NEW YORK – A day after federal agents executed legal observer Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis with three shots to the face, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was in Manhattan attempting to redirect attention to an unnamed Customs and Border Protection agent who was shot while off duty six months ago.
Speaking behind a podium bearing the phrase “One Of Ours, All Of Yours” at One World Trade Center, Noem recounted the July 2025 shooting, in which two men allegedly shot a 42-year-old officer in the face during a botched robbery in Fort Washington Park. The incident was the genesis of an ongoing investigation within New York called Operation Salvo, she said, which “is just the beginning of a broader and a much more sustained effort.”
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“We learned these scumbags were affiliated with the transnational criminal organization, the notorious Trinitarios gang,” Noem said of the two suspects. “We began to target every single last person who is affiliated with them.” Fifty-four people have since been arrested as part of the ongoing operation, she said, more than 32 of whom have been “returned back to their home countries to face justice for their crimes there as well.”
Noem’s press conference came just hours after her immigration agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Good. Ross and his fellow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were performing an operation in south Minneapolis when Good briefly blocked traffic. As David Dayen described yesterday, an agent walked to the car yelling, “Get out of the fucking car,” then Ross shot her through the open window as she tried to get away.
Noem repeated the lie that the officer who shot Good to death had done nothing wrong and that officers had been “surrounded, assaulted, and blocked in by protesters,” something contradicted by video and eyewitness evidence. She also said that Good had been following officers all day prior to her murder, but would not say for how long or whether there had been earlier interactions, or how many, between Good and the officers.
“This was an act of domestic terrorism,” Noem said. “In every single thing the Trump administration does, we put the American people first.”
Noem took aim at sanctuary city policies, such as the ones in New York City that forbid ICE officers from arresting immigrants at courthouses and other state government facilities and bar city agencies from sharing certain information with federal authorities, among other rules. While not naming Mayor Zohran Mamdani directly, she said that her message to “this administration” was that the Trump administration is “on offense.”
“Sanctuary policies, whether they’re here in New York City, whether they’re in California, Illinois, or Minneapolis, if you are a criminal illegal alien, we are coming to get you. We will arrest you, we will bring justice, and we will also bring safety to the American people,” Noem said. “If you think you can harm an individual, a citizen of the United States or a law enforcement officer we will find you and bring you to justice.”
In an Oval Office meeting, Mamdani appeared to soften President Trump’s position on sending ICE agents into New York City. Thursday’s press conference demonstrated that Noem is prepared to surge agents into the city.
Noem would not directly answer the Prospect’s question about whether New York City should expect a surge of federal agents and when, saying that “we will never telegraph exactly the numbers and operations that we have and where we will be focused” because it puts officers’ lives in danger. “But I think that when you see violent criminals that are taking advantage of American citizens and putting their lives in jeopardy our law enforcement officers at DHS will always show up.”
She said she encouraged city leaders and Gov. Kathy Hochul “to work with us rather than opposing us” to make streets safe. She also pointed out that Friday is Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.
“I’d like to encourage all of you that when you see a CBP officer, an ICE officer, anyone serving in federal, state, or local who are pledging their lives and taking an oath to protect their communities and country and the people that live there, that you thank them, do something nice for them. Buy them lunch.”
SPEAKING ALONGSIDE NOEM was Frank Russo, Customs and Border Protection director of field operations for New York. He said Operation Salvo surveilled businesses, residents, and “community hubs” to determine ties between individuals. Responding to a reporter’s question, he said he wanted to “make clear” that the people arrested were “loosely affiliated” with Trinitarios, which meant anything from “individuals associated with the gang to just having conversations” with them. Agents drew connections between people by, among other things, going through contacts people had in their phones.
The operation worked well because the public did not know about it, he said.
“The best thing about this operation is that it was done the way law enforcement loves to do it. Quietly, discreetly, behind the scenes, often under the cover of darkness. And what that did is it allowed our officers and agents to go out there to conduct surveillance to do intel-gathering operations and to arrest these individuals without any interruptions and without an impact to civilians,” Russo said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be done.”
Kenneth Genalo, New York City ICE director of enforcement and removal operations, meanwhile, took the podium to say that the incident was “because of the abject failure of the New York City bail reform laws and sanctuary city policies,” and that it “was entirely preventable and a direct result of those policies.”
Ahead of the press conference, a few hundred people joined a rally to tell Noem to get out. “Leave, Nazi Barbie,” one man’s sign read. Another simply said, “Shame!” Walking through the crowd and handing out information stickers was Hae-Lin Choi with Hands Off NYC, a coalition of unions, community groups, and faith leaders standing against Trump’s immigration terror campaign. She said she had been moved to see so many people show up on little notice, as they did the night before, to protest Good’s murder and demand ICE get out.
“It’s horrible and outrageous. It’s such a tragedy,” she said of the execution. “That’s what happens when you increase the budget of the paramilitary that roams our streets … it’s lawless. It’s dangerous.” She said it was shocking that Noem “has the audacity to come to New York” and wanted to know if DHS, or anyone, will prosecute the killer.
Noem herself should be investigated for Good’s death, said former City Comptroller Brad Lander, who has objected to ICE in New York City for months and is running for Congress.
“Kristi Noem is a threat to the lives of everyone in the United States. Her incompetent and reckless command of DHS resulted in the murder of Renee Nicole Good, and she has no business showing her face in New York City. No amount of shame can outweigh the terror and hate she has unleashed on the public she has sworn to protect,” Lander said via email. “There must be a full criminal investigation into Kristi Noem’s role in this killing, and she must be held accountable under the law.”
Mayor Mamdani did not respond to requests for comment.