‘If a White Woman Died, We’re All Next’: San Bernardino Rally Targets ICE After Shooting

About 65 people rallied Saturday, Jan. 10, outside San Bernardino City Hall for an “ICE Out for Good” protest that was one of more than 1,000 held nationwide over the weekend following the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Speakers at the downtown demonstration condemned federal ICE Agent Jonathan Ross, whom organizers and participants blamed for fatally shooting Good, 37. The protest remained peaceful, and interactions with passersby were mostly calm, with occasional heckling.

Arlene Castro, of Highland, said the death pushed her to bring activism closer to home.

“I live down the street in Highland and I heard that it was going to be a rally,” Castro said. “I’m always in L.A. and San Diego. But the IE needs to wake up and we need to get more active.”

Castro described Good’s killing as a warning flare that broadened fear beyond immigrant communities.

“It’s awful. No matter what race we are, all of us, she was a woman, she was a mother,” Castro said. “And by that pig ICE agent just killing her the way that he did, we’re all in danger… Because if that white woman died, we’re all next. We are all next. This is not a game. We’re being hunted.”

Castro said her family has lived through the terror of not knowing where a loved one was after an immigration detention. She said her brother-in-law was detained and deported, and that relatives spent months trying to locate him.

“He went missing for a few months and we didn’t even know where he was,” she said. “That happened in August. Imagine your loved one missing and you don’t know where they’re at. It’s awful. You have to call the morgue, the hospitals, the jails.”

Castro said the sudden loss of a household provider can be devastating in Southern California’s high cost of living.

“If it’s a household where the husband is the sole provider, it affects them tremendously,” she said, adding that extended-family living arrangements are common. “Some live with 12 people in a household just to survive in Southern California.”

Christian Shaughnessy, a housing specialist running for San Bernardino City Council in Ward 2, framed the rally as a stand against what he called unequal justice and politically driven enforcement.

“Today in this country, we have a two-tiered justice system,” Shaughnessy said. “If you’re somebody that’s politically connected, if you’re somebody that’s wealthy, you can get away with so much. But if you’re an ordinary working person… then you can get gunned down.”

Shaughnessy said the Minneapolis killing reflected what he described as a “hyper politicization of law enforcement,” arguing that enforcement has focused on intimidation rather than the most serious threats.

“It would be one thing if ICE was genuinely focused on human traffickers and cartels,” he said. “But, the main focus has been on ordinary people to inflict intimidation upon folks exercising their free speech rights and it’s something we need to stop while we still can.”

He also shared the story of a young person he said was deported last year.

“One of my young folks was deported from this country. His name was Elmer. I will say his name because his life matters,” Shaughnessy said. He said Elmer fled Guatemala due to sexual trafficking and was deported in 2025.

Others said they came because the Minneapolis case signaled a widening sense of risk.

Benjamin Lopez Lobos, who said he is from San Bernardino, said Good’s killing intensified his belief that ICE enforcement threatens broad swaths of the public.

“These are my people,” he said, describing immigrants and Latinos but adding that “Everyone actually is suffering, because at this point, they don’t even care who you are. They just target anyone.”

Janice Poss, who said she traveled from Claremont after a friend in Rialto urged her to attend, said she felt shaken by the killing.

“For me, as a white woman, it’s frightening,” Poss said. “And especially as a woman.”

Kimberly Rivera said she has been protesting since last year and worries the Inland Empire has not mobilized at the same scale as other regions.

“I feel that, especially in the Inland Empire, not a lot of people are protesting,” Rivera said. “So I feel like just doing my part could really make a difference.”

Rivera said she has personal experience with immigration detention in her family, saying her brother and father were detained by ICE in 2024. The Minneapolis killing, she said, made her hesitate to attend Saturday’s rally.

“I’m scared for my own safety now,” she said. “Even right now, I was kind of thinking, should I even come to the protest?”

Several attendees referenced recent action by Sen. Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-Colton, who introduced legislation last week aimed at keeping ICE away from courthouses. Lopez Lobos said courthouse protections could help reduce fear for people who need to appear for hearings.

“It allows people to actually go to court and actually work out their cases instead of being fearful that they’re going to just walk out and be in a worse predicament,” he said.

But some said elected officials should be more visible — and more aggressive — than policy proposals alone.

Maelena Enriquez, who identified herself as president of the City of San Bernardino Young Dems, praised Gómez Reyes but criticized the absence of certain local leaders at the rally.

“My answer might be a little controversial,” Enriquez said before asking, “Where’s Helen Tran? … Where is Theodore Sanchez?”

Enriquez said she wants public leadership that matches the scale of the fear she said community members are experiencing.

The rally was organized by Andy Fuentes, a 14-year-old San Bernardino High School student who said he coordinated the event through Indivisible Inland Empire. Fuentes described Good — as a mother and a poet, and said her killing was a turning point for many young people.

“We are the future,” Fuentes said of student activists. “And I can say that we’re pissed off.”

Fuentes said immigration fear has affected how students and families participate in public life.

“There are immigrants here in the city who are scared to come out to events like this,” he said, adding that many of his classmates worry for their families.

As the rally ended, participants said their goal was not only to condemn ICE, but to push local residents — and local leadership — to respond publicly.

“Everyone’s coming together because this is an act of everyone,” Lopez Lobos said.