by Sharon Zhang | Jan 27, 2026 | Article, ICE, Minneapolis, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing
This story was originally published on Truthout on Jan. 26, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
The largest nurses’ union in the U.S. has demanded the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a federal agent shot and killed nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday, joining a rapidly growing chorus calling for Congress to do away with the rogue agency.
In a statement, National Nurses United (NNU) strongly condemned the killing of Pretti, saying the shooting demonstrates the “violence, terror, and lawlessness” and “dire public health threat” that federal immigration agencies pose to communities nationwide.
“The nation’s nurses, who make it their mission to care for and save human lives, are horrified and outraged that immigration agents have once again committed cold-blooded murder of a public observer who posed no threat to them,” NNU said. “ICE agents have been kidnapping hard working people — mothers, fathers, and children — and now murdered a registered nurse, one of the most trusted professions in the country.”
“Nurses demand the immediate abolition of ICE,” the group said. “Abolish ICE now.”
Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. He was shot and killed by a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent on Saturday as he was filming immigration agents conducting a raid on a Minneapolis street. Videos from bystanders showed multiple agents tackling him, taking his gun, and then shooting at him at least 10 times, killing him.
In their statement, NNU called on the Senate to block the funding package for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) slated to come to a vote this week. Senate Democrats have said that they are going to
by Julia Conley | Jan 27, 2026 | doj, elections, ICE, immigration, Minnesota, News, Pam Bondi, Tim Walz, Trump Administration, Voter Rolls
As Minnesota residents and people across the U.S. were reeling from the killing of protester Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents on Saturday — the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in the city in less than three weeks — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Governor Tim Walz, telling him it is in his power to “restore the rule of law” in his state.
Source
by Sharon Zhang | Jan 27, 2026 | Alex Pretti, Donald Trump, ICE, Ilhan Omar, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, News, Tom Homan
Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) has said that the Trump administration is grasping at straws after President Donald Trump announced on Monday that his administration is launching an investigation into the oft-targeted Democratic lawmaker, in the wake of the horrific Border Patrol killing of Alex Pretti this weekend. In a post on Truth Social Monday, Trump said that the DOJ and Congress are…
Source
by Amy Goodman | Jan 26, 2026 | Civil Rights, ICE, immigration, Interview, Minneapolis, protesters, Trump Administration
Civil rights attorney, minister and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was arrested by federal officials for participating in an anti-ICE demonstration at Cities Church in St. Paul, was released from federal custody on Friday. “They have altered the facts, just as they altered my image as a way of trying to criminalize nonviolent, peaceful protests and lawful dissent against their unlawful and…
Source
by Taya Graham and Stephen Janis | Jan 26, 2026 | Article, ICE, Minneapolis, Opinion, Police Accountability Report, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing
After the extrajudicial killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, federal officials were quick to put the blame on him. Pretti was accused of planning a “massacre” of cops, while videos depict him filming and rendering aid to a woman before he was shot in the back.
This has been the Trump administration’s playbook since federal agents occupied Minneapolis: A controversial use of force, then false accusations blaming the victim without evidence or investigation.
Renee Good suffered the same fate after she was killed by an ICE agent earlier this month. Kristi Noem called her a domestic terrorist just hours after she was gunned down. Again, an accusation without evidence.
Shortly after the killing of Good, we interviewed the MAGA conservative Rep. Chip Roy on the steps of the US Capitol about ICE’s actions.
His answers were revealing and worth revisiting in light of the continued use of the victim-blaming playbook, if only to understand what all this rhetorical posturing implies about the continuing presence of ICE in American cities.
Roy is one of the most conservative members of Congress. He’s also a MAGA stalwart. When we asked him if Renee Good’s killing was justified, he initially stuck to blaming the victim.
“I think she put herself in a bad position by interfering with law enforcement and by hitting the gas in a car with a law enforcement officer right in front of her. That’s what I think,” Roy responded.
Then, as the interview progressed, his defense of ICE shifted.
“Do we talk about the ICE officer who was dragged down the street in a car? Do we talk about the ICE officer who had a steel
by Theia Chatelle | Jan 26, 2026 | Alex Pretti, ICE, immigration, Minneapolis, Minnesota, News, Organizing, Policing, Protests, Renee Nicole Good, Resistance, Trump Administration
Minneapolis — The air above Nicollet Avenue was filled with tear gas and mist from demonstrators’ breath on the morning of Saturday, January 24, after a group of masked federal agents gunned down 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti, who had stopped to record an arrest in progress. After the Trump administration sicced thousands of federal immigration agents on the Twin Cities, Pretti’…
Source
