ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) – A number of celebrities wore pins protesting the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Golden Globes on Sunday, in tribute to Renee Good, who was shot and killed in her car by an ICE officer earlier this week in Minneapolis.
The black-and-white pins bore phrases such as “BE GOOD” and “ICE OUT,” injecting a political angle into an awards show that had been relatively nonpartisan the year before.
Mark Ruffalo, Wanda Sykes, and Natasha Lyonne wore the pins on the red carpet, while Jean Smart and Ariana Grande wore them inside the venue. Smart pinned the badge to her gown as she accepted the award for best actress in a musical or comedy series.
Since the shooting on Wednesday, protests have erupted across the country demanding justice for Good, as well as for a separate shooting in Portland where Border Patrol agents wounded two people. Some demonstrations have turned confrontational with authorities, particularly in Minneapolis, where ICE is carrying out its largest immigration-enforcement operation to date.
“We need every part of civil society, the public, to speak out,” said Nelini Stamp of Working Families Power, one of the groups backing the ICE pins. “We need our artists. We need our creatives. We need people who reflect society.”
Lawmakers have pledged a strong response, and an FBI investigation into Good’s death is underway. The Trump administration has defended the ICE officer’s actions, insisting he acted in self-defense and believed Good would strike him with her car.
Only a week before Good’s death, an ICE officer off duty shot and killed Keith Porter, 43, in Los Angeles. His death sparked protests in the city’s vicinity, demanding the arrest of the officer responsible.
The idea for the “ICE OUT” pins began with late-night text exchanges earlier this week between Stamp and Jess Morales Rocketto, the executive director of a Latino advocacy group called Maremoto.
They know that high-profile events can bring social issues into the homes of millions of viewers. This marks Morales Rocketto’s third year of Golden Globes activism, during which she has previously mobilized Hollywood to protest the Trump administration’s family-separation policies. Stamp recalled Broadway’s Oscar moment from 1973, when Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage on behalf of Marlon Brando and declined his award to protest Native American representation in American entertainment.
So the two organizers began reaching out to celebrities and influencers they knew, who then carried the campaign to the most prominent figures in their circles. The 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.
“There’s a long tradition of people using art to take a stand for justice in moments like these,” Stamp said. “We’re going to carry that tradition forward.”
According to Stamp, allies of the movement have attended the “elegant events” held in the days leading up to the Globes. They distribute the pins at parties and hand them out to those attending tonight’s ceremony.
“They slip it into their purse and say, ‘Hey, would you wear this?’ It’s a very bottom-up, grassroots movement,” Morales Rocketto said.
The organizers have committed to sustaining the campaign throughout awards season to ensure the public is aware of Good’s name and others who have died at the hands of ICE officers in shootings.
