By David S. Rotenstein
NKyTribune staff writer
More than 400 people turned out Sunday afternoon to protest recent ICE enforcement actions. The people braved 28-degree temperatures and intermittent snow flurries as they marched around the Campbell County Detention Center in Newport.
Organized by Indivisible NKY, the Newport protests were among hundreds held nationwide since the fatal shooting Jan. 7 of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot Good three times in the face while the mother of three was driving away from him. Trump administration officials claim the shooting was justified.
“This is all in response to the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis, said Indivisible Northern Kentucky co-founder and lead organizer Ann Dickerson. “The Campbell County Detention Center has a contract with ICE.”
Marchers holding signs and American flags chanted as they circled the block where the detention center is located. Many passing cars honked their horns and shouted support. There were no counter-protestors. Dickerson said a few cars with pro-Trump messaging had passed.
Joetta Prost traveled from Boone County to Newport for the protest.
“At age 73, I’ve protested a lot of things. Never on such a cold day,” Proust said. “We have to just show up and keep showing up and ultimately more and more people will join us.”
Colette Cole was holding a cardboard sign with a photo of Good and an American flag. “I’m here because I think it’s a duty of a citizen in a democracy to represent the people.”
Rick Meyer came from Cincinnati. He said the administration’s actions were very disturbing.
“I’m afraid we’ll wake up one day and discover it’s March 1933 and then it’ll be too late,” he told the Northern Kentucky Tribune.
Dickerson was surprised by the turnout. She said that 300 people had signed up online ahead of the event.
“I expected with freezing cold weather that we would have a low turnout,” she said. “This is actually pretty darn good.”
“This is nothing compared to what people in Minnesota are enduring right now,” said Covington resident Peggy Layden. “We should not be killing people on the streets just because of their beliefs in a free world.”
Layden was wearing a knitted hat with a rainbow-colored peace sign and a button from her days protesting then George W. Bush administration in 2002.
The Newport protest wasn’t the only local response to ICE actions.
“We’re aware of recent questions/comments circulating online,” the Hotel Covington wrote in a Saturday Facebook post. “We are not aware of any activity at Hotel Covington that would justify these statements.”
“Our post was addressing the online rumors that ICE was at and or staying at Hotel Covington,” general manager Justin Ham wrote in response to an email from the Northern Kentucky Tribune. “These allegations were not true and as the post stated, we saw no activity of officials being at the hotel.”