Sacramento, CA. On Wednesday, January 5, 2026, a cold and wintry dusk closed over Sacramento, California. This is the day that ICE killed Renee Nicole Good in cold blood, in her car as she pulled away from the site of an ICE raid in Minneapolis. There were stuffed animals spilling out of the glovebox, a friendly dog in the back seat. Renee’s killing ignited protests across the country.
Hundreds gathered at a downtown park in Sacramento and marched to the local ICE building at 650 Capitol Mall. Before the march, Ruth Ibarra of the local organization, NorCal Resist, addressed the crowd. The mission of NorCal Resist, according to their staff leader, Giselle Garcia, is to provide mutual aid to vulnerable communities and build structures that reflect the peaceful world we want to live in, especially in terms of U.S. police power and the impact of ICE on people’s lives.
Here’s what Ruth Ibarra told the protesters:
“We are getting ready to walk over to ICE. We hope everyone joins us.
There is power in numbers. There is safety in numbers. We have to show the administration that the people are saying “Sit the f— down, do your job, take care of the people, stop kidnapping, stop murdering, start taking care of us!
“If there is a call to action, we should all be showing up! We should support our organizations, especially the ones that are doing the on-the-ground work, that are helping those that are being detained, that are teaching them their rights, that are teaching them to blow their whistles!
“We have to say “Ya Basta!” We have to support each other, we have to come out en masse!”
The crowd roared in response, “Ya Basta! Ya Basta!”
Another speaker, a young woman, stepped forward in the darkness and addressed the crowd, which suddenly fell almost silent so she could be heard.
“The news today hit so hard because I heard that in Minneapolis they shot and killed a 37 year-old white lady out volunteering to help her neighbors.” She paused. “I am a 36 year-old white lady who sometimes goes on Migra watch calls or stands outside ICE buildings. I want to acknowledge and hold space for Renee.” The speaker’s clear young voice rang through the park as she continued, “I left the US in 2024 for Austria to study the rise of authoritarianism in democracies. I came back here to spread the word.”
Her studies and case histories showed that fascist ideas and organizations spread outward from political leaders in concentric circles. “You’ve all seen the meme, the quote, from the Holocaust that’s going around, you know, ‘First they came for them, then they came for them… so, when they came for me – there was no one left…’ ”
Stretching blocks and blocks, hundreds headed out of the park, taking the middle of the street. Volunteers on lighted bicycles stopped traffic in their path. Dynamic, outraged, mostly young – they took the middle of the street, chanting, blasting whistles and sirens, defiant against the forces of darkness, crying out, “Say Her Name. Renee Nicole Good! Renee Nicole Good!”
