The family of Renée Good has filed lawsuits against the U.S. government, challenging federal immunity following her fatal shooting by an ICE officer, amid rising concerns over immigration enforcement violence.
The violent realities of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda have come into stark focus once again. Recently, plainclothes ICE officers opened fire on a vehicle in New York City, wounding 28-year-old Oscar Belgal while his 5-year-old son was in the back seat. This alarming incident highlights the increasing use of force by immigration enforcement agencies across the country, setting the stage for a significant legal battle unfolding in Minnesota.
Just days prior to the New York shooting, the family of Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis earlier this year, filed two federal lawsuits against the U.S. government and high-ranking administration officials.
Good’s family, along with their legal team, is pursuing two distinct legal avenues to seek accountability through the federal courts. Despite doctrines such as qualified and sovereign immunity that typically shield federal law enforcement officers and top political leaders from civil rights lawsuits, these lawsuits aim to hold both the officer responsible for Good’s death and the systemic policies that allegedly contributed to her killing accountable.
On January 7, 2026, during a tense confrontation involving protesters and federal immigration officers as part of the administration’s “Operation Metro Surge,” ICE officer Jonathan Ross fired three shots into Good’s vehicle as she attempted to flee. One bullet struck her in the head, resulting in her death.
Initially, the Trump administration characterized Good as a “domestic terrorist” attempting to run over the officer. However, the lawsuit contends that video footage clearly shows Good steering her vehicle away and using de-escalating language with the officers. Good was a U.S. citizen with no criminal history. Following her death, Ross faced no indictment or termination and remains an active ICE officer.
The lawsuits filed by Good’s partner and brother adopt a two-pronged approach, primarily utilizing two legal statutes to challenge the significant legal protections typically afforded to ICE officers and the federal government.
The first claim is based on the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), naming the United States as the sole defendant. This claim accuses the government of battery, assault, false imprisonment, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, all of which allegedly led to Good’s wrongful death. By invoking the FTCA, Good’s family and attorneys aim to hold the Trump administration liable for torts committed by federal immigration officers acting within the scope of their employment.
While sovereign immunity generally protects the U.S. government from lawsuits, the FTCA provides an exception, allowing victims harmed by government actions to seek damages. In this case, the FTCA claim focuses on the specifics of the shooting and the immediate liability of the government.
In addition to the FTCA claim, the second lawsuit employs a provision from the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, designed to protect citizens from organized civil rights violations. This law was enacted in response to local and state authorities’ failures to prosecute Klan members for violence against newly freed Black Americans.
The Good lawsuit invokes two provisions of this statute, 42 U.S.C. Sections 1985(3) and 1986, alleging a broad conspiracy by the Trump administration to violate civil rights. This claim names not only Officer Ross but also senior administration officials, including Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, and former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
The Section 1985(3) claim asserts that these officials conspired with private actors, including far-right online provocateurs whose allegations against the Somali community in Minnesota directly contributed to the administration’s Operation Metro Surge. It also implicates private corporations whose technology was used to target neighborhoods for enforcement and monitor observers and protesters. The Section 1986 claim arises from the officials’ failure to prevent the alleged conspiracy’s wrongdoings.
At the heart of the Ku Klux Klan Act claim, Good’s lawyers argue that her death was not an isolated incident but rather a “predictable result” of an unconstitutional campaign driven by racial animus targeting Hispanic and Somali communities. The family contends that Trump administration officials intentionally structured federal immigration crackdowns to foster aggressive confrontations while signaling to ICE officers that they would not face legal consequences for excessive force.
By bringing claims under Sections 1985 and 1986, the lawsuit seeks to navigate around the strict legal limitations of “Bivens actions,” which historically allowed individuals to sue federal enforcement officers for Fourth Amendment violations but have been significantly curtailed by the Supreme Court in recent years.
The lawsuits aim to link executive policy to field operations, potentially establishing a precedent for holding high-ranking political appointees accountable for the actions of ICE officers in the field. If the federal court allows the case to proceed, it could pave the way for greater accountability in immigration enforcement practices. Conversely, if the court dismisses the lawsuits, the only recourse for holding federal officials accountable for unlawful immigration enforcement violence may rest with Congress, which could enact reforms to outdated immigration laws that currently afford significant impunity to immigration agents.
While the Good family seeks unspecified compensatory damages, their primary goal is public accountability. At an emotional press conference in Minneapolis, Becca Good, Renée’s partner, expressed the profound impact of the tragedy, stating, “The whole world had to watch as our entire universe was destroyed. We were all robbed.”
In light of the recent New York City ICE shooting, the lawsuits filed by the Good family will test whether the federal judiciary is prepared to hold federal officers accountable or continue to allow them to operate with near impunity on American soil, according to American Immigration Council.