There’s a deadly pattern unfolding across the country: shooting fatalities at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

On January 7, an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen, in Minneapolis, sparking outrage and protests in a city still scarred by past police violence. (The shooting happened just blocks from where George Floyd was murdered by police in 2020.)

Wednesday’s tragic encounter unfolded during heated demonstrations against federal immigration raids, and it marks the ninth reported shooting by active ICE officers since September, according to the New York Times. In every instance of the nine fatalities, the victim was in a vehicle.

This report, however, doesn’t paint a full picture: Keith Porter, a 43-year-old L.A. resident and father of two, was fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent on December 31 during a dispute between neighbors. The Department of Homeland Security defended the agent’s actions, despite the shooter's off-duty status.

There is no official tally of deaths at the hands of on-duty and off-duty agents. 

Like Minneapolis and Los Angeles, heightened immigration tensions have stretched across other major cities, including Chicago, Portland, and New Orleans, where agents have ramped up enforcement amid nationwide deportation pushes. 

In September, Chicago agents killed Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez, a Mexican immigrant, during a stop just outside of the city. Less than a minute later, he was shot dead. 

Agents alleged that his vehicle dragged an officer. However, expert analysis of the video proved otherwise. Other cases involved a Mexican man shot in L.A., an American citizen wounded near a bus stop, and more, with agents citing self-defense against vehicles.

ICE's use-of-force policy allows deadly action only for imminent threats, but past reviews show few incidents before this surge. As tensions boil, communities demand answers: Are these self-defense or excessive force in volatile raids?