After federal immigration agents shot and killed multiple protesters in Minneapolis, immigrant rights activists in Rhode Island are doubling down on efforts to defend their neighbors through protest and policy change. As state congressmembers propose changing state laws to hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement accountable, Governor Dan McKee and Mayor Brett Smiley signaled they are considering ways to defend locals from ICE violence.
National Concerns about ICE
Nationally, 32 people died while detained by ICE in 2025, making it the deadliest year for the agency outside of the COVID-19 pandemic. With an increase in the number of people in ICE custody, reports of medical neglect, assault, and inhumane conditions have increased as well. The deaths have continued into the new year, with ICE agents killing three people in public and at least six people dying in ICE custody so far in 2026.
On January 8, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Minnesota protester Renee Good. Good was one of thousands protesting what the ACLU is calling an “unprecedented level of violence” and “racial profiling campaign” against people of color in Minneapolis and St. Paul by immigration agents. Over a thousand rallied at the Rhode Island State House days after Good’s death, chanting “ICE out for Good!” and demanding an end to violent ICE attacks across the country.
“We demand the arrest and indictment of Minnesota ICE agent Jonathan Ross. We demand the release of our neighbors and families in ICE detention. And we demand that ICE be abolished this year,” said Rhode Island Deportation Defense Network (DDN) organizer Maya Lehrer to the State House crowd on January 11. “What protects us is not staying home, it’s growing our numbers.”
Despite the attacks on protesters by ICE across the country, volunteers with Rhode Island’s DDN are resolved to continue educating people about their rights, recording immigration agents’ actions, and protesting when necessary. Volunteers with DDN operate a hotline to report ICE activity and provide legal support to those dealing with immigration agents.
Statewide Reactions
Just hours after ICE agents killed another Minnesota protester Alex Pretti on January 24, DDN organizers collaborated with Indivisible Metro Rhode Island for a training on ways to respond to ICE raids. Over 200 people attended the workshop at the Bell Street Chapel, many of whom were motivated to get involved after seeing the news about Minnesota.
“[We’re] horrified by what’s happening and want to be prepared for if that energy comes to Rhode Island,” said Indivisible Metro organizer Michaela Keeghan. Last week, Indivisible RI and over 30 grassroots organizations called on the state’s federal delegation to reel in ICE and Customs and Border Patrol. “Do we have somewhat of a unique opportunity in Rhode Island to prepare ourselves a little more than maybe Minneapolis could have?” said Keeghan.
ICE arrested over 340 people in Rhode Island in the first six months of Donald Trump’s second term as president, and their activity has remained high in recent months. The Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR) organizers say their organization has worked with over 500 people locked at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls over the past year. AMOR staff attempt to connect detainees with family members, legal aid, and support them with commissary funds. In many cases, detainees are deported from Rhode Island without any of their belongings.
“They get deported not only to a country they’ve never been to, but without their identification. And so they really have to start from zero,” said organizer Sophia Wright. “This is a thing that the United States government has been constructing for years, since ICE was founded, as a way to police our communities of color.”
Students Take Action
At Brown University this fall, a record number of students signed up to learn about immigration law and assist with asylum case applications through their campus chapter of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice (SCIJ). People are around five times more likely to win their asylum cases when they have legal representation, but SCIJ said attorneys are moving away from immigration because of how demoralizing and traumatic the field has become.
“One of our partner attorneys, she had a client whose car window was smashed in with an axe by an ICE agent,” said SCIJ Executive Director Jonathan Goldman, who warns the next large-scale immigration sweep could occur in southern New England. “There’s a huge operation happening in Maine right now, which is only a couple of states over, and it is only a matter of time before those officers just start moving south.”
SCIJ encourages people to attend virtual and local Know-Your-Rights Trainings, as well as participate in political advocacy that protects and supports immigrant communities in Rhode Island. SCIJ helped win the 2022 legislation that granted undocumented Rhode Islanders the ability to earn a driver’s license. Now, SCIJ is joining other organizations demanding the state protect immigrants from ICE attacks by allowing virtual court hearings.
“Our organizations have been working on this basically all last semester, and that was before all the recent events took place,” said Brown University SCIJ chapter organizer Ella Clarke.
Local Interventions
On January 16, armed ICE agents ran through court security at Providence’s Garrahy Judicial Complex while looking to make arrests. In November, ICE officers wrongfully detained a teenage Superior Court intern and only released the high schooler after being confronted by Judge Joseph McBurney. A petition to secure virtual court hearings in Rhode Island currently has over 3,300 signatures.
“It’s been nice to see the community continuing to come out more and more for issues relating to this,” said Clarke. “It’s gotten to the point where they’re taking anyone, no matter race, no matter citizenship… You are never safe from it and you should care about everyone, no matter how far away it might seem to you.”
While hundreds of Minnesota businesses closed their doors to protest ICE on January 23, Providence residents gathered at a downtown church to prepare for similar forms of wide-scale community resistance in the Ocean State. The Deportation Defense Network is now calling for Rhode Islanders to join a national shutdown on Friday January 30 — to close businesses, avoid school and not go to work until political leaders stop funding ICE.
“The one way to alleviate that anxiety is action,” said one attendee who works in government and prefers to go unnamed. She joined the DDN just over a month ago to educate her neighbors about the hotline, and she draws strength from connecting to others over immigration issues. “We need community in order to make what we all want to happen, which is safety and security for everybody to take care of our people.”
Governor Dan McKee told Ocean State Media he is preparing the State Police, National Guard and municipal police for the possibility that Rhode Island will get swept up in ICE operations like those in Los Angeles, Chicago, or New Orleans. In Providence, Mayor Brett Smiley issued an executive order prohibiting federal immigration authorities from using city-owned property as “a staging area, processing location or operations base.” Smiley said enforcement protocol is being developed, and the City will only honor a warrant signed by a judge.
The heightened rhetoric from Rhode Island leaders comes as Trump threatened to cut off federal funding for “sanctuary cities” by February 1, although Providence police appeared to assist with an ICE arrest last year. After the incident, the City Council clarified how Providence officers should interact with immigration enforcement. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget is also conducting a funding review targeting Democratically controlled states, citing similar claims of fraud that preceded the crackdown in Minnesota.
The volley of power between levels of government continued at the State House, when Cranston Representative Brandon Potter introduced legislation that allows Rhode Islanders to sue federal officials in state court for violating a person’s constitutional rights. Advocates with AMOR told The Valley Breeze they once again plan to bring forward a law that would shut down the Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, where ICE holds detainees from across the nation. With the state’s legislative session only just beginning and statements by elected leaders not slowing ICE activity in Rhode Island, advocates are not celebrating yet.
“It’s really easy to say you’re against something. It’s a lot harder to be against something and to take the actions that are necessary to make that resistance real,” said AMOR’s Wright. “I really look forward to seeing our politicians make it real.”
Eric Halvarson is a multimedia journalist based in Providence, Rhode Island.
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