At their home in Anaheim, Maria Luisa (right) expressed little optimism in recuperating the wages owed to her husband, Saul Pedroza, by the firm RDV Construction. March 7, 2024.
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Zaydee Sanchez
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KQED
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Topline:
California regulators have failed to compel the state’s worst cited wage theft offender to pay the millions of dollars his companies stole from workers, a KQED investigation found.
Slow going: The California Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Rafael Rivas’ RDV Construction Inc. and RVR General Construction Inc. to pay $16.2 million for defrauding more than 1,100 workers in Southern California. But the agency, which issued the citations for back wages and penalties in 2018 and 2019, had recovered just 2% as of last month, according to a department spokesman.
Read more ... for perspective from the affected and still-struggling former workers. Also, learn more about the legal aspects of this as well as Rafael Rivas himself.
California regulators have failed to compel the state’s worst cited wage theft offender to pay the millions of dollars his companies stole from workers, a KQED investigation found.
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Rafael Rivas’ RDV Construction Inc. and RVR General Construction Inc. to pay $16.2 million for defrauding more than 1,100 workers in Southern California. But the agency, which issued the citations for back wages and penalties in 2018 and 2019, had recovered just 2% as of last month, according to a department spokesman.
KQED reviewed hundreds of pages of state documents and court records, knocked on doors of properties linked to Rivas and interviewed workers the construction contractor cheated to piece together an accounting of the stunning labor violations — and how an understaffed agency was unsuccessful in collecting most of what Rivas and his companies owe.
California has some of the nation’s strongest employee protections on the books, including against wage theft. Yet, Rivas’ case signals that the state is not prioritizing restitution for workers when their earnings are withheld, according to workers’ rights advocates and employment attorneys.
“It’s outrageous. It’s infuriating,” said Benjamin Wood, a former organizer with the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center who has helped dozens of workers file wage complaints with regulators, including against RDV. “The state has so much power to enforce laws. But when it comes to massive wage theft, it seems like they’re powerless.”
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office ordered Rafael Rivas’ RDV Construction Inc. and RVR General Construction Inc. to pay $16.2 million for defrauding more than 1,100 workers in Southern California.
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Darren Tu
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KQED
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From 2017 through 2023, the labor commissioner’s Bureau of Field Enforcement assessed $450.6 million in unpaid wages and penalties against thousands of employers statewide, including Rivas’ companies. The agency recovered as little as 16%, or $74.5 million, according to records it provided to KQED last month.
The database, however, may contain errors and omissions, according to a department statement. A state employee familiar with the bureau’s case management system said that’s because staff don’t consistently update it.
Beth Ross, an employment attorney, said the omissions point to a dysfunction at the Labor Commissioner’s Office, which has a critical role in protecting vulnerable workers from abuses and helping to level the playing field for law-abiding employers.
“If the agency is not capable of keeping the database updated, then what else is the agency not able to get to?” said Ross, an adjunct professor at UC Law San Francisco. “We know the agency has a very difficult time keeping up with the onslaught of complaints and tips it receives about wage theft and labor law abuse in the state.”
The job vacancy rate at the Labor Commissioner’s Office reached 42% last year, according to an analysis of staffing documents kept by the state Department of Finance. Dozens of wage theft investigators, attorneys and others at the agency implored state lawmakers in July to address a hemorrhaging of employees leaving for better-paid positions elsewhere.
The Labor Commissioner’s Office will continue to explore all avenues towards restitution that are available to our agency.
— Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement
The Labor Commissioner’s Office, also known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, declined interview requests but said in a statement that collection efforts in Rivas’ case are ongoing.
“The Labor Commissioner’s Office will continue to explore all avenues towards restitution that are available to our agency,” said a department spokesperson in a March 14 email.
Rivas did not respond to requests for comment by email, phone and messages left in person with an employee at his office in Los Angeles County and on a note at his residential property in San Bernardino County.
Two family business associates named as co-defendants in one of the wage citations — his brother, Juan Rivas, and cousin, Nicolas Del Villar — also declined interview requests.
The state Attorney General’s Office, which can criminally prosecute wage theft cases, declined to answer whether it had taken any action against the employer.
“To protect its integrity, we’re unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, a potential or ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson for the attorney general wrote in an email.
Spokespeople for district attorneys in San Bernardino and Orange counties said they had no records of cases against Rivas or his companies. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office did not return requests for comment.
