The rejection increased after the murder of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
January 14, 2026 — teleSUR
A national poll by The Economist and YouGov , conducted between January 9 and 12, reveals a historic shift in American public opinion: for the first time, more citizens support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) than maintaining it .
Forty-six percent support its elimination, surpassing the 43 percent who oppose it . This public outcry was already underway due to the crackdown on the immigrant population and intensified after the murder of Renee Nicole Good , a 37-year-old woman, who was shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis on January 7, 2016.
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47 percent of those surveyed believe that ICE makes the country “less safe”, compared to 34 percent who believe the opposite.
The shooting that took Good’s life is widely questioned: 50 percent say it was not justified, compared to just 30 percent who support it , as the official version that tried to criminalize the victim was refuted by local authorities.
Distrust of the institution runs deep. Nearly half the population, 49 percent, declares having “very little” confidence in ICE , while 73 percent demand that its agents wear visible uniforms and 56 percent reject the use of masks during arrests, demanding transparency.
ICE announced a 120 percent expansion of its police force, reaching 22,000 agents , under the law signed by former President Donald Trump, reflecting the increase in militarization, amplifying fear and impunity in communities.
Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are spreading across the United States, where people in dozens of American cities have taken to the streets to protest against Trump’s mass deportation campaign and the violence of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
On January 13, a coalition of religious leaders, union presidents, business owners, and community figures in Minneapolis called on “every Minnesota worker to refuse to show up for work” and “every Minnesoan not to spend a penny” on Friday, January 23, to demand an end to the “violence and horror” that ICE has unleashed on the community and the complete removal of the agency from the state.
For her part, JaNaé Bates, the co-executive director of Isaiah MN , an interfaith and multiracial community organizing network, said that “we are going to leverage our economic power, our work, our prayers for one another . ”
Organizations reject the stances of authorities such as U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino , who recently called Minnesotans who oppose ICE “weak-minded ,” echoing Nazi-era language.
For her part, during a press conference on January 12, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem stated that “one of us is all of them,” linking it to the Nazi doctrine of collective punishment.
Author: teleSUR: lvm – JB
Source: Agencies
