support of the protest. But one man driving a pickup pulled up, rolled down his window and said, “Kill them all.” Asked who he wanted to see killed, he repeated himself, rolled up his window and drove off.
Many others, however, say they want to defend immigrants and others ICE is targeting.
Izetta Thomas is a member of the Columbus Education and Justice Coalition. The group works for equity and justice in general. But it started working to protect immigrants after the Trump administration last year started rounding up people by the thousands.
“I don’t think our group came to the issue, the issue came to us,” Thomas said.
“We have a number of students and parents and neighbors in Columbus whose freedoms and rights are at risk, who are being terrorized by military raids that are coming into our city and neighborhoods. Anything that happens in or outside the school doors is our business. And anything that happens in our neighborhoods impacts our students’ lives.”
Tramonte said that people across Ohio can call her group’s hotline — 419-777-HELP (4357) — to find groups near them that react to ICE raids and assist immigrants in other ways. She said people in Central Ohio can also reach out to the Community Response Hub.
Tramonte was asked if there were resources instructing citizens on how they can monitor and protest ongoing ICE operations legally and safely. She said the SALUTE system lays out the details observers should take down, and local groups know how to go about doing it.
But last week’s shooting in Minneapolis illustrates the risks, Tramonte said.
“The ‘safely’ part is where I’m getting caught up,” she said. “Because it’s supposed to be safe, but we’re seeing federal law enforcement act in ways that if local police acted that way, they wouldn’t be able to get away with it. Pulling people out of cars, walking up and shooting people in the face… ‘Safely’ the part where I’m getting hung up.”
Meanwhile, some parents are frustrated with the way Dublin City Schools dealt with ICE detentions near at least one of its campuses on the last day before Christmas break.
They were part of an operation that resulted in more than 280 detentions in Central Ohio that week.
At least two took place about a tenth of a mile from Dublin-Scioto High School, and at least one student was reportedly detained.
Courtney O’Neil’s son is a freshman at the school. When she heard about the ICE arrests, she started calling around to Dublin schools to find out how widespread they were
“They denied it. They said this is a rumor. It’s not true. They’re not around our schools,” O’Neil said. “They said if it did happen, they had plenty of staff to see that students could get home safely.”
She said it was plain to her that those assurances were hollow.
“They’re targeting the parents,” she said of ICE. “They’re targeting the kids (who are) just trying to go to the schools and get an education.”
Asked to comment, Dublin City Schools spokeswoman Cassie Dietrich referred to a written statement the district issued on Dec. 22.
“No immigration enforcement officials were on Dublin City Schools property, no officials were inside our schools, and at this time, Dublin City Schools is not aware of any students being detained,” it said.
It added, “Through our communication with the Dublin Police Department, we have been informed that the only confirmed activity involved a traffic stop at the corner of Emerald Parkway and Hard Road, which was not connected to Dublin City Schools. Dublin Police have also shared that they did not participate in or direct any federal immigration enforcement related to this situation.”
Thomas, of the Columbus Education and Justice Coalition, said that her group, at least, would work to help immigrant schoolchildren and others.
“We’re working to protect our students and families,” she said. “It’s causing trauma. There are folks who are afraid to go to school. There are folks who are afraid to go to work. They are afraid of the authoritarian control that is being advanced by this administration. So we’re working together to do what neighbors do, and that is keep one another safe.”
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.