We’re one year in on Trump 2.0, and protest has turned deadly. Some see speaking out as more dangerous — and necessary — than ever.
Before the New Year, actions of civil disobedience were giving many hope. Especially those observing and documenting Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, with so many documented instances of haphazard, violent, indiscriminate arrests. Then, ICE agents fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis, after she used a whistle to alert her neighbors of ICE activity nearby.
Portlanders are pushing back on the rising tide of fascism, and doing it from every possible angle. There is an inflatable brigade of protest frogs. A Hillsboro teen turned a viral moment into an opportunity for community organizing. A Multnomah County domestic violence prosecutor is choosing to run for local office in Oregon’s most diverse district.
Hours after Good’s death, hundreds of Portlanders gathered at a vigil in her honor. Demonstrators protested outside the Portland ICE detention center, where Portland police made six arrests.
Portland is notorious for its passionate political demonstrations and protests, with citizens engaging in various creative forms of non-violent resistance. It was upsetting — though not at all surprising — when ICE agents ramped up their cruelty. In early October, federal agents knocked an elderly couple to the ground. Laurie and Richard Eckman, both 84, were participating in a peaceful protest at the ICE facility in South Portland.
Another incident captured on video showed protesters Leilani Payne and Finnegan Greene outside the ICE facility. After a heated verbal exchange with officers, a federal agent pepper sprayed them both, directly in their faces. In a third incident, an agent pepper sprayed Seth Todd (aka the Portland Protest Frog), directly into the vent of his inflatable frog costume. That’s partly what inspired a movement of inflatable costumes, led to the creation of the Frog Brigade, and inflatable animals in general becoming adopted as a symbol of nonviolent resistance to de-escalate tensions with law enforcement.
Even U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Portland, kicked off a November town hall in response to the ICE activity with a procession of protestors from the Portland Frog Brigade. Since then, Dexter has often worn frog earrings to show her solidarity with Portland’s activist community.
“At the Portland Frog Brigade we believe that peaceful, creative dissent is the best way our group can fight fascism,” Slurmit the Frog of the Portland Frog Brigade told Street Roots. “Some have other techniques, and that’s okay. There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle.”
The Frog Brigade’s joyful absurdity is a stark counter to the claim that protesters in Portland are violent extremists, that Portland is “War ravaged.”
“Creative dissent throws a wrench in the narrative that protesting is violent or destructive,” Slurmit said. “It also brings in more people as many folks don’t want to join the front line but will join a bunch of frogs in a march or stand in solidarity with them. It is also very Portlandy and draws a lot of media attention, which helps get the word out and garners more support.”
Guns at a snowball fight
Two thousand federal agents descended on Minneapolis on Jan. 6. The next morning, Renee Nicole Good was returning home from dropping off her youngest child at school when she was killed by ICE agents.
Good was a legal observer who documented ICE activity happening near a school in her neighborhood. Along with her wife, Rebecca, Good was part of a group that used whistles to alert neighbors when ICE was in the area. A recent video angle leaked from DHS allegedly shows the perspective of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot Good, as he circles her car on foot. The footage shows Good’s wife in the street, protesting and engaging verbally with the ICE agent.
With their dog in the back seat, Good smiles at Ross and says her final words: “That’s fine dude, I’m not mad at you,” before she turns her wheels away from the agents. Then Ross fatally shot Good at point blank range through her windshield, and her car sped forward, driven by the weight of her lifeless body.
The federal government’s response to the shooting has been incoherent and dangerous. Vice President JD Vance delivered a vomit-worthy press conference, in which he demonized Good as “radicalized,” “brainwashed” and “a victim of left-wing ideology.” Inexplicably, Vance also said that Ross has “full immunity,” though the Yale law graduate didn’t offer a legal basis for that.
In a statement released just two hours after Good’s passing, DHS secretary Kristi Noem announced the predetermined outcome of the investigation before it had even begun, clamoring to defend the honor of the ICE agent, calling it self defense and painting Good as a dangerous person who engaged in “domestic terrorism.”
On the same day agents killed Good, unidentified ICE agents showed up at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis, just two miles from the shooting. At the school, agents deployed chemical weapons and tackled people to the ground. A crowd formed at the school and people threw snowballs in defense of students and staff.
“I think what we are seeing here is the federal government, Kristi Noem, Vice President Vance, Donald Trump, attempt to cover up what happened here in the Twin Cities,” U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, said on ABC’s This Week. “And I don’t think that people here and around the country are believing it.”