Victims struggle to pay rent, buy food
When Saul Pedroza is not working he finds solace gardening in his home in Anaheim. March 7, 2024.
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Zaydee Sanchez
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KQED
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Javier Gonzalez and Saul Pedroza installed steel rods and wooden frames for RDV Construction in 2016 at an apartment complex in Glendale, north of Los Angeles. The crewmates, both Mexican immigrants, said the company never paid them for about a month of full-time work.
Supervisors “started telling us that the paychecks were coming next week, and then next week,” Pedroza, 51, said in Spanish. “That’s how they strung us along.”
The carpenters were given paychecks that bounced due to insufficient funds. After they quit, Pedroza and Gonzalez said they went to the worksite and RDV’s offices to demand their earnings, and they both filed wage claims with the Labor Commissioner’s Office.
The agency determined RDV owes $11,000 to Gonzalez and $12,500 to Pedroza.
“I see it as a mockery of all the people they defrauded and of the government,” Gonzalez, 61, said. “It was a robbery in broad daylight what they did to us.”
I see it as a mockery of all the people they defrauded and of the government. It was a robbery in broad daylight, what they did to us.
— Javier Gonzalez, former RDV Construction employee
Pedroza said the theft of his salary meant he couldn’t buy enough food for his four children or pay rent for the family’s mobile home in Anaheim. He said he borrowed money from friends and desperately scrambled for other jobs to avoid eviction.
“It was a long time that we were doing badly, without any money,” Pedroza told KQED. “It was wrong.”
Rivas’ companies underpaid workers at dozens of construction sites from 2014 through 2017, according to investigations by the Bureau of Field Enforcement. In 2018, the labor commissioner cited RDV for nearly $12 million in unpaid wages and penalties. It was the largest citation the agency ever issued. The following year, RVR was hit with a $4.3 million citation.
“Stealing earned wages from workers’ pockets is illegal in California, and this case shows that employers who steal from their workers will end up paying for it,” said California Labor Secretary Julie Su at the time, who now heads the U.S. Department of Labor.
Delays gave Rivas time to minimize payments
Rivas appealed the citations. Disruptions during the pandemic further delayed attempts to recover any funds, providing Rivas years to take steps that would limit the labor commissioner’s ability to collect the fines.
By the time the agency dismissed Rivas’ appeals in May 2022, he had filed for federal bankruptcy protection for RVR. He also closed down RDV, with the company’s contractor license expiring in April 2022.
That meant state claims against RVR, which continues to operate, could not legally be collected outside of bankruptcy court, and obtaining funds from RDV would be very difficult, according to several legal experts.
“It’s next to impossible to collect from a company that’s closed unless they have real estate or other assets, which would be very rare, particularly for a small construction contractor,” said Greg Groeneveld, an attorney in San Francisco who specializes in enforcing wage judgments. “But you can sometimes pursue the owners of that company.”
The labor commissioner may still choose to target individual defendants cited, including Rivas.
When an employer doesn’t pay a wage fine that’s deemed final, the agency requests a state court to order payment. The civil judgment generally allows a creditor to use tools such as liens and levies to try to recover what is owed.
Many employers agree to settle before a court issues a judgment against them. But others don’t have the money or try to dodge payments, including by closing their companies or transferring ownership of real estate as a way to hide assets.
The Orange County Superior Court awarded the labor commissioner a judgment against Rivas, Juan Rivas, Del Villar and RDV last year. However, investigating a debtor’s true ability to pay can be time-consuming and difficult, and it’s unclear what of the individuals’ personal assets the department has tracked as eligible for collections. The labor commissioner’s Judgment Enforcement Unit, tasked with recovering funds in thousands of unpaid judgments, had 16 out of 28 positions filled last year, according to the Department of Finance.
San Bernardino County Assessor’s records show Rivas transferred at least one commercial property in Fontana, which is listed as RVR’s official business address, to a family member, Rosa Rivas, months after filing for the company’s bankruptcy. Rivas also owns an adjacent vacant plot of land.
The commercial property, with a Zillow estimated market value of $1.4 million, has a barber shop and hair salon facing the street and a one-story home standing in the back. A woman who told KQED she was eating lunch at the home identified herself only as Rivas’ ex, adding that they no longer spoke to each other. She declined to give more information.
