By Soaliha Iqbal, Ette Media social media editor
This article contains references to Indigenous people who have died.
Thirty two people died in ICE's custody in 2025, the deadliest year in two decades for the US agency. In January 2026 alone, another eight people were killed. However, it's likely the only victims whose names you will recognise are Renee Good and Alex Pretti. And it just so happens that both of these victim are white.
It goes without saying that the killings — executions, even — of Good and Pretti were heinous, brazen and harrowing. Emotional tributes for the mother of four and the intensive care nurse who took care of veterans highlight the shock, loss and injustice. For many Americans (and people around the globe watching), their deaths felt like a line had been crossed. After all, they were innocent citizens who were just standing up for what is right. Their murders — captured on video from various angles — were senseless.
The fact that it took the killing of white people to mobilise the US into widespread outrage — more than 1,000 demonstrations were planned on one weekend — has its own implications. It stipulates that black and brown people, who make up the majority of those arrested and/or killed by ICE, and who have been killed with impunity by police too, aren't victims worth mourning in the same way— or sometimes aren't even considered victims at all.
