Packs of people met outside the Statehouse in Columbia Thursday to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity and an ICE officer's decision to shoot and kill a Minneapolis woman.
Renee Good was shot in her car Wednesday morning on a snowy south Minneapolis street. The 37-year-old mother's death has turned into a national display of disagreement. Elected officials and residents throughout the United States, including South Carolina, saw her death through different lenses.
Columbia's protest stayed peaceful through the two hours the demonstration lasted. Jefer Carias, who is from Honduras but now lives in Columbia, said the decision to attend was simple.
"A mother was killed," he said. "It was pretty brutal."
Eyewitnesses told Minnesota Public Radio that Good's car was "blocking traffic" at a scene where an ICE vehicle had gotten stuck in the snow. Witnesses said Good "posed absolutely no threat" and that the agents gave conflicting orders, according to the news station.
Democratic U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, who represents South Carolina's 6th District, said, "ICE has been wreaking havoc in our communities under Donald Trump's direction," in a statement on the shooting posted to social media platforms Wednesday evening.
Clyburn had been the assistant Democratic leader of the U.S. House Democrat Caucus until he stepped down in 2024.
This morning, a masked ICE agent shot and killed an unarmed woman in Minneapolis as she sought to leave. This was an unjustifiable act of violence.
— James E. Clyburn (@RepJamesClyburn) January 7, 2026
ICE has been wreaking havoc in our communities under Donald Trump’s direction, and today an American lost her life as a result.…
Good appeared to drive away from the site as officers yelled at her to dismount from the vehicle. A video posted to Minnesota Public Radio's Instagram account showed part of the confrontation and killing. But Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other Republican officials offered a different telling of events than what witnesses had to offer.
In a Wednesday night news conference, Noem said Good ignored commands to leave the vehicle and tried to run over the officer who killed her. She said the officer was hit by the vehicle and performed according to his training.
U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, who is a close Trump ally, joined Clyburn in posting to social media. Graham said he was in a meeting involving President Donald Trump when the footage was reviewed.
"If an officer lawfully asks you to exit a vehicle but you do not comply and then strike that officer with a vehicle, you may get shot," he said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.
I was meeting with @POTUS, @SenKatieBritt and @SenEricSchmitt in the Oval Office this afternoon when we viewed the footage of the assault on the @ICEgov officer and the eventual defensive shooting of the woman who tried to run him over. We watched the video several times with the… https://t.co/pxtRXEkarZ
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 7, 2026
As officials in public office take to social media, the people who put them in office took to the streets. Protests and vigils were organized in Minnesota shortly after the killing. And in South Carolina, people from the Lowcountry to the Upstate joined.
Protests were organized in cities like Greenville, Charleston and Columbia. 50501 South Carolina and the Richland County Democratic Party called people to join the demonstration.
More than 200 citizens met outside the Statehouse in the Palmetto State's capital city to protest. Signs that read "ICE out of our communities" filled the sidewalk next to the South Carolina Monument to the Confederate Dead.
"We want justice, we want peace," the crowd chanted.
While Good's death was the exigence for the protest, those in attendance saw it as an opportunity to express their opposition to overall ICE operations.
Thirty-one different agencies in the state have signed 287(g) memorandums of agreements with ICE, according to publicly available data. The agreement essentially allows local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law that they could not otherwise.
The sheriff's offices in Charleston County and Lexington County both have agreements in place. Statewide agencies like the South Carolina Department of Public Safety and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, too, signed agreements.
Annie Mahaffey was a Party for Socialism and Liberation representative who helped plan the protest. After an evening of chanting through a megaphone, she said she was glad people came through on such a short notice.
"We have the right to speak up, we have a right to protest," she said. "This is an escalation that demands attention.
Halfway into the protest, the group began to march from the Statehouse to Columbia City Hall and the Richland County Clerk of Court. Police blocked parts of Main and Gervais streets as the group garnered glances from still-open downtown businesses.
Multiple angles of the shooting have been posted online and reviewed by publications like Minnesota Public Radio and the New York Times. While ICE agents have arrested people and been spotted in South Carolina, no city has been specifically targeted as a major spot for enforcement like in Minnesota or California.
