JESUS MELTS ICE

A Theological Response to the Martyrdom of Renee Nicole Good for the Undocumented Immigrant

On January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent on a Minneapolis street. Her only crime was standing with her community, witnessing immigration enforcement unfold in her neighborhood. The Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood watched the video of her death until his eyes burned. He could not look away. He could not be silent. In Jesus Melts ICE, Hood examines ten Gospel passages...ten teachings from Jesus himself...that stand in direct opposition to everything our immigration enforcement system represents. Through careful examination of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, he demonstrates that Jesus was a refugee, commanded love for enemies, made outsiders the heroes, proclaimed freedom for prisoners and identified completely with strangers. With unflinching clarity and prophetic fire, Hood argues that anyone who follows Jesus must resist immigration policies designed to hunt, cage, and expel human beings. Not eventually. Not metaphorically. Now.

This is not a nuanced book. Hood is tired of Christians who find reasons to qualify every Gospel demand until it makes no demand at all. Jesus Melts ICE is unapologetic, relentless and explicit. It refuses to balance competing interests or offer both sides. Every chapter is written in Renee Nicole Good's memory, reminding readers that these are not abstract doctrines but matters of life and death. Families are being destroyed. Communities are being terrorized. Children are being orphaned. The church has remained largely silent. This book breaks that silence. It makes a singular, sustained argument: if you worship a refugee God who identified with strangers and was executed by an alliance of religious purity and imperial security, you cannot support the machinery of ICE. The choice is binary. Christ or ICE. You cannot serve both. At the end of all arguments and scriptures, we return to the body...the broken body of Renee Nicole Good. In her blood, we see the scandal of a nation that claims justice while arming itself with lethal force to enforce exclusion. In her life, we see what enemy love looks like: present, persistent, willing to pay the cost. "Follow Renee Nicole Good" is not a slogan. It is a summons. This book is for everyone who watched her die and could not be silent. This book is for everyone who knows the cry for help is here. This book is for everyone ready to choose Christ over empire.