Minneapolis woman killed by US ICE agents called a ‘domestic terrorist' — Why is the label controversial
The death of Renee Nicole Good, killed by ICE agents, has ignited a debate over the use of the term 'domestic terrorism.' With conflicting narratives and video evidence, experts question the implications of such labels on public perception and policy.
United States Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has described the actions of Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, as ‘domestic terrorism’.
Noem, speaking at a news conference in New York on Thursday, said that Good refused to obey orders to get out of her car, ‘weaponised her vehicle’ and ‘attempted to run’ over an officer.
Many experts in Minnesota and beyond have disputed Noem, citing videos showing Good trying to drive away.
Who was Renee Nicole Good?
Renee Nicole Good was a 37-year-old mother of three who had just moved to Minneapolis, a city in Minnesota located along the Mississippi River in the Midwest United States.
Good was a prize-winning poet and a hobby guitarist, who city leaders have said was there as a legal observer of ICE activities, according to a report in the BBC.
Good's death has sparked protests across the country, with many people holding signs that read ‘Justice for Renee’.
What is ‘domestic’ terrorism?
President Donald Trump-led US administration has used the ‘domestic’ terrorist phrase often in recent months, including in an October immigration enforcement-related shooting.
In September 2025, the Trump administration issued a memo calling on law enforcement to prioritise threats, including ‘violent efforts to shut down immigration enforcement’, saying domestic terrorists were using violence to advance ‘extreme views in favour of mass migration and open borders’, according to a PBS report.
‘Domestic terrorism’ refers to acts that are dangerous to people or property and aim at intimidating civilians or influencing the government.
US federal agencies like the FBI and Homeland Security have different legal definitions of ‘domestic terrorism.’
The FBI, citing a specific section of the US code, defines ‘domestic terrorism’ as acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state criminal laws and appear intended to intimidate or coerce civilians, influence government policy by intimidation or coercion, or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping, according to a 2020 memo cited by PBS.
Homeland Security, on the other hand, uses a similar definition, but cites a different statute that defines ‘domestic terrorism’ as dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or key resources.
Limited legal meaning
The legal meaning of “domestic terrorism” is limited. The US government cannot formally label someone a ‘domestic terrorist’ under the law.
While US law defines ‘domestic terrorism,’ it does not create a standalone, specific federal criminal charge or statute for the act itself, unlike the several statutes used to prosecute international terrorism
"Unlike foreign terrorism, the federal government does not have a mechanism to formally charge an individual with domestic terrorism, which sometimes makes it difficult (and occasionally controversial) to formally characterise someone as a domestic terrorist," reads the 2023 note by the US Congress titled ‘Understanding and Conceptualizing Domestic Terrorism: Issues for Congress.’
The US federal government periodically revises its descriptions of threats. For example, in 2025, federal officials sometimes used the term "nihilistic violent extremists" to describe perpetrators who don't subscribe to one ideology but appear to be motivated by a desire to, as one expert put it, "gamify" real-life violence.
Minneapolis immigration enforcement
Good lived in Minneapolis and was a United States citizen and had no criminal background, The Associated Press reported. Good's ex-husband told the AP that she wasn't an activist and he hadn't known her to participate in protests. Good had dropped off her 6-year-old son at school and was driving home when she encountered ICE.
The Donald Trump administration has ramped up Minneapolis immigration enforcement in recent weeks, following news reports about fraud in the Somali community.
Minneapolis hosts the largest Somali community in the US, drawn by jobs and refuge from civil war, now numbering around 84,000 people – mostly in St Paul and Minneapolis, the two twin cities.
Broadening the definition
Good’s death echoes the case of Marimar Martinez in October 2025. Marinez survived after being shot multiple times by a US soldier. Customs and Border Protection agent during an incident in Chicago in October 2025
The US Department of Homeland Security, or the DHS, used domestic terrorism for "Operation Midway Blitz during which Martinez was shot.
A DHS press release described Martinez as a “domestic terrorist” and accused her of ramming her vehicle into the Border Patrol agent's car.
However, in November, a federal judge granted prosecutors' motion to dismiss federal charges against Martinez. “Ultimately, there was a determination when everything was evaluated that there were serious questions about the officers' narratives,” legal analyst Joey Jackson told CNN.
The Trump administration has used ‘domestic terrorism’ for cases which do not relate to immigration and Homeland Security.
In September 2025, after conservative activist Charlie Kirk's murder, President Trump issued a memo ordering the attorney general to expand domestic terrorism priorities to include “politically motivated terrorist acts such as organised doxing campaigns, swatting, rioting, looting, trespass, assault, destruction of property, threats of violence, and civil disorder”.
Trump signed an executive order a few days before designating antifa, a broad, loosely affiliated coalition of left-wing activists, as a domestic terrorist organisation.
Experts question Noem’s label
Experts have raised questions about Noem's ‘domestic terrorism’ label for Good.
Information is still surfacing about what transpired before Good was fatally shot. However, frame-by-frame analyses of video footage by The New York Times and The Washington Post found Good's vehicle moved toward an ICE agent, but the agent was able to move out of the way and fire at least two of the three shots from his gun from the side of the car as Good veered away.
Thomas E Brzozowski, former Justice Department Counsel for ‘domestic terrorism’, told PolitiFact that since Good was trying to drive away to "characterise that as domestic terrorism, I think it is a stretch."
"Essentially, within hours of the incident occurring, labelling this activity as domestic terrorism, what that does is effectively strip domestic terrorism of its significance," he said, calling it a “blatantly partisan effort.”