Back home in Portland
A crowd of hundreds gathered in downtown Portland’s Terry Schrunk Plaza for a protest and vigil to denounce the shooting and grieve for Good. Protests erupted across the nation, calling for accountability.
The next day, Jan. 8, border patrol agents here in Portland shot two people — Luis David Nino-Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras — during a traffic stop. DHS claimed they have connections to a prostitution ring, a recent Portland shooting and the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. DHS also claimed that the suspects “weaponized” the car, and said officers shot in self-defense. At a press conference hours later, local leaders were skeptical.
“We know what the federal government says happened here,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said. “There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time is long past.”
Nino-Moncada, the driver ICE shot, pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated assault against a federal officer and damaging federal property. Zambrano-Contreras, the shooting victim in the passenger seat, was taken to the Tacoma ICE facility after being released from the hospital. Zambrano-Contreras is not facing any criminal charges related to the shooting.
Dozens of fearful, frustrated Hillsboro residents showed up to a Hillsboro City Council meeting in October, ready to give passionate testimony, speak their minds and plead for protection from ICE. The city council meeting followed a one-hour-long work session that saw officials covering the legal reasons that Hillsboro, and other cities across the U.S., “cannot do anything” to stop the arrests.
People were fired up.
“When I was 8, I witnessed a kidnapping of someone I love,” local resident Yvette Savala said in public testimony. “They survived, but that trauma remains. As a mother, I never thought my son (a Hillsboro School District student) would be at risk of witnessing something similar here. ICE picking people up near schools, preschools and daycares inflicts trauma on hundreds — children, families, staff. Saying ‘We can’t do anything’ concerns me. I’m an American citizen, and I’m using my privilege to speak for parents too afraid to be here.”
Hillsboro High School soccer coach Juan Pedro Moreno Almeida, brought seven of his team’s players to the meeting to show support for their teammate, Ignacio.
“We recently had one of our teammates lose their father and two of their uncles, and another teammate lost their older brother as well. They were taken by ICE.” Almeida said. “Children of immigrants… we always have this thought in the back of our head that someday we’re gonna have to be the financial pillar for our home. And, you know, for all the city council members and Mayor Pace as well, right, I want you to look at these kids and think about all the sacrifices that they would have to go through to become that financial pillar for their household, right? They would have to, maybe, stop going to school. They would have to give up on soccer for sure. They would have to find jobs to become that pillar for their household. We need to protect our community members and especially our youth. It takes generations to overcome this trauma. I really would like to see more action.”
Speaking clearly to the full room, high school student and soccer player Ignacio gave his public testimony, in which he shared his family’s experience with ICE detention.
“On October 26th, my father and my two uncles were taken by ICE on their way to work,” Ignacio said. “When my dad was taken away, it felt like the whole world — my whole world changed. He left not because he wanted to, but because the system decided he didn’t belong here. I’m sharing this today not to ask for sympathy, but to ask for a change. Families shouldn’t have to, should not have to live in fear of being separated. I am normally not a big fan of public speaking, but for my dad, I would do anything, because I know that he would do the same.”
One of Ignacio’s teammates is 16-year-old Emmanuel “Manny” Chavez, who ended up going viral for his emotional speech in a Hillsboro city council meeting. Giving poignant testimony, the teen’s emotion was palpable as he spoke through tears.
“I’m scared for my parents,” he said. “I might not get to say goodbye to them if they go to work.”
After his speech went viral online — the story also got picked up by national outlets MSN News, PEOPLE Magazine and others — Chavez received a massive outpouring of support from community members who expressed pride for the high school junior’s courage. In a news spot with KOIN6, Chavez said it wasn’t until the public response that it occurred to him that speaking out publicly might even make him a target.
“Sounds like maybe I should have not put my face out there,” he said.
Regardless, Chavez continues to make the most of his viral moment and the platform he accidentally created. Before the holidays, Chavez launched The Hillsboro Immigration Support Fund, a food drive and legal defense fund for Hillsboro families.
“Any and all money we raise will go to help people in our community who are being wrongfully affected by this immigration crisis,” Chavez said on the GoFundMe’s page.
As of publishing, the fund had raised more than $51,000 of its $60,000 goal.
