President Donald Trump provided an unusual explanation when questioned about the possibility of an ICE agent being granted immunity from prosecution. The agent in question fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The Trump administration has made incorrect claims that ICE officers possess “complete immunity” following the death of Renee Nicole Good. The 37-year-old U.S. citizen was shot in the face as she tried to drive away from an ICE protest.
On January 11, a journalist on Air Force One asked the 79-year-old president to define “absolute immunity” and its implications for ICE agents.
Trump described Good as a “very violent” and “radical” person, adding that it was regrettable what happened to her. He also labeled her companion as very radical.
When further asked to define absolute immunity, the president gave a roundabout reply.
“I’m going to let the people define it. But immunity, you know what immunity is, as well as I do,” he stated.
Trump appeared to refer to bodycam footage showing Good seated in her car, telling the ICE agent who would later shoot her, “That’s fine, dude, I’m not mad at you.”
Immigration agents had surrounded Good’s vehicle while her wife, Rebecca, filmed the incident. When Good refused to exit her vehicle and attempted to drive off, an agent fired three shots at her head.
The agent shouted a profanity as Good’s car moved forward briefly before crashing into parked vehicles.
Initial claims by both Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested Good had tried to hit the agents with her car, labeling the Christian mother a “domestic terrorist.” However, video evidence showing Good’s tires pointed away from the agent led Vice President JD Vance to state that the shooting agent was “doing his job” and therefore covered by full federal immunity.
Despite Vance’s claims, the Trump administration has attempted to prevent Minnesota, the state with jurisdiction over potential homicide cases, from investigating Good’s death. Over the weekend, thousands of individuals held anti-ICE demonstrations nationwide in memory of Good.
Legal experts refuted Vance’s immunity claims. As Michael J.Z. Mannheimer, a constitutional law expert at Northern Kentucky University, stated, “The idea that a federal agent has absolute immunity for crimes they commit on the job is absolutely ridiculous.”
Former federal prosecutor Timothy Sini explained that “Officers are not entitled to absolute immunity as a matter of law,” although he noted prosecuting the shooter could be challenging.
Michael Freeman, a former Hennepin County attorney noted for charging Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd case, described the incident as “a rogue officer acting in a malicious way that killed a 37-year-old woman in cold blood. He had no reason to fear for his life.” He also expressed belief in a successful state court prosecution.
When questioned about the use of deadly force against Good, President Trump refused to give a direct answer.
“It was highly disrespectful of law enforcement,” said Trump, who previously pardoned over 1,500 individuals who had attacked police officers during the Capitol riots on January 6, 2021.
Trump suggested that Good and her companion displayed a high level of disrespect towards law enforcement, claiming they had harassed officers and followed them for extended periods, essentially acting as professional agitators.
According to Good’s ex-husband, Good had just dropped their six-year-old son at school when she encountered protesters disrupting an ICE raid and decided to stop.
When the reporter tried to ask Trump if such disrespect warranted the sudden death of a U.S. citizen, the president interrupted.
“I’d like to find out—and we are going to find out—who’s paying for it,” he stated.
Despite repeated claims from the administration about anti-Trump demonstrators being funded by extremist organizations, there is no evidence to support Trump’s allegation that Good and her wife were “professional agitators” or that they had been provoking ICE for hours prior to the shooting.
In his responses, Trump consistently avoided acknowledging that Good was married to a woman, referring to her wife only as “her friend.”
The ICE agent identified as the shooter is Jonathan Ross, 43, an Iraq War veteran with nearly two decades of service in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Ross served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 before joining the Border Patrol in 2007 and ICE in 2015.
Ross, who previously testified about his work in apprehending “higher value targets,” also serves on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. He is a firearms and active shooter instructor, a field intelligence officer, and a SWAT team member. In June 2025, Ross was seriously injured during an arrest attempt when a suspect’s vehicle dragged him the length of a football field. He required dozens of stitches and an FBI agent applied a tourniquet.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey criticized the federal agency’s narrative of the incident, while Governor Tim Walz urged caution against believing the “propaganda machine.” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty maintained that, regardless of Vance’s declaration, the officer who shot Good in the head does not have full legal immunity. She emphasized that the county has the authority to decide on the case, stating that the involvement of a federal law enforcement agent “does not matter” in their jurisdiction.
President Trump denounced Minnesota officials, labeling Governor Walz as “an incompetent governor” and “a stupid person,” and justified the exclusion of them from the investigation by accusing them of being “crooked officials.”
The shooting occurred amidst the presence of 2,000 federal law enforcement agents in the Twin Cities metro area. Following the fatal shooting and subsequent protests, the Department of Homeland Security is contemplating deploying more agents to Minneapolis.
A protest march involving at least 1,000 people took place in south Minneapolis, despite freezing rain. The government is redirecting immigration officers from Louisiana to Minneapolis, representing a shift from operations originally expected to last into February.
