WASHINGTON, D.C.— Temperatures dipped below 40 degrees on January 11, 2026, but a little frost wouldn’t deter the hundreds of protestors gathered along Constitution Avenue to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
After ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed Renee Nicole Good, activist groups across America held designated “ICE Out For Good” protests. In the nation’s capital, protestors met at the FLARE encampment for speeches and safety instructions before marching to ICE’s headquarters. FLARE, For Liberation and Resistance Everywhere, maintains a 24/7 presence in the heart of D.C. The FLARE tent was previously permitted outside of Union Station, before Parks Police suddenly removed it in late 2025.
The day’s event had one central focus: melting ICE. One sign read, “First, they came for the immigrants,” a twist on the famous ‘First They Came,’ poem. Written by a German pastor as a reflection of the Nazi’s rise to power, the refrain is a shorthand critique of those who refuse to challenge fascism in hopes that they can lie low.
In addition to FLARE, 50501 D.C., Common Defense, and D.C. Against the Trump Agenda also organized the protest. They outlined their key demands, including that Ross be prosecuted for Good’s murder, that each state pass its own version of California’s No Secret Police Act, Congress pass ICE oversight and reform legislation, and that D.C. immediately cease cooperation with ICE.
Ted, a combat veteran and member of Common Defense, opened the event as the master of ceremonies, before passing the microphone to D.C.’s Representative Oye Owolewa. The son of immigrants, Owolewa’s parents were born in Nigeria, where he noted that people had to fight for the right to protest. By contrast, the crowd in front of him was there because previous generations had already fought and won that right. In the face of fascism, showing up to protest ensured that future Americans would enjoy that same right.
He also criticized his fellow politicians; people of every background showed up to the protest, and yet, despite being mere blocks from the Capitol Building, he saw few elected officials. Not every leader is elected, he observed, and not every elected is a leader.
Members of 50501 D.C. ran a brief safety and first aid lesson for the group. Video recording of Good’s death showed ICE agents block a physician from rendering aid to Good, claiming that an ambulance was en route. Physicians receive more training than emergency medical technicians, who operate ambulances. By refusing their aid, ICE wasted both precious time and irreplaceable expertise, critical factors for a patient’s survival.
Should the worst happen, organizers wanted the crowd to know potentially life-saving information. They explained the ABCs of first aid (airway, breathing, and circulation) and demonstrated using pressure and jackets to stop a bleed. The crowd paid attention, some even practicing applying pressure to their neighbors. One attendee solemnly compared the lesson to “defense against the dark arts.”
50501 also tied Good’s murder and the societal response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
Both people of color and white women were second-class citizens in the eyes of men like Trump. Far-right actors try to keep the two groups divided, because white supremacists know “the power of white people supporting people of color.” Donny, a member of 50501 D.C., reflected that following Floyd’s murder, he felt a shift. It was the first time white people were listening and engaging with him, breaking down the barrier white supremacists tried to uphold.
Jermaine, another former combat veteran and member of Common Defense, gave an overview of de-escalation practices before reflecting on his own service. When he was in combat, there were rules of engagement that governed the military’s use of force. “What are ICE’s rules of engagement?” He asked rhetorically. In fact, all ICE had jurisdiction over was immigration and customs. “They’d be better served walking around with a clipboard than a rifle.” But no amount of weaponry could hide how hated ICE has become. “Where they beat us with guns and tanks and helicopters, we’ll meet them in the streets with people.”
Randy, a founding member of FLARE, emphasized the global threat Trump posed, advocating for liberation “From D.C. to Tehran, from L.A. to Gaza, from Minneapolis to Greenland, from Chicago to Caracas.” He cautioned that Trump’s attacks against immigrants and other minorities, like transgender individuals, were the warning signs of genocide. What happens, he asked, when ICE detention facilities become overcrowded? What happens when a disease breaks out?
In a soft voice, a young child in the crowd responded, “Death.”
The speeches ended with Reverend Stephanie Rose with the Movement for Freedom. The administration wants a civil war, she said. “But if it’s a civil war they want, it’s a revolution they will get,” That revolution would not be a physical one, she clarified, but a revolution of hearts, minds, and souls.
The Reverend turned her attention to Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. As she paused to pick her words, an attendee yelled out, “Exorcise her!”
“There is nothing in me to believe that your mother raised you to be this way….a maniacal, demonic, evil, conniving person that has no regard for life, so full of pride and ego….but even if she did, it is incumbent on you to break the yolk.” Rev. Rose said of Noem, earning cheers from the group.
As a parting invocation, she quoted Micah 6:8: “Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.”
With the prayer complete, the march commenced, taking protestors past iconic D.C. museums and monuments. At least two women dressed as handmaids, drawing from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Another painted “Make Gotham great again,” over his jacket in bright green letters, evoking the Riddler, an infamous Batman villain.
One group of protestors could be heard well before they were seen. The band included trumpets, drums, a trombone, and more. At times, they kept the beat for call-and-response chants. Other times, they broke into full musical pieces, playing protest songs.
While we don’t know how many ICE officers were actively working in the headquarters building when the march arrived, one thing is for certain: no one inside would be able to ignore the brass section’s rendition of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
The hymn reused the cadence from a song honoring John Brown, a white abolitionist executed for treason after he incited a slave rebellion in 1859. To this day, Brown remains a folk hero to those fighting for racial justice and equity. As the poem puts it, despite his death, “his soul is marching on.”
Indeed, with the band in full swing, and the roads around ICE blocked by protestors, everyone carried a piece of his soul with them.
