Tennessee Republicans vote down resolution to honor Renee Good

Tennessee Republicans on Wednesday voted down a resolution to honor Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman fatally shot multiple times by an immigration agent during the Trump Administration’s controversial surge in federal law enforcement actions across the Twin Cities.

The resolution, brought by Democratic lawmaker Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville, praised Good as a “loving mother, a poet, and a partner who was treasured by her family and respected by her neighbors,” and said the “circumstances surrounding her tragic death have shocked and saddened her family, her neighbors across Minneapolis, and strangers around the world.”

Introduced last month on the floor of the House, the measure received an immediate objection from Rep. Jeremy Faison, a Cosby Republican, preventing a vote. Then, in an unusual move, the resolution was set to be heard in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee.

“To be quite honest, I’m a bit perplexed why a very simple honoring and memorializing resolution for a mother who was murdered was bumped off a consent calendar and sent to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee,” Jones told the committee Wednesday. “But I think the only possible explanation is that members of this committee believe the actions of the ICE officers who murdered Rene Good were criminal.”

Good’s death has been ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner. No criminal charges have been filed in her death, which has ignited national scrutiny and pushback about use of force tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in local neighborhoods.

With no debate or discussion, the majority-Republican committee voted down the resolution 6-2, with “yes” votes only from the committee’s two Democrats. The vote effectively kills the measure for the session, but it may be reintroduced as a new resolution.

The non-binding resolution was among the earliest in a flurry of bills introduced by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers that are tied to immigration enforcement, which is expected to be a central focus of Tennessee lawmakers for a second straight year.