U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited New York Thursday to promote the success of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement gang takedown operation as hundreds protested ICE’s caught-on-video killing of a protester in Minneapolis.
More than 200 people rallied outside of 1 World Trade Center, where Noem was cheering the success of Operation Salvo, which she announced led to the arrest of 54 people linked to the Trinitarios street gang.
The operation was launched in response to the shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Patrol officer in Fort Washington Park in upper Manhattan last summer.
Demonstrators blasted ICE for gunning down Renee Nicole Good, who was shot in her SUV as she blocked agents with her vehicle on a snow-swept street in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
“Justice for Renee Nicole Good!” protesters chanted as they held signs reading “Immigrants are New York,” “ICE out of NYC,” and “Kristi Noem is queen goon in this murderous regime!”
“What she’s doing is trying to destroy the fabric not just of our city, but of our nation, and she’s not welcome,” Murad Awawdeh, president of New York Immigration Coalition, said of Noem. “New York City has been built by immigrants for generations and every wave has contributed to our roads, our bridges, our skyscrapers, our economy and our culture.”
Protesters demanded the ICE agent who killed Good be criminally charged.
“All people of good conscience (should) stand up and fight back,” Awawdeh said.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference to discuss ICE operations in New York City on Thursday. (TIMOTHY A.CLARY / AFP via Getty Images)
Noem doubled down Thursday on her claims that Good’s actions were “domestic terrorism” and said protesters had been following and blocking ICE agents all morning before the fatal confrontation.
“They were impeding our law enforcement operations, which is against the law,” said Noem, who declined to get into specifics.
The ICE agent who shot Good, Noem said, “was an experienced officer who followed his training.”
The agent, who Noem said was “hit by the vehicle” and was taken to the hospital, was with his family as an investigation into the shooting continued, she said.
Protest outside of the World Trade Center as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks inside promoting anti-immigration efforts in New York City on Thursday. (Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News)
“We will continue to let the investigation unfold into the individual and continue to follow the procedures and policies that happen in these use of force cases,” she said, adding that “Minnesota is a train wreck” and that local elected officials there, which includes Gov. Tim Walz, “allowed” the clash that ended Good’s life.
“(They’re) allowing violence to go on in the streets,” she said.
Good’s death was recorded by onlookers from different angles. The videos show that her SUV was moving slowly and her wheels were turning away from the ICE agents, critics said. One video seems to show her SUV may have clipped the ICE agents but video from other angles casts doubt on whether her vehicle made contact with him.
Hundreds of New Yorkers protested the killing on Wednesday night at Foley Square. No arrests were made.
Noem also took a swipe at Mayor Mamdani on Thursday. While she at first said she hoped that Mamdani would work with ICE, she then said the newly sworn-in Mayor would “stand with illegal people who have broken our law before he’s going to put New York City citizens first.”
Protest outside of the World Trade Center as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks inside promoting anti-immigration efforts in New York City on Thursday. (Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News)
Noem was responding to a statement Mamdani made on X, slamming ICE’s killing of Good, claiming she was “murdered.”
“(This is) only the latest horror in a year full of cruelty,” Mamdani wrote. “As ICE attacks our neighbors across America, it is an attack on us all.”
The secretary spent most of the press conference praising the success of “Operation Salvo,” which was sparked by the July 19 shooting of the off-duty CBP agent.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams tries to enter the World Trade Center to attend the press conference with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Thursday. (Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News)
Cops quickly arrested Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 21, and Christhian Aybar-Berroa, 22, for the shooting. The two, who are allegedly affiliated with the Trinitarios street gang, are currently facing both federal and state criminal charges, including attempted murder and assault.
“During our investigation, we learned that these scumbags were part of the trans-national Trinitarios gang and recognized that they needed to be brought to justice,” Noem said.
The feds quickly launched Operation Salvo in response to the shooting, where they targeted and arrested 54 undocumented immigrants they claim have links to the notorious street gang with ties to the Dominican Republic. The feds did not name any of those arrested or outline the criminal charges against them.
About 30 of the 54 people swept up in Operation Salvo have been deported, Noem said. Their connections varied from being part of the gang to being linked to known gang members through surveillance and phone records, federal officials said.
“It varies the spectrum from speaking to individuals associated with the gang to just having conversations,” said CBP New York Director of Field Operations Frank Russo
All of those targeted were undocumented, had criminal records or pending criminal cases, federal officials said.
Protest outside of the World Trade Center as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks inside promoting anti-immigration efforts in New York City on Thursday. (Julian Roberts-Grmela / New York Daily News)
Noem and ICE officials said New York’s sanctuary city laws and state bail reform policies allowed Nunez, Aybar-Berroa and other Trinitarios affiliates back on the streets after repeated arrests.
The Secretary encouraged Mamdani “to bring everyone together” and “start working with ICE to bring criminals to justice.”
“Many times, your policies and the rhetoric coming out of elected officials has divided people and pitted them against each other,” she said. “I’d encourage the leaders in this city and your governor and in other cities and states across this country to work with us rather than opposing us.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union refuted Noem’s statements about sanctuary city laws.
A bullet hole and blood stains are seen in a crashed vehicle on at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis on Wednesday. (Ben Hovland/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)
“To Kristi Noem and your ICE goons: Your agency is dangerous, cruel, inept, and lawless, and has no place on our streets. Nothing makes that clearer than the blood you shed in Minneapolis yesterday,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “Bail reform has advanced justice for thousands of New Yorkers without raising crime levels, which are at historic lows. It is ICE that is daily undermining public safety.”