“I don’t want to hear anything else about him,” she said before closing the door.
Three miles away, no one opened the door at a residential property owned by Rivas. A reporter observed a luxury Maserati Grecale purchased last spring, according to a document taped to its windshield, and a Ford F-550 flatbed truck were parked on the driveway. KQED could not confirm that Rivas owns the vehicles.
Who is Rafael Rivas?
Rivas started working in construction as a teenager more than 45 years ago, according to documents filed by his attorney in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Riverside.
The former day laborer went on to grow businesses that earned millions of dollars per year, building private hotels, mixed-use buildings, luxury apartments and at least one affordable housing project near downtown Los Angeles.
Rivas, 61, co-founded RDV Construction in 2010 with Juan Rivas and Del Villar. The following year, Rivas launched RVR General Construction.
Years later, Rivas blamed his family business partners for the wage theft violations.
‘Rivas was certain he had not violated any such regulations and later learned that the family partners were the source of problems.’
— Attorney Michael Jones, represents RVR General Construction Inc.
“Rivas was certain he had not violated any such regulations and later learned that the family partners were the source of problems,” according to filings by attorney Michael Jones, who represented RVR.
“Realizing that he was not compatible with the family partners as business associates, Rivas did venture out on his own and began doing business by himself through RVR,” Jones added. “However, a significant amount of damage had already been done.”
In a separate case, the labor commissioner determined RDV owed $314,500 for underpaying more than a dozen carpenters employed at a Los Angeles public housing project in 2015 and 2016. Rivas settled for an undisclosed amount after the Contractors State License Board suspended his companies’ licenses to operate until the judgment was resolved, said Katherine White, chief of public affairs at the license board.
Rivas’ companies repeatedly violated workplace standards, paying about $37,000 in back wages and damages to the U.S. Department of Labor in 2017, and additional fines to other regulators. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health penalized RDV and RVR, including for safety violations related to the 2015 death of an employee who fell 40 feet from a roof opening.
How much is the labor commissioner set to recover in Rivas’ case?
So far, the labor commissioner has collected $277,000 towards the two multi-million citations, including through a mechanics lien and a payment plan for RVR to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said Peter Melton, a spokesperson with the Department of Industrial Relations.
“We can confirm the Labor Commissioner’s Office (LCO) has received over $164,000 from Chapter 11 bankruptcy payments as part of our judgment enforcement efforts in this case,” said Melton in an email. “LCO also collected and disbursed $100,000 on a mechanics lien lawsuit against this employer.”
The bankruptcy payments appear to be the only restitution the agency is currently receiving.
It’s really a shame. These workers are so unlikely to see any amounts of money that could remedy the wrong that they suffered. And that’s if you can find them. As time goes on, fewer and fewer of these workers will be found.
— Beth Ross, employment attorney
RVR agreed to pay at least 10% of its total income until it fully covers or settles the labor commissioner’s $7.6 million claim, according to bankruptcy documents. The company projects installments of about $150,000 per year.
At that rate, it would take RVR 50 years to settle the debt.
“It’s really a shame,” said Ross, the employment attorney. “These workers are so unlikely to see any amounts of money that could remedy the wrong that they suffered. And that’s if you can find them. As time goes on, fewer and fewer of these workers will be found.”
Daniel Reiss, a bankruptcy lawyer who reviewed RVR’s case for KQED, said an important question now is how the labor commissioner is monitoring the company’s income to ensure their payments comply with the agreement.
Depending on RVR’s financial picture, the agency could still push for a shorter-term deal through a court mediation panel, he added.
“You can make a negotiation with respect to getting money now while everybody’s still alive, as opposed to having no idea if it will ever be paid off,” said Reiss, who is also a bankruptcy mediator for the Central District of California.
The 2026 Golden Globes were live Sunday night, hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser for the second year in a row.
The context: From One Battle After Another to The Pitt, this list will be updated with the winners. Spoilers ahead!
Read on... for who won, and who lost, this year.
Updated January 11, 2026 at 22:35 PM ET
The 2026 Golden Globes are live Sunday night, hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser for the second year in a row.
The event begins at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT on CBS and streaming for subscribers of Paramount+ with Showtime. (Paramount+ Essential subscribers in the U.S. can stream the event on Monday.)
