Celebrities wear anti-ICE pins on red carpet
Some celebrities donned anti-ICE pins at the Golden Globes on Sunday in tribute to poet and activist Renee Good, who was shot and killed in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis.
The black-and-white pins displayed slogans like “BE GOOD” and “ICE OUT,” introducing a political angle into the awards show after last year’s relatively apolitical ceremony.
Since the shooting last Wednesday, protests have broken out across the country, calling for accountability for both Good’s killing and a separate shooting in Portland, Oregon, where Border Patrol agents wounded two people.
Some protests have resulted in clashes with law enforcement, especially in Minneapolis, where ICE is carrying out its largest immigration enforcement to date.
‘We need our artists’
The Trump administration has doubled down in defending the ICE officer’s actions in Good’s killing, maintaining that he acted in self-defense and thought Good would hit him with her car.
But members of Congress have vowed an assertive response, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident.
Nelini Stamp of Working Families Power, one of the organizers behind the anti-ICE pins worn by Mark Ruffalo and other actors at the Globes ceremony, said, “We need every part of civil society… to speak up.”
“We need our artists. We need our entertainers. We need the folks who reflect society,” she said.
The idea for the “ICE OUT” pins began with a late-night text exchange between Stamp and Jess Morales Rocketto, executive director of Latino advocacy group Maremoto.
At that time, about a week before Good was killed, an off-duty ICE officer fatally shot 43-year-old Keith Porter in Los Angeles—igniting protests in that city and calls for the officer’s arrest.
High-profile cultural events can introduce millions of viewers to social issues, as activists are aware. This is the third year of Golden Globes activism for Rocketto, who previously rallied Hollywood to protest the Trump administration’s family separation policies.
Stamp said she always thinks of the 1973 Oscars, when Sacheen Littlefeather took Marlon Brando’s place and declined his Best Actor Oscar for “The Godfather,” in protest of Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans.
The two organizers began calling up celebrities and influencers they knew, who in turn brought their campaign to more prominent figures in their circles.
That initial outreach included labor activist Ai-jen Poo, who walked the Golden Globes’ red carpet in 2018 with Meryl Streep to highlight the Time’s Up movement.
‘Fancy events’
“There is a long-standing tradition of people who create art taking a stand for justice in moments,” Stamp said. “We’re going to continue that tradition.”
Stamp said activists had been attending other “fancy events” leading up to the Golden Globes, passing out pins at these parties and also distributing them to people expected to attend the Globes ceremony.
“They put it in their purse and they’re like, ‘Hey would you wear this?’ It’s so grassroots,” Rocketto said.
The organizers pledged to continue the campaign throughout the awards season culminating in the Oscars on March 16, to ensure the public knows the names of Good and others killed by ICE agents.
