Minnesota Woman Killed While Obstructing ICE Agents, Senator Claims

Senator Joni Ernst stated Thursday that the shooting death of a Minnesota woman was “very tragic,” but she died while “impeding the legal authorities” of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a time when threats and violence against them are surging.

“Today we have a young woman who has lost her life,” the Iowa Republican told reporters on Thursday.

“Protesting is fine, but when you try to intervene in legal activities of our law enforcement agents, there are repercussions,” she continued. “Unfortunately, this one was very extreme.”

According to reports, an ICE agent shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good in the head Wednesday after she attempted to hit agents with the truck she was driving, sparking protests in Minnesota while federal government officials, including President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have insisted she was killed in self-defense.

Ernst urged Americans not to interfere with law enforcement operations. “Our ICE agents have had a 1,300% increase when it comes to actions against them of physical violence just in the recent year,” she said. “We’ve seen an 8,000% increase of death threats against our ICE agents, and let me tell you, these threats, these physical actions against law enforcement officers, it’s completely despicable.”

Ernst also defended Noem and ICE officers, saying they have legal authority to enforce immigration laws. “Those agents that serve under [Noem] have authority. They are legally acting,” she said. “They are removing people that are illegally in our country, those that are murderers, those that are rapists, those that are drug traffickers.”

The senator criticized sanctuary policies, stating ICE agents often lack support from local law enforcement. “They don’t have any local police cooperation,” she added. “They essentially are turning into their own police for crowd control measures. That’s not why they are there.”