It’s not rare to see crowds, organized by Newton Indivisible, gathered near the Newton Centre Green on a Saturday afternoon with various handmade signs expressing outrage at the Trump administration.

But this weekend was different. The crowd was bigger than usual—one count estimated nearly 600 people—and included a speech by the new mayor. People were there to show grief and anger over the fatal shooting of a Minnesota mother of three by an Immigration & Customs Enforcement agent.

“I wish we did not have to be here today,” Laredo said through a megaphone over the sounds of car horns honking in solidarity. “But given the recent tragedy in Minneapolis, and events like that all across the nation, it is our duty. It is our duty to stand out here today.”

On Jan. 7, an ICE officer who has been identified as Jonathan Ross, shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good as she was pulling away in her vehicle. The killing has ignited a firestorm of outrage across America, and there have been reports of ICE-involved violence in other places, including Portland, Ore.

Laredo reminded the crowd that he had just sworn an oath to uphold the federal and state constitutions just a few days before.

“In Newton, every single day, I’m going to obey that oath, and we are going to follow the law,” he said. “This is a time when I think many of us can rightly condemn the actions of certain federal law enforcement authorities.”

Hundreds protest against the Trump administration and Immigration & Customs Enforcement in Newton Centre on Jan. 10, 2026. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

But Laredo urged people not to take out their anger at Newton police officers, who work to keep the city safe regardless of federal policy.

Newton has a “Welcoming City” ordinance, which is similar to that of a sanctuary city. The Trump administration has targeted the city with threats of funding cuts because of that. Last year, after an ICE arrest on the Newton/Watertown line, then-Mayor Ruthanne Fuller vowed to defend the city’s policy, and Laredo did the same on Saturday.

“Everyone is welcome here,” Laredo said. “Immigrants are welcome here. You are welcome in this community.”

ICE was created in 2003 as part of the Patriot Act, and the Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 signed by President Donald Trump provides ICE with so much money that it’s now the most-funded agency in the federal government.

A growing number of progressive and libertarian organizations have called for ICE to be abolished over the years, and those calls have grown louder in recent weeks.

Hundreds protest against the Trump administration and Immigration & Customs Enforcement in Newton Centre on Jan. 10, 2026. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

Laredo said that this fight for civil liberties in the face of federal aggression is personal for him, and he talked about his father fleeing Nazi Germany and his mother surviving a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia.

“They came to the United States fleeing fascism and knowing that this is a democracy. And we must continue to uphold democracy and fight the forces of fascism in this country,” Laredo said.

Making the Minneapolis case even more frustrating, the Department of Justice has left state and local police out of the investigation into the Jan. 7 shooting, something Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan spoke about at Saturday’s protest.

“In the United States, a bedrock of our democracy is that the people who conduct an investigation are the local authorities,” Ryan said. “This investigation should be conducted by authorities in Minneapolis. We are increasingly seeing that the federal government is trying to take it over, and they are trying to control the videos, they want the evidence. That, I suggest to you, is not a good sign.”

Left to right: City Councilors Maria Greenberg, Alison Leary and Brittany Hume Charm, attend a protest against the Trump administration and Immigration & Customs Enforcement in Newton Centre on Jan. 10, 2026. Photo by Bryan McGonigle