“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”
— Ecclesiastes 1:9
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These ancient words have never rung more painfully true than in this moment.
As I write this, three more names have been added to the unconscionable roll call of Americans killed by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents: Keith Porter Jr., Renee Good, and Alex Pretti. Three human beings. Three American citizens. Three lives extinguished by an agency operating with unchecked power and zero accountability.
The Names We Must Speak
Keith Porter Jr., a 43-year-old Black father of two, was shot and killed on New Year’s Eve in Northridge, California, by an off-duty ICE agent. Keith was celebrating the arrival of 2026 the way people in his community have done for generations—firing celebratory shots into the air. Rather than call the police and wait for trained officers to respond, an off-duty ICE agent took matters into his own hands. Keith’s mother, Franceola Armstrong, described her son as “caring, hardworking, and uplifting to those around him.” He never made it to see the new year.
Renee Good, a 37-year-old poet, mother of three, and member of the LGBTQ+ community, was shot and killed in broad daylight in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, while serving as a legal observer in her own neighborhood. She had just dropped her 6-year-old son off at school. Video footage contradicts federal officials’ claims that she posed a threat. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called her “a compassionate neighbor trying to be a legal observer on behalf of her immigrant neighbors.”
Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Health Care System, was killed on January 24, 2026, by Border Patrol agents while documenting their activities with his phone. Video shows him with his phone in one hand and his other hand raised—not brandishing the licensed firearm he legally carried. He was pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the ground by multiple agents, and then shot approximately ten times. His parents said he “wanted to make a difference in this world.”
The Pattern That Persists
These three deaths are not isolated incidents. Since January 2025, federal immigration agents have been involved in at least 28 shootings, resulting in at least eight deaths. The numbers continue to climb. In 2025 alone, 31 people died in ICE detention—the deadliest year on record since 2004. December 2025 was the deadliest month ever recorded.
At least five of the people shot by immigration agents have been U.S. citizens.
There is nothing new under the sun.
We have seen this before. We have watched as agencies sworn to serve and protect become instruments of terror in our communities. We have witnessed the excuses, the lies, the cover-ups. We have heard the official statements that contradict the video evidence. We have felt the rage of watching our loved ones be called “domestic terrorists” and “active shooters” when they were poets and nurses and fathers celebrating a holiday.
The Cycle of Violence Without Accountability
Here is what happens, time and again:
An agent kills an American citizen. Federal officials immediately craft a narrative that justifies the killing. Video evidence emerges that contradicts the official story. Investigations are obstructed—the FBI excluded state investigators from the Renee Good case. The agent’s name is withheld or protected. No charges are filed. The cycle repeats.
Until there is reform—comprehensive, structural, systemic reform from the top to the very bottom of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security—we will continue to have these incidents without accountability. The agency will continue to operate as it has continuously operated: as an institution designed to instill fear, one that views communities of color, immigrant communities, and LGBTQ+ communities as threats to be managed rather than citizens to be served.
Our Community Is Not Exempt
Let us be clear: this is not merely an immigration issue. This is a civil rights issue. This is a human rights issue. This is an issue that touches every marginalized community in America.
Renee Good was a member of our LGBTQ+ community. Keith Porter was a Black man killed by an agent reportedly known for racist remarks. The communities under assault in Minneapolis, in Los Angeles, in cities across this nation, are our communities—Black, Brown, queer, immigrant, and all those who exist at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities.
When ICE agents can operate with impunity, when federal law enforcement can kill citizens and face no consequences, when video evidence of unjustified shootings is dismissed, and the victims are posthumously smeared, none of us are safe.
What Must Change
We call for:
- Immediate Congressional oversight hearings on ICE’s use of force and the pattern of shootings under current leadership.
- Mandatory body cameras for all ICE and CBP agents during enforcement operations, with footage preserved and made available to independent investigators.
- Independent investigations of all shootings involving federal immigration agents, conducted by entities outside the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.
- Criminal accountability for agents whose use of deadly force is found to be unjustified.
- An immediate moratorium on the deployment of federal immigration agents to cities as tactical strike forces until comprehensive use-of-force reforms are implemented.
- Full transparency in reporting all deaths and injuries involving ICE and CBP, whether in custody or during operations.
- Congressional action on pending accountability legislation, including the Federal Law Enforcement Standards and Accountability Act and the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act.
What You Can Do
- Contact your members of Congress. Demand oversight hearings. Demand that accountability measures be attached to any DHS funding legislation.
- Know your rights. Document everything. ICE agents do not have unlimited authority, despite how they may behave.
- Support impacted families. The families of Keith Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti need our support—emotionally, spiritually, and materially.
- Show up. Attend rallies, vigils, and community actions. Our presence matters. Our voices matter.
- Register to vote and make your voice heard. Elections have consequences. Leadership has consequences. The policies that enable this violence were chosen by people who were themselves chosen by voters.
A Final Word
Nearly thirty years ago, Atlanta Black Pride, Inc. was founded to serve our community—to create spaces of joy, celebration, and solidarity for Black LGBTQ+ people in the South. As we approach our 30th anniversary in 2026, we are reminded that our work has always been intertwined with the broader struggle for justice.
The fight for LGBTQ+ liberation cannot be separated from the battle against police violence. The struggle for Black lives cannot be separated from the struggle for immigrant rights. We rise together, or we fall together.
Porter, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti did not have to die. Their deaths were Keith preventable. Their deaths were the result of an agency unmoored from accountability, empowered to act with impunity, and led by those who view American citizens as acceptable collateral damage in a political war.
What has been will be again—unless we demand change.
What has been done will be done again—unless we hold those who do it accountable.
There is nothing new under the sun—but there can be.
The sun can rise on a nation where federal agents cannot kill citizens without consequence, where video evidence is not dismissed. Where families are not left to grieve while their loved ones are called terrorists by the very government that killed them.
That nation is possible. But only if we fight for it.
In solidarity and determination,
Terence Stewart
President and CEO
Atlanta Black Pride, Inc.