US tensions after ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good reflected among Americans in Northern Ireland
The polarisation in America after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent killed a protestor last week are reflected in the perspectives of US citizens in Northern Ireland.
The News Letter spoke to two different Americans resident in the Province after crowds marched across the USA to protest against the fatal shooting of the woman in Minneapolis.
As previously reported, the woman shot dead on Wednesday, Renee Good, is believed to have travelled on Christian missions to Northern Ireland in her younger days.
Pastor Ed Bissett is from Alaska and is pastor at Clady Water Baptist Church in Templepatrick.
Of Ms Good's shooting, Mr Bisset says he cannot determine the driver's motives but says the ICE agent did have a right to defend himself.
He believes the situation will become clearer with the agent's body cam footage.
"The Democrats have been stoking up this situation for months by calling ICE agents Gestapo - and yet, all they're doing is their job," he added.
"If protesters want to protest, go ahead, but they shouldn't be trying to impede ICE agents, throwing stones and using cars to block their way."
Regarding the recent US incursion into Venezuela to arrest President Nicolas Maduro, he believes this was "overdue".
(In 2020, the US under Trump offered $15m for his arrest, upped to $25m by the Biden administration last year).
He does not see Trump making good on his threats to take Greenland with "an invasion" but is sure he will "make a financial offer to Denmark".
Generally he is quite happy with Trump's governance, he said, pointing to an economy which is "really starting to boom" and a dramatic fall in petrol prices since Trump took office.
However Dr Brian Kelly, a reader in US history at Queen’s University Belfast, said there are tensions will not be easily resolved by elections.
Dr Kelly said the shooting of Ms Good "in broad daylight in Minneapolis, should ring alarm bells for anyone who cares about the evisceration of American democracy under the Trump administration".
He slammed attempts by federal security leaders to paint her as “a domestic terrorist” and said he had no confidence in them to carry out an impartial investigation.
"Vice President JD Vance's threat that ICE will now go 'door to door' is deeply reminiscent of the horror of 1930s Germany.”
The US military's abduction of Maduro under "concocted charges" signals their eagerness "to trample international law" as it did in Gaza, he said.
"The Trump administration is in deep trouble with voters. His attempts to blame American economic woes on Biden have worn thin, and on the economy his approval rating shows historic lows."
There are "large pockets of outrage among ordinary Americans," he added.
"We will see how the deployment of the US military in urban centres affects voter turnout in the mid-terms" he said.
But whatever the outcome, he said, “the crisis now coming to a head in the US has been a long time in the making and won't be easily resolved through elections alone".