Protest watch: Three protests and a presidential response

Organizers reported that more than 1,000 events took place across the nation in response to the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agents in Minneapolis. A Detroit event was among them. On Friday, people gathered in Clark Park. On Saturday, they turned out to Hart Plaza, and on Tuesday, they were in front of the Motor City Casino to object to President Donald Trump’s appearance there before the Detroit Economic Club. Later a Ford employee’s heckling drew a vulgar response from the President. January is just half over, dear readers.   

Friday, Jan.8

Vigil and protest form in Detroit to honor woman killed during ICE operation

DETROIT — Candles flickered across Clark Park last week as hundreds gathered for a vigil honoring Renee Nicole Good, a woman killed Jan. 7 during a federal immigration operation in Minneapolis. Shortly before 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 9, crowds gathered at Clark Park in southwest Detroit just as the sun was starting to set. Many brought candles and protest signs and stood shoulder to shoulder before the vigil began. The night was put together by Joshua Medina, an activist in Detroit, who said it’s to honor and remember Good’s life while also calling attention to the alleged excessive use of force by federal immigration agents. Michigan residents, immigrant rights advocates and families came together to stand with those grieving Good’s death. 

Medina addressed the crowd shortly after 6 p.m. He called for more accountability and transparency in the investigation into the shooting. “Just a couple days ago, one of Donald Trumps ICE thugs gunned down a womnn, a protester, one of us in Minnesota,” Medina said. “This is not accidental. This is not regular police brutatlity. It is Donald Trump’s facists policy that wants to turn us into a fascist police state and it must be stopped.” The Trump administration claims the ICE officer acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Good. As the vigil ended, voices got louder, calling for reform and a change in administration.

By Melanie Tolen and Colton Pemble, Detroit, Spectrum News

Read the full story and see seven pictures of the event here. 

Saturday, Jan. 9

Demonstrators in Detroit protest against ICE and U.S. actions in Venezuela

From Venezuela to a woman being shot and killed in Minneapolis by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, people in Detroit are concerned. That’s why they were protesting at Hart Plaza on Saturday afternoon.

“This is a show of solidarity. This is the working class. This is the grassroots of people coming together to say no,” said protest organizer with the Democratic Socialists of America, Jonathan Mukes.

Mukes told CBS News Detroit he’s dumbfounded with all that has happened in the first two weeks of 2026.

“We don’t want our tax dollars going towards kidnapping other presidents of other countries. That’s insane. We want our streets to be fixed. We want our schools to be affordable,” said Mukes.

As protestors chanted and held up signs, they said they don’t want their communities to be torn apart.

Audrey Bourriad spoke to the crowd. She said ICE is tearing families apart every day in Detroit and the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis was the tipping point for those frustrated by the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement.

“We have hundreds of people in our community who have been abducted. ICE is very secretive, so it feels like no one is being abducted because we don’t see them getting abducted, but that’s not true,” said Bourriad.

By Julia Avant, CBS News Detroit

 Read the full story here.

Tuesday, Jan. 13

Anti-ICE Protestors March Downtown as Trump Speaks to Economic Forum

The president’s visit to Detroit to speak at the Motor City Casino Tuesday was met by hundreds of protestors who stood on the corner of Temple and Trumbull before marching from the casino to Michigan Avenue in Corktown.

A diverse group of demonstrators were sprawled across the intersection at Trumbull Avenue outside of the Motor City Casino Tuesday afternoon. People who came were opponents of the federal administration, Iranian immigrants asking Trump to support their cause amid an anti-government protests, and at least one Republican supporter of Trump.

Two demonstrators were detained by police as officers asked the crowd to move away from the building that would eventually host President Donald Trump.

Some who attended the protest came directly after speaking at Detroit City Council, where pro-immigrant advocates urged council members to draft an ordinance limiting the powers of federal immigration agents in Detroit.

While most of the public commenters at council Tuesday were supportive of the group of advocates, some longtime residents said they felt like the needs of immigrants were being prioritized over Black Americans.

By Sam Robinson, Michigan Chronicle

Read the full story here. 

Trump makes obscene gesture, mouths expletive at Detroit factory heckler

President Donald Trump made an obscene gesture with his middle finger and mouthed an expletive to a factory employee who shouted at him during a tour of a Ford plant in Michigan on Tuesday — a reaction the White House said was “appropriate” given the heckling.

A cellphone video captured Trump, who was visiting the Ford F-150 plant in Dearborn, twice mouthing “f— you” as he pointed to someone calling up tohim from the factory floor below. The president subsequently raised his middle finger toward the heckler as he continued walking. He then waved. Out of frame in the video, a person can be heard yelling “pedophile protector” just before Trump mouthed the insult — an apparent reference to the Trump administration’s handling of the investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

White House communications director Steven Cheung confirmed that the scene captured in the video was authentic.

“A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the President gave an appropriate and unambiguous response,” Cheung said in a statement to The Washington Post.

The incident was not the first of its kind in modern memory. In 1976, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller (R) was photographed raising his middle finger toward university students in Upstate New York.

TJ Sabula, a 40-year-old United Auto Workers Local 600 line worker at the factory, told The Post that he was the one who shouted at Trump. He said he has been suspended from work pending an investigation.

“As far as calling him out, definitely no regrets whatsoever,” Sabula said, though he added that he is concerned about the future of his job and believes he has been “targeted for political retribution” for “embarrassing Trump in front of his friends.”

By Natalie Allison and Dan Merica, Washington Post

Read the full story here.

P.S. With Ford officials saying they were looking into the matter as they don’t condone people saying inappropriate in their facitilies a GoFundMe was set up for TJ Sabula. It had raised $480,925 before it stopped accepting donations and donors were encouraged to find other causes to support.