For the second time in less than three months, a large crowd gathered in the Riverdale section of The Bronx to protest the actions of U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration after American military forces attacked Venezuela on Saturday, Jan. 3, placed its president, Nicolas Maduro, in custody in the U.S., and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot and killed Minneapolis protester Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday, Jan. 7.

 

NPR reported that according to U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the shooting occurred after protesters in Minneapolis harassed and impeded ICE agents from doing their work and that the officer in question acted to protect himself and fellow officers. She alleged Good’s actions amounted to “an act of domestic terrorism.” Her defense of the incident caused national and international outrage as video evidence of the encounter circulated online.

NPR also reported that the officer who shot Good had been dragged during a separate June 2025 incident by another protestor, Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, who was convicted of sexual abuse, after he was pulled over by law enforcement. “Munoz-Guatemala sped away after Ross [the agent] had reached inside the vehicle, trapping the agent’s arm and causing him to sustain injuries to his arm and hand,” NPR reported based on court records of the prior incident.

 

Back in The Bronx, prior to a second Minneapolis shooting on Jan. 24, Northwest Bronx Indivisible (NBI), a local chapter of Indivisible, arranged a hastily planned protest outside Seton Park at the corner of Independence Avenue and West 235th Street on Sunday, Jan. 11.

According to NBI, “We’re a grassroots movement of thousands of local indivisible groups with a mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the Trump agenda.” As reported, the group had also participated in an earlier No Kings Day rally locally and in Manhattan last October when they also discussed the importance of democracy during an impromptu encounter with some youngsters aboard the subway while on route to Manhattan.

 

An email announcing the latest rally read, “Come with your anger, or your sorrow or your fear and join in community as we try to make our way through this senseless tragedy.” Other rallies were also held in other cities across the nation the same day, with a larger rally held in Manhattan at the southeast corner of Central Park, close to Trump Tower.

The Bronx rally, which had as its theme, “ICE Out for Good,” was held in conjunction with the other nationwide rallies under the banner, “No Wars, No Kings, No ICE” A New York Post article estimated the crowd at the Manhattan rally at 2,000. However, Norwood News overheard a police radio transmission in which one police officer observing the crowd, estimated its size at 8,000.

 

Meanwhile, at Seton Park, the crowd was closer to 100, and the route took the protestors east across West 235th Street and north along Henry Hudson Parkway where they then marched up the highway overpass between West 235th Street and West 236th Street. During the march, the group chanted, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Donald Trump has got to go!” and “No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here!” popular chants heard at various protests across the nation.

Among the crowd was Abigail Martin, female district leader of the 81^st assembly district, who said of the rally, “This is part of the national movement today to stand up to our authoritarian government. We’re seeing movements in Riverdale growing over time. We have neighbors coming from all over the district. The more we see each other, the more we’re getting close to that 3 ½ percent. Once we have 3 ½ percent of citizens peacefully protesting, that’s when an authoritarian government can be toppled, and that’s what we’re here to do today.”

 

Of the ICE shooting, Martin added, “With the death of Rene Good in Minnesota, people wanted to come together to have a vigil and a rally, and stand up to our authoritarian government and the actions of ICE.” She added, “We now have a government that has turned against its own citizens. This is shocking to see, something I never thought I would see in my lifetime.”

“Linda,” a Riverdale resident, was joined by her neighbor, Collette, at the gathering. For Linda, who proudly said she has been a protester for over 60 years, it was her first protest in Riverdale due to “pain in my left knee.” Linda was holding a hand-made sign that read, “Still Marching After All These Years,” a lyric from a Paul Simon song.

 

Asked which policies of the Trump administration impacted her most, Linda replied, “For me, personally, transgender rights. I have two trans grandchildren, teenagers. I’m scared to death of what’s going to be facing them.” She continued, “Taking away food stamps, taking away daycare, and the most recent snatching people off the street, and sending them to horrible places because, really, they don’t like the color of their skin.”

 

Asked if she thought Democrats could take back Congress in 2026, Collette said, “God, I hope so! Oh my God! We can’t afford not to.”

After asking an older gentleman if he had a comment on the rally, he abruptly declined. Minutes later, his wife, Carol, apologized and said, “Years ago, I was told I was an alarmist, and I was making my husband nervous by saying that fascism is coming.” Carol explained that her husband had been a Trump supporter but has switched sides in recent months. She added, “He’s seeing it, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. It makes him upset.” Carol added, “He thought he could overlook certain things.”

 

Asked to elaborate on some of the Trump policies she is against, Carol said in part, “Well, I’m on Medicare, and I’m on supplement, but I know they’re cutting food for kids, he’s invading other countries.” She also alleged Trump committed sexual assault. PBS previously reported that the civil sexual abuse case involving E. Jean Carrol against the president was upheld by an appeals court.”

 

Carol also referred to the president as a felon. In January 2025, PBS reported that the president received an unconditional discharge for his criminal conviction in New York, meaning he did not face fines, prison or any other penalties and that he appeared virtually for his sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

 

Carol continued, “He cut off aid to Africa and hundreds of thousands of people have died.” The latter is confirmed in a report by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The Center for Global Development predicts between 500,000 and 700,000 deaths per year in Africa if aid is not restored. On June 30, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) implemented a “Reduction-in-Force” program, affecting 1,600 USAID personnel in the United States.

 

Meanwhile, a second Minneapolis resident, ICU nurse Alex Pretti, was killed on Saturday morning, Jan. 24, by U.S. Border Patrol agents amid further protests and a scuffle involving a third female civilian. Noem was, once again, widely criticized for later alleging Pretti “approached” immigration officers with a gun and acted violently. ABC News provides a minute-by-minute timeline of the incident here.

Video evidence from different angles by civilians appears to show Pretti first recording the federal agents, and later being pinned to the street amid the scuffle, and disarmed of his apparent concealed weapon prior to being then shot. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has since called for Noem to resign or be fired.

 

Meanwhile, border crossings by undocumented immigrants at the U.S. Southern border have all but disappeared over the last year as a result of what many consider to be extremely cruel ICE tactics and deportations, while half the country hails Trump’s immigration policy as successful and necessary.

 

State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) issued a statement the same day (attached) condemning Pretti’s death and called for the abolition of ICE, while other elected officials, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have sought to stop the ongoing federal funding of ICE in efforts to restrain the agency’s actions.

 

Politico reported Jan. 26 that New York Democrat Rep. Tom Suozzi (NY-3) said he regretted his vote last week for the funding bill for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, amid intense backlash surrounding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

 

Meanwhile, NBC reported the same day that most of the federal government could shut down at the end of the week as Senate Democrats vow “to block the sweeping government funding bill unless significant restrictions are imposed on the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations.”

 

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) also issued a statement (attached) on Monday, Jan. 26, condemning the killing of Pretti. Morgan Evers, who, as reported, is challenging Dinowitz for his northwest Bronx seat, had attended the Seton Park rally.

Joan Hollander, a 97-year-old Riverdale resident who also attended the rally, summed up her rationale for attending, saying, “If your answer to the question, ‘What did you do in 2026 when America was in peril?’ is ‘I kept quiet,’ you are complicit in the downfall of democracy.”

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.