Hundreds of Philadelphians marched through Center City in two demonstrations that condemned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration’s military intervention in Venezuela. Both protests began in front of City Hall and then moved to the Federal Correctional Center for a rally in the icy and rain.
The earlier protest was part of a series of coordinated “ICE is out for good” are answered by actions in cities across the country Renee Nicole Good’s death on Wednesday. An ICE agent shot and killed Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother, during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. Good’s death sparked outrage and protests, including: On Thursday evening there will be a vigil in front of the town hall which gathered over 1,000 people.
Government officials incl Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner declared the shooting unlawful based on videos recorded and released by witnesses and the ICE agent himself. President Donald Trump and members of his administration, including: Vice President J.D. Vance AND Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noemthey concluded that the agent acted in self-defense and characterized Good as a domestic terrorist.
The administration’s immigration policies are upsetting North Philadelphia residents Caitlyn Valentino and Sean Kearney. They said Good’s death and the government’s portrayal of the incident was a wake-up call to come out and protest on Saturday.
“You know, we all should have been here for the last year with all this stuff going on with ICE. But it was the blatant lies and slander from the government that, I think, made us all snap out of it and go, ‘What the hell?’ – said Valentino. “We won’t let them call this woman a domestic terrorist. We won’t let them lie to our faces.
Along the way, the ICE protest was met with some counter-protesters, as well as interactions with armed guards at the Federal Detention Center.
Ruchama Bilenky, who joined the ICE protest, said the tense exchange seemed more hazardous knowing that Good – itwith other people in Portland, Oregon — were shot this week by federal agents.
“I like to think, ‘Oh, I’m here as a little white woman and no one is going to be afraid of me and decide to shoot me.’ But of course that’s not true anymore,” Bilenky said.
Protesters said they want the ICE agent held accountable. Some have called for the removal of the Trump administration.
“In our opinion, Trump must go now, and it’s a terse statement, but it applies to the entire regime, not just him,” said a protester who identified himself as Seth and a member of the group Reject fascism. “We’re talking about Vance, we’re talking about him [U.S. Attorney General Pam] Bondi, name, [Secretary of Defense Pete] Hegseth, etc., etc. Everyone. The whole regime.”
Kearney said there should be a “truth and reconciliation process.” “We need the equivalent of the Nuremberg trials. We need prosecutions from the top down.”
Bilenky said she plans to also participate in the second protest, called “Day of Action for Venezuela”, which was organized by a coalition including the Philadelphia Democratic Socialists of America, Juntos, and the Philadelphia Palestinian Coalition.
Calls from the first protest to remove ICE from Philadelphia were echoed in a later protest that also condemned the Trump administration’s military actions in Venezuela. Protesters also expressed support for the Palestinians and called for an end to what they described as US imperialism elsewhere in the world.
The protests in Venezuela followed last weekend’s protests operation in Caracas, where US forces captured and indicted President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores on drug and weapons charges. The action sparked protests in Philadelphia and other cities.