Below are the nominees. This page will be updated with winners as the night goes on.
Best performance by a female actor in a supporting role in any motion picture Winner:Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another) Emily Blunt (The Smashing Machine)
Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value)
Ariana Grande (Wicked: For Good)
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)
Amy Madigan (Weapons)
Best performance by a male actor in a supporting role in any motion picture Winner:Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value) Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another)
Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)
Paul Mescal (Hamnet)
Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)
Adam Sandler (Jay Kelly)
Best performance by a male actor in a television series – drama Winner:Noah Wyle (The Pitt) Sterling K. Brown (Paradise)
Diego Luna (Andor)
Gary Oldman (Slow Horses)
Mark Ruffalo (Task)
Adam Scott (Severance)
Best performance by a female actor in a television series – musical or comedy Winner: Jean Smart (Hacks) Kristen Bell (Nobody Wants This)
Ayo Edebiri (The Bear)
Selena Gomez (Only Murders in the Building)
Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face)
Jenna Ortega (Wednesday)
Best performance by a male actor in a supporting role on television Winner: Owen Cooper (Adolescence) Billy Crudup (The Morning Show)
Walton Goggins (The White Lotus)
Jason Isaacs (The White Lotus)
Tramell Tillman (Severance)
Ashley Walters (Adolescence)
Best performance by a male actor in a television series – musical or comedy Winner: Seth Rogen (The Studio) Adam Brody (Nobody Wants This)
Steve Martin (Only Murders in the Building)
Glen Powell (Chad Powers)
Martin Short (Only Murders in the Building)
Jeremy Allen White (The Bear)
Best podcast Winner:Good Hang with Amy Poehler (Spotify) Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard (Wondery)
Call Her Daddy (SiriusXM)
The Mel Robbins Podcast (SiriusXM)
Smartless (SiriusXM)
Up First (NPR)
Best original song – motion picture Winner:"Golden" – KPop Demon Hunters "Dream as One" – Avatar: Fire and Ash "I Lied to You" – Sinners "No Place Like Home" – Wicked: For Good "The Girl in the Bubble" – Wicked: For Good "Train Dreams" – Train Dreams
Best screenplay – motion picture Winner:Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)
Ryan Coogler (Sinners)
Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident)
Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)
Chloé Zhao, Maggie O'Farrell (Hamnet)
Best performance by a female actor in a motion picture – musical or comedy Winner: Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You) Cynthia Erivo (Wicked: For Good)
Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue)
Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another)
Amanda Seyfried (The Testament of Ann Lee)
Emma Stone (Bugonia)
Best performance by a male actor in a motion picture – musical or comedy Winner: Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) George Clooney (Jay Kelly)
Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)
Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)
Lee Byung-hun (No Other Choice)
Jesse Plemons (Bugonia)
Best performance by a male actor in a limited series, anthology series, or a motion picture made for television Winner: Stephen Graham (Adolescence) Jacob Elordi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
Paul Giamatti (Black Mirror)
Charlie Hunnam (Monster: The Ed Gein Story)
Jude Law (Black Rabbit)
Matthew Rhys (The Beast in Me)
Best performance by a female actor in a limited series, anthology series, or a motion picture made for television Winner: Michelle Williams (Dying for Sex) Claire Danes (The Beast in Me)
Rashida Jones (Black Mirror)
Amanda Seyfried (Long Bright River)
Sarah Snook (All Her Fault)
Robin Wright (The Girlfriend)
Cinematic and box office achievement Winner:Sinners (Warner Bros. Pictures) Avatar: Fire and Ash (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
F1 (Apple Original Films)
KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix)
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Paramount Pictures)
Weapons (Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema)
Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures)
Zootopia 2 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Best director – motion picture Winner:Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another) Ryan Coogler (Sinners)
Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein)
Jafar Panahi (It Was Just an Accident)
Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)
Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)
Best motion picture – animated Winner: KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix) Arco (Neon)
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle (Aniplex, Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Elio (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (GKIDS)
Zootopia 2 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Best original score – motion picture Winner: Ludwig Göransson (Sinners) Alexandre Desplat (Frankenstein)