Blayne Solemani-Pearson, a deputy district attorney and father of two, said it’s precisely the district’s “We can’t do anything” mantra and rolling over to the Trump administration that got his hackles up, too.
“The problem with the county and city council saying ‘We can’t do X because of the supremacy clause’ is that their job is to reduce liability to the county and the city,” said Solemani-Pearson, who works in the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and spoke with Street Roots only on behalf of himself. “Their job isn’t to look for the legal pathway to do this thing (constituents) want done, which is to have some sort of response and protect our community. So take them saying that with a grain of salt.”
Solemani-Pearson has spent the last two years as a domestic violence prosecutor. Part of his job is to review footage from police body cameras to make sure officers are complying with the law and not violating people’s civil rights. Solemani-Pearson said he’d seen countless videos on social media depicting ICE arrests, as well as interactions with protesters and concerned bystanders, that he would almost certainly prosecute criminal charges on if they were in his jurisdiction, ranging from apparent kidnapping to unlawful use of pepper spray.
“What I’m watching these ICE agents do — or suspected ICE agents, because we don’t even know if it’s ICE half the time — is what I would consider criminal activity if I were reviewing it under that lens.”
Solemani-Pearson lives outside of Portland in Washington County. He believes the federal government is targeting his county for its diversity — one of the very things that drew him and his family to the area. Fearful about how Trump’s anti-DEI, anti-immigrant policies were harming people there, and coupled with the county’s overall refusal to respond with any urgency (or at all), Solemani-Pearson decided to jump in the race for Washington County Commissioner.
“I want reform, too,” he said. “I think that for reform to work, you have to have people pushing for change on the outside, and people pushing for change on the inside.”
Portland protest methods inspire others
“The Daily Show’s” Jordan Klepper is known for traveling the country and interviewing attendants at Donald Trump’s rallies. In a December monologue, the correspondent discussed his recent visit to Portland to see the supposedly “War ravaged” city described by Trump.
Instead, he found scenes of hope, especially from protesters with Portland’s “emergency” World Naked Bike Ride.
“The Trump administration is trying to frame what’s happening as, Portland is a bunch of aggressive agitators starting shit outside an ICE facility,” Klepper told the audience in his monologue. “But there are so many people there who are so upset by this narrative and so upset by the things that they were hearing was going on inside that facility that they decided to do the most embarrassing thing in the worst possible conditions: be naked to show that they have absolutely nothing to hide.
“I spent a couple hours with folks — there was joy, there was energy, because people weren’t going to become apathetic about it. In fact, they found humor and joy in it. And what you see outside of that ICE facility is people organically using humor and joy as a way to show an image of peace and life outside of the cruelty that Donald Trump wants to show you. And is that winning right now? It’s fighting right now… Apathy is all that administration wants right now. And it is so easy to become apathetic by all of the chaos that is out there. But seeing a little bit of what was happening there in Portland about people who are like, ‘Fuck it, i’m showing up.’ They’re like, finding the joy and the humor within that. And so that gave me that nice little chunk of hope.”
Still, we might have to step it up
In an interview on Pod Save America, Roxane Gay explained her stance on peaceful dissent, and what she calls the “myth of civility” in the face of violence and fascism. It’s a concept she had previously described in an op-ed in the New York Times.
“I can’t believe you’re calling for violence,” a commenter said after the publication of that article.
In the podcast interview, Gay clarified: “I am not calling for violence, but what I am saying is that you cannot expect people who are dealing with oppression to simply kneel and bow their heads and smile as you oppress them. And when you are facing significant oppression, sometimes violence is the only language that violent people understand. They throw women and reporters, and children and men — anyone — they just throw them around. As if they’re ragdolls. So don’t talk to me about violence. I think violence should be a tool of last resort. Saying that we don’t have to be civil is not saying we are going to be violent. It is saying we will not go quietly.”
For the Portland Frog Brigade, there’s value in all types of dissent.
“It’s tricky because these are heated times and people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake,” Slurmit the Frog said. “We want to make sure that although we do have fun, it’s not all fun and games. The Frog has become a symbol of the resistance, and a powerful one at that. Now is the time to use this symbol to bring people of all walks of life together to stand strong. Frogs Together Strong.”
For many, in Portland and across the country, following Good’s example is still the assignment. Despite the palpable danger in engaging, we still have the right to protest and monitor the basket of loose cannons and unprofessionals recruited for the current iteration of ICE.
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This article appears in January 21, 2026.