The family of Renee Good, the 37-year-old killed last January by a federal agent during the Trump administration's immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota, filed two civil lawsuits against the federal government Thursday.
One of the lawsuits, against the United States government itself, is essentially a wrongful death case, arguing that Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who killed Good, violated his agency's own policies and the Fourth Amendment by using excessive force.
It is seeking damages for Good's family for the suffering she experienced in the final moments of her life. And also for her partner, Becca Good, who witnessed the killing. The lawsuit says she has suffered intense emotional distress from what she has experienced. Ross shot Renee Good several times in her car. At the time, federal officials claimed she had weaponized her vehicle, though video evidence contradicted that.
The other lawsuit is rarer, alleging that federal officials engaged in a conspiracy to interfere with the civil rights of people in Minnesota.
It argues that Good's death was the "predictable and intended product" of the immigration crackdown in the state and that Ross' actions were in furtherance of a "carefully planned, coordinated effort" to make Somali and Hispanic people the "object of aggression and abduction" and to silence the people "who observed, documented, and warned of that campaign."
In making that argument, the lawyers, with the firm Romanucci & Blandin, relied on the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which was used to combat the terrorism wrought by the KKK during the Reconstruction era.
"I would say the second lawsuit is very unusual," Rachel Moran, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas, told NPR. "It was immediately striking to me because the Trump administration has been aggressively using conspiracy charges, including here in Minnesota, against people involved in protesting the administration's immigration tactics."
Moran said the lawyers in the Good lawsuits seem to be "turning that tactic on its head" by arguing that administration officials are involved in an illegal conspiracy themselves.
According to Ben Berkman, one of the lawyers representing Good's family, the first lawsuit is about what federal officers did to Renee Good on a Minneapolis street last winter. The second is about why those officers were on that street in the first place.
"It reaches the agent who fired those shots at Renee and it reaches every official who put him on the street that day," Berkman said. "No mask, no badge and no title in the administration puts anyone above that law."
Those federal officials include Ross, but also White House adviser Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House Border czar Tom Homan, and former Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, among others. NPR reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment, but did not hear back.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said, "We intend to vigorously defend these baseless civil lawsuits."
The lawsuit also lists 10 federal agents who were also present at the scene as John Does, noting that the federal government has not released their identities and that they were wearing masks at the time of the killing.
The civil charges also underscore a lack of criminal charges. DHS has provided little public indication that it is investigating Good's death or the death of Alex Pretti at the hands of Border Patrol agents a few weeks later in Minneapolis. According to The Trace, a news site that focuses on gun violence, nine people have been killed by immigration agents since President Trump took office again last year.
At the state level in Minnesota, local officials have also not filed charges or released the findings of any investigation. In a statement, a spokesperson for Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located, told NPR that state and local officials are reviewing the evidence and that they will "communicate transparently when a decision is reached."
At the press conference held Thursday, Good's family seemed frustrated at the inaction on all levels. Civil suits, like the ones filed by the family today, have the potential to hold entire institutions accountable rather than just individual actors.
"The fact that there's been no accountability, no investigation, no expression of condolence, no change in policy is completely mind-blowing," Brent Ganger, Good's brother, said. "We will not wait any longer. The time is absolutely now for accountability, for the deep damage done by ICE and others. We will not be quiet. We will not go away."
Brent and his mother, Donna Ganger, also testified before Congress last week at a hearing about fatal shootings by federal immigration officers.
In her first public appearance since the killing, Becca Good, Renee Good's partner, also spoke. She focused her words on who Renee was to her, calling her kind and loving, but also on what she has lost. Renee Good had three children, and Becca is still raising their youngest, a 6-year-old.
"This past August, I got ready to put our son in first grade. I bought him new shoes and a backpack and notebooks, pencil case, the whole nine yards. I went to Back To School Night on my own," Becca Good said. "She never missed a single moment. And this Halloween, it's our son's absolute favorite holiday. I'll take him trick or treating, without her hand in mine."
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