From gospel sung in the rain outside a brightly lit Allentown business center to fiery denunciations of federal officials delivered to a packed south Bethlehem church, Lehigh Valley tributes to a Minnesota woman killed by a federal immigration agent sounded notes of hope and warning.
Lehigh Valley business and faith leaders spent Friday night leading services for Renee Good, the 37-year-old mother of three fatally shot Wednesday in Minneapolis by a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer.
“We want to keep it hopeful,” said Victoria Fields, who organized a vigil in front of the Hamilton Business Center in Allentown.
Fields, the CEO of a marketing service and co-owner of a coworking space, set out tribute posters and electric candles while her mother, Paula Brion, sang “Amazing Grace” and “His Eye is on the Sparrow.” They said they aim to keep the display up as a sign of unity for the neighborhood.
“Everybody needs to come together under one accord,” Brion said, calling Good’s death “a loss for everyone.”
Building owner Gordon Roberts said the tribute display at the business center felt like “the least that any one of us could do to help [Good] be remembered and to have maybe a change so this never happens again to another person.”
Federal officials have said the ICE agent who shot Good acted in self-defense and that Good tried to use her vehicle to hit the officer. Local and state officials in Minnesota have disputed that explanation.
At the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in south Bethlehem, an interfaith group of religious leaders prayed for Good’s family and told the hundreds of people packed in the pews that their commitment to protecting their neighbors would keep Good’s legacy alive.
Paula Brion performs a gospel tribute to Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman fatally shot by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis, as part of a vigil held at the Hamilton Business Center in Allentown on Friday, January 9, 2026. (Elizabeth DeOrnellas / The Morning Call)
Victoria Fields signs a tribute poster for Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman fatally shot by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis. Fields organized a vigil on Friday, January 9, 2026 at the Hamilton Business Center in Allentown where she works as the CEO of a marketing agency and co-founder of a coworking space. (Elizabeth DeOrnellas / The Morning Call)
Allentown City Councilmember Ce-Ce Gerlach signs a tribute poster for Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman fatally shot by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis. The poster was part of a vigil held at the Hamilton Business Center in Allentown on Friday, January 9, 2026. (Elizabeth DeOrnellas / The Morning Call)
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Paula Brion performs a gospel tribute to Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman fatally shot by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis, as part of a vigil held at the Hamilton Business Center in Allentown on Friday, January 9, 2026. (Elizabeth DeOrnellas / The Morning Call)
“She was killed for acting on her belief that immigrants are welcome and should be treated with dignity and respect, which means that she was martyred for a cause that we all believe in,” the Rev. Jon Stratton said.
Activists call for solidarity
The Rev. Maria Tjeltveit, Rabbi Shoshanah Tornberg and Imam Daniel Hernandez joined Stratton in paying tribute to Good and implored the crowd to persist in working toward what they said was justice and accountability.
“We are one human family, connected and responsible for each other,” Tornberg said.
Tjeltveit and Hernandez said federal officials are not living up to their responsibilities.
“It feels as if we are being ruled by fear and caprice,” Tjeltveit said, calling for divine guidance to “help us resist the whitewashing of our history but rather to learn from it so that we may respect the dignity of every human being and build a society where difference is celebrated, not suppressed or deported.”
Hernandez accused ICE of causing fear and uncertainty. He said the struggle for social justice is long but necessary.
Newly released video of Minneapolis ICE shooting shows officer’s angle
“There has always been resistance and commitment, and with time, change has taken place,” Hernandez said.
Gabby Hochfeld, from the group Queer Trans Lehigh Valley, said Good “followed in the footsteps of our queer ancestors” by showing up for collective liberation.
“While the circumstances are tragic, it brings me a level of assurance to know that our Lehigh Valley community can show up to support each other in this time of grief and complexity,” Hochfeld said.
Rapid responders outline strategy
Lehigh Valley Emergency Response Network volunteer Elianis Gautier, who spoke in Spanish while her friend Luke Gumbrecht translated, issued the night’s most passionate call for action.
“Today we honor a woman with more bravery in her body than the people who killed her will ever know,” Gautier said.
Elianis Gautier speaks during a vigil for Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis, on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. (Amy Shortell/The Morning Call)
The response network is a group of community organizers, faith leaders and residents who respond to immigration enforcement actions in the Lehigh Valley amid a nationwide crackdown by the Trump administration. Activists have raised concerns about ICE activity at the Lehigh County Courthouse, and a workplace raid in June that led to the arrest of 17 workers at the Five 10 Flats construction site in south Bethlehem sparked protests.
Documenting ICE actions on camera is the only way to know who is being detained, which allows responders to notify their families, connect those in need with legal aid, and provide for those left behind when family members are detained or deported, Gautier said.
Lehigh Valley immigration activists react to Minneapolis ICE shooting: ‘We mourn her loss’
Despite the risk involved, she urged volunteers to take action “solely armed by our voices, a whistle, our phones and the knowledge we are doing what is legally right.”
Lehigh County Commissioner Jon Irons, an organizer for the response network, said volunteers need to be “disciplined and strategic” as their work becomes increasingly risky.
Last summer, the network began staffing a hotline at 610-850-9930 to collect reports of ICE activity in the Lehigh Valley. The network has already trained 400 people, and another training session will be held at the end of January.
Irons also encouraged attendance at a Jan. 21 town hall meeting that will bring congressional candidates to the Cathedral Church of the Nativity to discuss immigration-related concerns.
“Be radical and stay radical in your community building,” Irons said. “Community building is the most radical thing we can do right now. We will not change things if we do not work and talk and learn together in community, in solidarity with organizers and activists across the country.”
Allentown City Council member Ce-Ce Gerlach, who attended both vigils, told The Morning Call that despite calls for protesters to respect the law, all social justice movements from suffragettes to civil rights marchers have faced similar pushback.
“Every group that’s been oppressed and that still is oppressed, is told to wait. Every group is told you’re not protesting the right way,” Gerlach said. “No. An unjust law must be defied. Not all laws are just.”