COLUMBIA — More than 150 people gathered Thursday night in front of the Statehouse to protest the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and an agent’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Organizers from the South Carolina chapters of 50501 and the Party for Socialism and Liberation gave brief speeches before leading most of the crowd on a 0.6-mile march to Columbia City Hall and back.
Police cars blocked off portions of Main Street as the crowd walked, chanting slogans condemning Wednesday’s killing of Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and mother of three who was shot through the windshield by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Police cars also followed the walkers.
The protest in the state capital remained peaceful and lasted for about two hours.
It began along Gervais Street on the sidewalk in front of the Statehouse, with people waving American flags and holding signs with slogans including “stop ICE terror” and “stop attacking U.S. citizens.” People honked their horns as they drove by.
Samantha Rainwater of Columbia, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, told the SC Daily Gazette that the group marched to city hall to discourage Columbia leaders from signing agreements with ICE or expanding its presence in the city.
Across South Carolina, 19 counties, 10 cities and two state law enforcement agencies participate in ICE’s 287(g) program, named for the section of a 1996 law that authorized it. They do not include Columbia or Richland County. The most recent participant, Elloree Police Department in Orangeburg County, signed on Wednesday, according to ICE’s website.
Minnesota and national leaders have disagreed sharply on the circumstances surrounding Good’s death, which has prompted large protests in Minneapolis and across the country.
Video of the shooting shared with the Minnesota Reformer, an affiliate of the Gazette, shows officers approaching a vehicle stopped in the middle of a snowy road. One yells at her to get out and tries to open the door. Good slowly backs up, then pulls forward as she begins to drive away. An officer at the front of the vehicle, identified in court records as Jonathan Ross, shoots three times.
At a news conference Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the officer acted in self-defense. She alleged Good was attempting to kill him with her vehicle, which she called an “act of domestic terrorism.” Vice President JD Vance continued Thursday to call it self-defense.
Sigourney Howell, a 27-year-old EMT who lives in Sumter, said she came to the protest because she worries about what’s next for America. What can be seen and heard on video doesn’t match what officials are saying, she said.
Brenda Peake said she came from Rock Hill to join the Statehouse protest because she believes the government is lying about what happened to Good, and she couldn’t stay quiet.
“You look at the videos and you can see that she’s trying to get away,” said the 77-year-old, who used to work for the North Carolina Department of Corrections. “As a female, I know if a guy in a mask and a big gun came up to my car, I would try to get away. It’s just an instinct.”
Adrian Ashford covers campaigns and elections for the SC Daily Gazette. Before moving to South Carolina, he covered faith and religion for The Dallas Morning News. He studied religion and politics at Harvard and wrote a thesis about evolving interpretations of the First Amendment.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Vice president scolds reporters over descriptions of Minneapolis ICE shooting
BY: ARIANA FIGUEROA - JANUARY 8, 2026 6:19 PM
WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said Thursday the Trump administration would stand by the federal immigration officer who shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis the day prior.
Vance defended the immigration officer’s actions as “self-defense” and berated journalists for covering the story, including by reporting that on-the-scene videos contradicted claims from the Trump administration that 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good used her vehicle to harm the immigration officer who fired three shots into her windshield.
“I would appreciate everybody saying a prayer for that agent,” Vance said. “I think the media prejudging and talking about this guy as if he’s a murderer is one of the most disgraceful things I’ve ever seen from the American media.”
An analysis from The New York Times of videos from three different angles show Good turning her SUV away from Ross and that he was not in the path of her vehicle when he fired three shots at close range into her windshield.
“That ICE officer nearly had his life ended, dragged by a car six months ago, 33 stitches in his leg so you think maybe he’s a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile,” Vance said.
Vance also accused Good of impeding a law enforcement operation.
“I’m not happy that this woman was there at a protest violating the law by interfering with the law enforcement action,” he said. “I think that we can all recognize that the best way to turn down the temperature is to tell people to take their concerns about immigration policy to the ballot box, stop assaulting and stop inciting violence against our law enforcement officers.”
DHS operation to continue
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also defended the immigration agent during a Thursday press conference.
“This is an experienced officer who followed his training,” she said.
The federal immigration operation in Minneapolis began last month but intensified this week after a right-wing influencer reported day care centers run by members of the Somali community as fraudulent.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during the briefing that the aggressive immigration enforcement in Minnesota would continue.
“The Department of Homeland Security will continue to operate on the ground in Minnesota, not only to remove criminal illegal aliens, but also to continue conducting door-to-door investigations of the rampant fraud that has taken place in the state under the failed and corrupt leadership of Democrat Gov. Tim Walz,” Leavitt said.
‘Absolute immunity’
The FBI has refused to allow the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from the investigation to have access to evidence or other case materials in order to investigate the shooting.
When reporters in the White House briefing room pressed Vance on why the FBI is refusing to cooperate with local law enforcement officials, Vance said it was a federal issue.
“The idea that Tim Walz and a bunch of radicals in Minneapolis are going to go after and make this guy’s life miserable because he was doing the job that he was asked to do is preposterous,” Vance said. “The unprecedented thing is the idea that a local official can actually prosecute a federal official with absolute immunity.”
A federal officer can be prosecuted by local and state authorities if a federal official violates state criminal laws.
Absolute immunity is applied to civil liability, and extended to certain positions such as the president, judges and legislatures acting in their official duty. Qualified immunity is usually applied to the conduct of law enforcement and grants them immunity from certain legal actions.
Congressional Democrats have decried the shooting and have called for a criminal investigation.
Ariana covers the nation's capital for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include immigration, congressional policy and legal challenges with a focus on how those policies impact the lives of immigrants and migrants coming to the U.S.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
