Feds: 'No basis' to probe Minnesota ICE shooting
By: Michael Loria
and Kathryn Palmer
USA Today
..... Justice Department officials said January 13 [2026] there is "no basis" for an investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good, the mother of three whose fatal shooting by an immigration enforcement agent sparked widespread protests against the Trump administration's militarized use of the Department of Homeland Security.
.....
"There is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation," Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
..... The 37-year-old was fatally shot January 7 [2026] in Minneapolis by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Johnathan Ross when she moved her care forward near the ICE agent.
..... Blanche, without elaboration, said the killing does not merit a Department of Justice investigation. Agency spokespeople did not responded to request to comment on what would provide a basis for an investigation.
..... The Justice Department is instead moving to investigate Good's widow, according to reporting by The New York Times and NBC News.
..... According to reports by The New York Times, The Washington Post and NS-NOW, several top leaders in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division resigned in protest after Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said they could not investigate the fatal shooting,a s did action U.S. Attorney of Minnesota Joe Thompson, who was appointed to investigate the state's fraud scandal. A Justice Department official told MS-NOW that the civil rights division officials had put in for early retirement before the January 7 [2026] shooiting.
..... In anew national survey by Quinnipiac University, more than 8 in 10 voters said they had seen the video of the encounter. A majority, 53% said the shooting was not justified, and 35% said it was. Another 12% of respondents did not state an opinion. The poll queried 1,133 self-identified registered voters. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
.....
Men were more divided than women, with 44% saying the shooting was not justified and 42% saying it was. Among women, 61% thought the shooting was unjustified. Republican respondents were also more likely, at 77% to call the shooting "justified" than their Democratic and independent counter parts.
..... More broadly, 4 in 10 voters said they approved of how ICE is enforcing immigration laws. a majority, at 57%, said they didn't agree with the agency's approach, which is largely unchanged since Quinnipiac's July 2025 poll.
.....Prominent Democrats have called for Ross to be arrested and moved to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
..... According to the Quinnipiac poll, public opinion of Noem has dropped slightly since the summer of 2025: 36% of voters approved of how she is handling her job in the wake of Good's death, 52% said they disapprove and 12% did not state an opinion. Quinnipiac's July 2025 poll found 39% approval and 50% disapproval of Noem's job performance. among Republicans, Noem has significantly broader support: 77% gave her a thumbs-up.