Jonny Greenwood (One Battle After Another)
Kangding Ray (Sirāt)
Max Richter (Hamnet)
Hans Zimmer (F1)
Best motion picture – non-English language Winner:The Secret Agent (Neon) - Brazil It Was Just an Accident (Neon) - France
No Other Choice (Neon) - South Korea
Sentimental Value (Neon) - Norway
Sirāt (Neon) - Spain
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Willa) - Tunisia
Best performance by a female actor in a supporting role on television Winner: Erin Doherty (Adolescence) Carrie Coon (The White Lotus)
Hannah Einbinder (Hacks)
Catherine O'Hara (The Studio)
Parker Posey (The White Lotus)
Aimee Lou Wood (The White Lotus)
Best performance in stand-up comedy on television Winner:Ricky Gervais (Ricky Gervais: Mortality) Bill Maher (Bill Maher: Is Anyone Else Seeing This?) Brett Goldstein (Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life)
Kevin Hart (Kevin Hart: Acting My Age)
Kumail Nanjiani (Kumail Nanjiani: Night Thoughts)
Sarah Silverman (Sarah Silverman: Postmortem)
Best performance by a female actor in a television series – drama Winner:Rhea Seehorn (Pluribus) Kathy Bates (Matlock)
Britt Lower (Severance)
Helen Mirren (Mobland)
Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us)
Keri Russell (The Diplomat)
Best television series – drama Winner: The Pitt (HBO Max) The Diplomat (Netflix)
Pluribus (Apple TV)
Severance (Apple TV)
Slow Horses (Apple TV)
The White Lotus (HBO Max)
Best motion picture – drama Frankenstein (Netflix)
Hamnet (Focus Features)
It Was Just an Accident (Neon)
The Secret Agent (Neon)
Sentimental Value (Neon)
Sinners (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Best motion picture – musical or comedy Blue Moon (Sony Pictures Classics)
Bugonia (Focus Features)
Marty Supreme (A24)
No Other Choice (Neon)
Nouvelle Vague (Netflix)
One Battle After Another (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Best performance by a female actor in a motion picture – drama Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)
Jennifer Lawrence (Die My Love)
Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value)
Julia Roberts (After the Hunt)
Tessa Thompson (Hedda)
Eva Victor (Sorry, Baby)
Best performance by a male actor in a motion picture – drama Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams)
Oscar Isaac (Frankenstein)
Dwayne Johnson (The Smashing Machine)
Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)
Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere)
Best television series – musical or comedy Abbott Elementary (ABC)
The Bear (FX on Hulu)
Hacks (HBO Max)
Nobody Wants This (Netflix)
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
The Studio (Apple TV)
Best television limited series, anthology series or motion picture made for television Adolescence (Netflix)
All Her Fault (Peacock)
The Beast in Me (Netflix)
Black Mirror (Netflix)
Dying for Sex (FX on Hulu)
The Girlfriend (Prime Video)
Veteran actor T.K. Carter, who appeared in the horror film "The Thing" and "Punky Brewster" on television, has died at the age of 69.
Details: Carter was declared dead Friday evening after deputies responded to a call regarding an unresponsive male in Duarte, California, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Police did not disclose a cause of death or other details, but said no foul play was suspected.
DUARTE, Calif. — Veteran actor T.K. Carter, who appeared in the horror film "The Thing" and "Punky Brewster" on television, has died at the age of 69.
Carter was declared dead Friday evening after deputies responded to a call regarding an unresponsive male in Duarte, California, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Police did not disclose a cause of death or other details, but said no foul play was suspected.
Thomas Kent "T.K." Carter was born Dec. 18, 1956, in New York City and was raised in Southern California.
He began his career in stand-up comedy and with acting roles. Carter had been acting for years before a breakthrough role as Nauls the cook in John Carpenter's 1982 horror classic, "The Thing." He also had a recurring role in the 1980s sitcom "Punky Brewster."
Other big-screen roles include "Runaway Train" in 1985, "Ski Patrol" in 1990 and "Space Jam" in 1996.
"T.K. Carter was a consummate professional and a genuine soul whose talent transcended genres," his publicist, Tony Freeman, said in a statement. "He brought laughter, truth, and humanity to every role he touched. His legacy will continue to inspire generations of artists and fans alike."
Copyright 2026 NPR
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Published January 11, 2026 7:29 AM
People hold signs as they protest in Los Angeles, California on January 10, 2026 against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
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Etienne Laurent
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AFP via Getty Images
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Topline:
Demonstrations against the deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis are taking place all weekend across Los Angeles.
Check out ... these photos from some of the protests.
