At Anti-ICE Rally, Artists Weave Culture Through Calls to Action

by Lucy Gellman, Jan. 12, 2026, Arts Paper

Artists, activists, immigrant rights advocates and organizers came together Sunday afternoon [Jan. 11] for “ICE Out For Good,” a rally and gathering that was part of a national day of action grieving the death of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis, Minn. last week. Organized by the national group 50501, the gathering became a call to action amidst escalating violence from ICE agents, directed at both immigrants and U.S. citizens.

“None of this is normal,” said longtime organizer and human rights champion Kica Matos, now president of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Immigrant Justice Fund (IJF). She took a moment to acknowledge the 32 known people who have died in ICE custody in the last year alone, victims of a machine that has deported over 500,000 immigrants since January 2025. “Let me say it again. This is not normal.”

“What we are witnessing is authoritarianism and it is being built on the backs of immigrants,” she continued. “Renee’s brutal murder is a sign that this administration’s violence and lawlessness has now extended beyond immigrants. You know why that is? That is because authoritarianism never stops at its first target.”

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