From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8, hundreds of protesters gathered near the Edward J. Schwartz United States Courthouse in downtown San Diego to rally against recent violence by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The protest was specifically in response to the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
On Wednesday, Jan. 7, at around 9:30 a.m., Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, later identified as Jonathan Ross, while in her car. Good’s death has inspired nationwide protests against state terrorism.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation San Diego organized this rally in response to the incident, posting a flyer on Instagram that read: “From San Diego to Minneapolis: Stop ICE Terror.”
At around 6:15 p.m. on Jan. 8, approximately 400 protesters gathered on the corner of Broadway and Front Street. PSL organizers led the crowd in chants such as, “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” “From Palestine to Mexico, these border walls have got to go,” and “Power to the people, no one is illegal.”
PSL community organizer Emily Von Gerichten spoke to The UCSD Guardian about the rally’s goals.
“We want justice for Renee Good,” Von Gerichten said. “We want the officer who shot her to be arrested immediately and prosecuted for murder. And not only that, we want to see an end to the reign of terror from ICE across the country. … We want ICE abolished.”
Beyond the PSL protests, other community groups have organized rallies to protest ICE presence in San Diego County. Service Employees International Union Local 221 has regularly hosted demonstrations outside of the Edward J. Schwartz United States Courthouse every Thursday since September 2025. According to SEIU 221, the Jan. 8 rally was “larger than usual.”
At around 7 p.m., protestors marched the streets of downtown with signs that read, “ICE out of our communities,” “Congress, do your job,” and “Jonathan Ross for murder now.”
At approximately 7:45 p.m., a white van manned by two unidentified law enforcement officers attempted to drive through an intersection where protestors were marching. The Guardian confirmed the drivers were law enforcement officers after corroborating the fact with several eyewitness reports. Protesters threw items and kicked the van until police officers on the scene threatened demonstrators with pepper spray if they did not step away from the vehicle.
During a demonstration hosted by SEIU 221 earlier in the day at the same location, an event organizer was briefly detained by federal agents. The individual was given a citation for parking on federal property and later released.
In an interview with The Guardian, El Cajon mayoral candidate Alexander Kraft said, “San Diego should pass a law barring ICE from operating within its city limits.”
On Jan. 7, President Donald Trump posted about Good’s fatal shooting on Truth Social:
“The situation is being studied in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the radical left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis.”
California has enacted state legislation in the face of increasingly unpredictable federal agent activities. California’s Values Act, Senate Bill 54, which passed in 2017, limits cooperation between immigration enforcement and state agents. SB 627, also known as the No Secret Police Act, was passed in September 2025, restricting law enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings while on duty. The Trump administration has sued California over both bills.
Protests continued across San Diego over the weekend.