“This grief does not belong behind closed doors”

As dark clouds hung in the sky, dozens of protesters stood along West Howard Avenue on Friday afternoon outside the American Friends Meeting house in Decatur. They were assembled in response to the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a Minneapolis resident by an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, as well as to remember the lives of others who died in ICE custody or were killed by ICE. Many of the protestors held signs with the names and ages of the dead, some held placards that read: “ICE Out.” 

“It matters to me that we are gathered here outside in public, facing the street,” said Anton Flores-Maisonet into a megaphone, as cars driving by honked their horns in support. As the founder of the immigrant serving nonprofit Casa Alterna and a resident at the Atlanta Friends Meeting house, he called on community members to make themselves visible. “This grief does not belong behind closed doors,” he said. He urged people to “get off their screens, and off their chairs, and begin to mobilize.”

The protest came two days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, who was in her car at the scene of an enforcement operation in Minneapolis. Her killing has sparked protests against ICE around the country, but isn’t the first death by the hands of an ICE agent, or in ICE custody.

Federal agents have shot and killed at least three other people in the last five months, according to a report from The Marshall Project. In 2025, there were at least 16 incidents where immigration agents shot at someone, according to The Trace, a news nonprofit covering gun violence in the U.S. 32 people died in ICE detention last year – the highest number recorded in over two decades. 

Speaking to 285 South, Anton said the protest wasn’t just about the death of Renee Good, but “what that death is unmasking to Americans – that millions of immigrants, the fear, intimidation, the coercion, and the deaths that they also face, at the hands of cruel policies and ICE tactics.”

Laura Smallwood, who teaches classes at the Atlanta Friends house, stood holding a sign with “Hasan Saleh” written on it – the name of  a 67-year-old Jordanian man who died in ICE custody in October. Laura told 285 South she was not surprised by the killing of Good, as she has been following reports of deaths in ICE custody regularly, but this latest incident was “so public, so violent and so brutal.”

Anton says he’s seen firsthand how ICE officers have attempted to intimidate those supporting their immigrant neighbors. 

In 2025, Casa Alterna launched Compas at the Gates, a program where volunteers regularly stand on the sidewalk at the gates of the ICE field office in downtown Atlanta and pass out know-your-rights cards, snacks, and teddy bears for kids. They also help those waiting in line for their ICE appointments to look up the status of their cases or refer them to legal support. 

Anton described some of the encounters volunteers have had outside the ICE office: “We’re standing on a public sidewalk, being told that we’re aiding and abetting, and then they use a whole bunch of demonizing language about individuals.” Sometimes though, he added, an ICE officer will come out and offer volunteers coffee on a cold day.

As the executive director of the nonprofit, he said he feels responsible for the volunteers, were anything to happen to them.  “I don’t want a volunteer to be unprepared if they happen to be there when the hostility reaches a tipping point.”

Friday’s demonstration was just one of many that have been taking place across the Atlanta region. On Thursday, well over a hundred Atlantans marched from the Georgia Capitol to the ICE field office on Ted Turner Drive, and back, many wearing keffiyehs, and waving Palestinian, Mexican, and other national flags. They were followed by police cars, including Atlanta Police and Georgia State Patrol.

Outside the Friends house on Friday, longtime Decatur resident Susan Cole told 285 South she has been volunteering with Compas since June. The killing of Renee Good hasn’t deterred her in any way, in fact, she said she feels more resolved to support her immigrant neighbors, in whatever way she can. “This enraged me, to the point of where, I will push back against this, I will stand up to this. This cannot go on.”