On Jan. 9, 2026, two days after Renee Nicole Good was killed by an ICE agent, over 500 people assembled in Detroit’s Clark Park to protest. A video showing ICE agents stopping Good in her car, then shooting her as she drove off, resulting in her death, sparked nationwide protests. Good, 37, is survived by her wife, Becca, and three children. Good had just dropped off her 6-year-old son at school before her death.

There have been six deaths at the hands of ICE reported since the start of 2026. Last year, 32 deaths of people in ICE custody were reported, the most in over two decades.

At the Clark Park protest, I spoke with Donna Stern, a member of The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), who was handing out leaflets. She spoke of what she hoped to see in America’s future, and what a unifying message could be in order to bring about that future.

“We’ve got to build a mass movement in the streets to get Trump out now. Trump did not pull the trigger, but he is completely responsible for this murder. And he has ICE, his Gestapo; he has set the policies, and they came into Minneapolis intending to murder someone. We have to stop fascism before it’s consolidated. Trump out now. I think that is the message. I do not think that elections will be free and fair. And I also don’t think that any Democrats, once they get in, are going to stop Trump. The Democrats have made it clear. What we need is a Democratic movement.”

Further into the crowd, I noticed a man with a sign depicting a quote by Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl who was murdered during the Holocaust. “Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes… Families are torn apart; men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”

He told me, “My name is Chris. I hate ICE, except in my margaritas. I’m just fed up and pissed with this country right now. Unfortunately, I’m getting really jaded, and it feels like, despite my sign, it feels like the people do not have power, because Congress will do nothing. And the courts are overtaken. The checks and balances are all broken. But this is at least doing something. And maybe it spurs other people to do something. And if enough people get out and raise their voices, things can change.”

I asked what messaging he believes could gather enough people to effect change. “People just need to actually see what’s going on. I saw the video of this woman being shot. I see what ICE does. I see what this regime is doing. It’s disgusting. But at the same time, you can’t force people to see reality.”

I pointed to the Anne Frank quote. He explained, “It just felt really appropriate with everything that’s going on right now. It’s scary. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it certainly does rhyme right now.”

I asked his opinion on whether patriotism can be, or should be, a part of the conversation moving forward. “I think liberals and progressives should take loving your country and patriotism back. I like that people have flags out here. It shouldn’t just be in the domain of right-wingers and quote-unquote Patriots.”

In Chris’s group, a woman named Kirsten spoke up. “Blind obedience as patriotism versus criticism of the government. You can be a patriot and also hold your government accountable.”

Chris continued. “Not blind nationalism, but truly loving your country. Loving the immigrants that everyone has made this country what it is, loving it for what it is. And not some made-up ideal of what it used to be in the 50s or 60s.”

Chris went on to speak of the alienation within his family owing to differing views on the condition of U.S. civic life. “I feel like they’re strangers and I can’t even talk to them. My sister had a 30-night vigil for Charlie Kirk. I don’t want anyone to die by gun violence, but there hasn’t been a peep for this woman, Renee Good, on her social media or anywhere. It’s so obvious from the outside. There’s so much hypocrisy to it.”

Kristen said her primary focus is on “The division amongst the people, because I think the more divided the people are, the stronger the government becomes, and they rely on that. And so the weaving of these alternate realities is something that scares me. How we have one group of people watching one set of news media and another group of people watching another set of news. How are we as a country supposed to grow and love thy neighbor when we are literally living with different realities in our heads? The government is gaining power, the executive branch, especially, is gaining power at what feels to be a very quick pace. I’m hoping that we can help bridge the divide and agree on a singular, truthful reality.”

Denuncia Faverelli, a woman holding a sign depicting Donald Trump and JD Vance in Nazi uniforms, from a series of artworks called The Turd Reich.

Faverelli spoke confidently about what steps she wants to see the U.S. take to move in a positive direction. “We have to impeach Kristi Nome and, of course, Trump, but I think that is not going to happen anytime soon. So I’m hoping that the Republicans will come across the aisle with the Democrats to start doing something. For them to grow a spine, because I think they were hoping to benefit more, but I think they’re seeing a lot of their constituency getting really upset with the Epstein files, for example. I think what’s really galvanizing is the murder, the execution of Renee Good.”

Faverelli added, “We’re losing our democracy. I became a citizen in 1986. My parents and grandparents experienced the Nazis and the Bolshevik Revolution. My grandparents were on the streets when the soldiers were marching, and my mom was in Siberia because she was in the eastern side of Poland when Russia took that side. It’s unfathomable to me. And before my father died, close to 100, he recognized that in Putin when he came to power. And they were saying, ‘Oh, he’s making overtures.’ He was a KGB director; he didn’t lose that background. I just don’t see how people have turned a blind eye to the approach Trump takes with Putin.”

Faverelli stressed, “ICE killed a mom, you know? I think a lot of people can relate to that. Hopefully, no more people have to be killed.”