(The Center Square) – A left-leaning activist group will hold its second “ICE Out for Good” protest Saturday in Surprise, Arizona.
The protest, which is against the fatal U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, is being organized by Northwest Valley Indivisible. It follows a Jan. 10 protest, attended by more than a thousand people in Surprise, which is about 30 miles northwest of Phoenix.
NVI is holding another protest because “the response from ICE has been to ramp up their efforts,” Brent Peak, a volunteer member of NVI, told The Center Square.
“Our goal is to keep showing up because they do, and we feel like what they’re doing is unwarranted, outta line, cruel [and] chaotic,” he explained.
Peak called the Jan. 7 killing of Good “horrific” and noted many are coming to the protests against the fatal shooting.
He noted the Surprise Police Department estimated 1,250 people attended last weekend’s protest. He expects a similar turnout at this Saturday’s rally, set for 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on a sidewalk at one of the main intersections in Surprise, a city of more than 143,000 people.
According to Peak, NVI thinks there is a “much more responsible way to enforce” America’s immigration policies.
The Center Square reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment, but did not hear back before press time.
He said NVI doesn’t have an official position on whether ICE should be abolished, but he recognized that many of its supporters “wouldn’t mind” if that happened.
Peak did acknowledge America does need “something in place to take care of border security and immigration policy.”
“Given what ICE has become in the last year, I do strongly suspect that what’s gonna be needed is to end ICE and reconstitute [it] as a different agency with more responsible policies that don’t create this kind of chaos and havoc in our country,” he explained.
“We’re not calling for the end of ICE, but we are certainly not opposed to it. What we are really calling for is an end to these practices,” Peak added.
NVI will be putting on a rally without any help from the national Indivisible organization, he explained.
On its about page, Indivisible says it was founded to resist President Donald Trump. The organization has received funding from billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, a nonprofit that funds many left-wing causes.
Peak said NVI will meet with Surprise police officers who will be at the rally and has a “great relationship” with the police department.
NVI is committed to “nonviolent, nonphysical and peaceful” protests because its “greatest fear” currently is that the organization will “become a convenient excuse to increase ICE efforts even more,” Peak said.
Over 8,000 people have shown up to NVI protests in the last year, and there haven’t been any examples of violence, Peak noted.
As an organization, NVI has two volunteer co-chairs and a team of volunteers that come together for protests and other events, Peak explained.
He said none of the NVI volunteers or protesters are paid to protest.
