COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO — Colorado Springs City Councilor Dave Donelson walked out of a City Council meeting on January 13, 2026, after local religious leaders criticized ice during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day proclamation and referenced the recent shooting death of Colorado Springs native Renee Nicole Good.
“I want to say that I fully support ICE in their activities” and “I find what was said here offensive, and I didn’t even like sitting here listening to it,”
Donelson left after telling the room the above and departed before a planned photo-op.
Religious leaders spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting and drew parallels between Dr. King’s work and current ice enforcement, pushing an immigration enforcement debate into a ceremonial civic moment rather than a policy vote.
Rev. Candace Wood framed her remarks as a moral imperative linked to the civil rights leader being honored.
“In this moment of our nation’s history, I’m compelled to state this truth. The violent, authoritarian actions of immigration and customs enforcement, including the murder of Colorado Springs, his own Renee Nicole Good, is a stain on the fabric of history.”
other faith leaders echoed similar sentiments criticizing ICE, and additional coverage confirmed Donelson objected to faith leaders invoking MLK’s speeches against immigration enforcement.
Donelson later clarified his position to KRDO13, saying,
“I won’t sit at the dais and let ‘faith leaders’ lie about the good Americans who are trying to enforce our immigration laws. We either have a border and enforce our immigration laws, or we are done as a nation.”
After the photo-op, Donelson returned to the meeting, and the session proceeded after the disruption during the proclamation segment.
The confrontation was tied to the January 7, 2026, fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, described as a 37-year-old mother of three and Coronado High School graduate from Colorado Springs, during an ICE operation in Minneapolis.
Good was shot by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, and she was acting as a legal observer during the operation.
Video of the incident spread widely on social media, helping turn the shooting into a focal point for commentary in Colorado Springs and beyond.
The impact level was assessed as
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called the shooting unjustified, while President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended Ross, labeling Good’s actions “domestic terrorism.”
Those competing characterizations hardened a split that carried into Colorado Springs civic life, with some speakers treating Good’s death as central to their MLK proclamation message and Donelson treating the same comments as an attack on federal officers enforcing immigration law.
Protests in Colorado Springs began the same day as the shooting, with an emergency rally on January 7 at the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office that drew about 50 attendees.
The Colorado Springs Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, or COSAARPR, organized the rally.
First Congregational Church Pastor Lee Ann Bryce addressed the crowd with a pointed rebuttal to the idea that interference with ICE should be met with deadly force.
“Blocking [ICE agents] with a vehicle is not a capital offense. Civil resistance is not a death sentence.”
A larger march and vigil on January 10 drew about 100 people who went from Acacia Park to City Hall, bringing the dispute closer to the council chambers where the MLK proclamation would be read days later.
Mel Flores, who was charged in an October ICE raid for alerting workers, spoke at that event about his own experience and the personal cost of action he described as warning others.
“All I did was roll down my windows and scream, ‘ICE is here.’ . I lost my job.”
Another rally followed at City Hall on January 11, organized by Indivisible and 50501, where Ruth Schubarth, described as Good’s former Coronado High teacher, spoke about Good’s demeanor and disputed the label that senior Trump administration figures had attached to her actions.
“steady and matter of fact”
Schubarth described Good as “steady and matter of fact” and rejected the terrorism label, adding another local voice to a debate that had already moved from Minneapolis into Colorado Springs public meetings, protests, and religious observances.
By January 13, the tension surfaced inside City Council itself during a segment that is typically ceremonial, with faith leaders using the MLK proclamation moment to argue that Dr. King’s legacy was relevant to the current immigration enforcement climate and to Good’s killing.
Donelson’s decision to leave the dais during that portion stood out because no vote occurs on proclamations, a procedural detail that makes walkouts during them rare even amid political disagreements.
The episode also signaled how quickly the Good shooting, and the national-level debate over the ICE officer’s actions, had become a local flashpoint in Colorado Springs, shaping public comment, prompting competing claims about truthfulness and patriotism, and drawing sharp lines during a city ceremony meant to honor a civil rights leader.
Attention is expected to remain on future public comment periods and any official updates related to the shooting involving Jonathan Ross, with the dispute already showing it can spill into civic rituals as well as protests in the streets.
Colorado Springs Councilman Dave Donelson exited a January 2026 meeting after faith leaders criticized ICE during an MLK Day proclamation. The dispute centered on the fatal shooting of local native Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer. Donelson defended the agency, while activists and clergy invoked Dr. King’s legacy to condemn current immigration enforcement, reflecting a sharp community divide between national security and civil rights.