Downtown Los Angeles
A person in an inflatable frog suit holds a sign during a protest in Los Angeles, California on January 10, 2026 against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
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Etienne Laurent
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AFP via Getty Images
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A woman holds incense during a protest in Los Angeles, California on January 10, 2026 against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
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Etienne Laurent
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AFP via Getty Images
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A person holds up a sign during a protest in Los Angeles, California on January 10, 2026 against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. (Photo by ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP via Getty Images)
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Etienne Laurent
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AFP via Getty Images
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A person holds up a sign during a protest in Los Angeles, California on January 10, 2026 against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
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Etienne Laurent
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AFP via Getty Images
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A tourist bus drives past as people protest in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), in Los Angeles, California on January 10, 2026 against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.
By Chandelis Duster and Sergio Martínez-Beltrán | NPR
Published January 11, 2026 6:34 AM
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Ben Hovland
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MPR News
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Topline:
People have been taking to the streets nationwide this weekend to protest the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics following the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, a 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer this week.
Where things stand: At least 1,000 events across the U.S. were planned for Saturday and Sunday, according to Indivisible, a progressive grassroots coalition of activists helping coordinate the movement it calls "ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action."
People have been taking to the streets nationwide this weekend to protest the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics following the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis, a 37-year-old woman who was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer this week.
At least 1,000 events across the U.S. were planned for Saturday and Sunday, according to Indivisible, a progressive grassroots coalition of activists helping coordinate the movement it calls "ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action."
Leah Greenberg, a co-executive director of Indivisible, said people are coming together to "grieve, honor those we've lost, and demand accountability from a system that has operated with impunity for far too long."
"Renee Nicole Good was a wife, a mother of three, and a member of her community. She, and the dozens of other sons, daughters, friends, siblings, parents, and community members who have been killed by ICE, should be alive today," Greenberg said in a statement on Friday. "ICE's violence is not a statistic, it has names, families, and futures attached to it, and we refuse to look away or stay silent."
Large crowds of demonstrators carried signs and shouted "ICE out now!" as protests continued across Minneapolis on Saturday. One of those protestors, Cameron Kritikos, told NPR that he is worried that the presence of more ICE agents in the city could lead to more violence or another death.
"If more ICE officers are deployed to the streets, especially a place here where there's very clear public opposition to the terrorizing of our neighborhoods, I'm nervous that there's going to be more violence," the 31-year grocery store worker said. "I'm nervous that there are going to be more clashes with law enforcement officials, and at the end of the day I think that's not what anyone wants."
Demonstrators in Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026.
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Sergio Martínez-Beltrán
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NPR
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The night before, hundreds of city and state police officers responded to a "noise protest" in downtown Minneapolis. An estimated 1,000 people gathered Friday night, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, and 29 people were arrested.
People demonstrated outside of hotels where ICE agents were believed to be staying. They chanted, played drums and banged pots. O'Hara said that a group of people split from the main protest and began damaging hotel windows. One police officer was injured from a chunk of ice that was hurled at officers, he added.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey condemned the acts of violence but praised what he said was the "vast majority" of protesters who remained peaceful, during a morning news conference.
"To anyone who causes property damage or puts others in danger: you will be arrested. We are standing up to Donald Trump's chaos not with our own brand of chaos, but with care and unity," Frey wrote on social media.
Commenting on the protests, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told NPR in a statement, "the First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly — not rioting, assault and destruction," adding, "DHS is taking measures to uphold the rule of law and protect public safety and our officers."
In Philadelphia, police estimated about 500 demonstrators "were cooperative and peaceful" at a march that began Saturday morning at City Hall, Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson Tanya Little told NPR in a statement. And no arrests were made.
In Portland, Ore., demonstrators rallied and lined the streets outside of a hospital on Saturday afternoon, where immigration enforcement agents bring detainees who are injured during an arrest, reported Oregon Public Broadcasting.
A man and woman were shot and injured by U.S. Border Patrol agents on Thursday in the city. DHS said the shooting happened during a targeted vehicle stop and identified the driver as Luis David Nino-Moncada, and the passenger as Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, both from Venezuela. As was the case in their assertion about Good's fatal shooting, Homeland Security officials claimed the federal agent acted in self-defense after Nino-Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras "weaponized their vehicle."
Copyright 2026 NPR
