Outrage, Protests Against Terror by Federal Gov’t Spread in Minnesota

By Bill Scheer and Sandi Sherman

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, January 25, 2026 — Tens of thousands of protesters, as many as 50,000 by some estimates, marched through the streets of this city on January 23. It was a historic day of peaceful, often buoyant show of resistance against the federal government’s crackdown on immigrant workers and efforts to intimidate anyone protesting this terroristic invasion across the state.

The promise of a calm Saturday disappeared shortly after 9 a.m. the next morning, January 24. That is when half a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents held down Alex Pretti and pumped 10 bullets into his body, killing him in cold blood.

Pretti, 37, was a U.S. citizen, volunteer observer, and an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Medical Center. He was coming to the aid of a woman who had been violently pushed down on the street by federal agents after verbally protesting an immigration raid in the area.

Within hours, state National Guard troops arrived to assist local police overwhelmed by “responding to the chaos that ICE created,” said Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Wearing yellow vests to distinguish themselves from federal agents, the guardsmen were stationed at the Whipple Building, the center of ICE operations and a scene of daily protests. These troops greeted protesters and the media with refreshments at the Whipple Building on Sunday, January 25.

Officers of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the agency that usually looks into murders involving police officers, showed up at the crime scene. They had been denied access to evidence in the Renee Good murder. This time, they came with a warrant, signed by a judge, giving them access to the public area. ICE turned them away once again.

In a classic let-the-foxes-guard-the-hen-house comment, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would investigate itself, with assistance from the FBI.

Using their go-to Big Lie technique, Trump administration officials immediately tried to turn the victim into the criminal.

Greg Bovino, commander of the federal Border Patrol operations, told the media that Pretti approached the officers with a gun and “intended to massacre law enforcement.” Pretti owns a handgun and had a permit to carry. Noem and White House adviser Stephen Miller smeared Pretti as “a domestic terrorist.”

Video, eyewitnesses expose gov’t lies

Video from the scene and eyewitness testimony show these claims are blatant lies. The local NBC news affiliate showed slowed-down and zoomed-in videos that captured the events:

• Pretti is shown peacefully observing and videotaping the agents on the sidelines, several feet away from agents.
• A woman near Pretti is yelling at the ICE agents; an ICE agent rushes over and knocks her down.
• Pretti turns toward the woman — and away from the officers — to assist her getting up and protect her from the assault.
• ICE agents converge and begin pepper spraying the faces of Pretti and the fallen woman.
• ICE agents separate the two and take Pretti down.
• Six agents are involved and begin pummeling Pretti while he struggles to protect himself.
• One agent reaches down and removes an object that appears to be Pretti’s gun.
• A video image taken immediately before he is killed shows Pretti’s empty hands on the ground, while agents are holding him down.
• One officer, standing over Pretti, pulls his gun and begins firing. Within seconds, a total of 10 bullets were fired from what appears to be multiple officers.

In a sworn affidavit, another observer on the scene who filmed the attack, provided more evidence debunking the government lies. “The man [Pretti] tried to help up the woman the ICE agent shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying,” she said. “More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman up. All three of the observers looked to have been affected by the pepper spray. I could feel the pepper spray in my eyes.

“The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn’t see him touch any of them — he wasn’t even turned toward them. It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn’t see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times.”

The eyewitness, whose name was redacted from the public version of her affidavit, added: “I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state. I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined — it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bear witness, because it can’t just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to defend our freedom and democracy; those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values.”

Protests erupt in aftermath of killing

In the aftermath of the brutal execution, angry community members gathered at the scene. ICE, with assistance from local police, began lobbing tear gas and flash bombs.

Local news showed the situation returned to calm after federal agents left the scene and local police backed off to re-route traffic around the area. Some protesters began setting up barricades with dumpsters and other items found in the area. People began bringing flowers. The protest eventually turned into a vigil to honor Pretti’s life.

Neighbors and friends remember him as a compassionate man who loved the outdoors. His parents said his last moments epitomized who he was, someone trying to help a woman in distress.

“He’s the salt of the earth good guy, dedicated nurse, a good co-worker who always would help and had a smile and a quiet, gentle, nice sense of humor,” said one of Pretti’s fellow workers at the Veterans Medical Center who wished to stay anonymous. “He might not appreciate, or maybe he would, but (he’s) kind of a modern healthcare professional Mr. Rogers who just does the right thing automatically, cuz that’s part of who he is. I’m devastated that he was trying to help a woman pushed down by some ICE thug and lost his life to several ICE thugs.”

The location of the shooting, on Nicollet Avenue in the Whittier neighborhood, amplified the pain. The avenue is known as Eat Street, an immigrant-heavy urban corridor of global eateries and bars. The community around it is tight knit.

“It’s not even about trying to protect certain people or anyone specific. It’s just the safety of all of us,” Erica Christ, owner of the Black Forest Inn near the scene of the shooting, told the Minnesota Star Tribune. Her family opened the German restaurant in 1965.

“Immigrants saved Nicollet Avenue,” she said.

Protesters come up with disciplined, thoughtful tactics on spot

Protests and vigils immediately sprang up throughout the metro area and lasted into the night.

In St. Anthony, a first-ring suburb, we attended a protest on the corners of a busy street that started with about 25 but quickly grew to more than 100 as cars honked and people joined with homemade signs. One woman and her husband, out for a walk, heard the chants and joined in.  They wanted ICE out, but she was troubled by ICE assertions that Pretti had no ID and may have been reaching for a gun — if true it would cloud the waters.

One of the protesters pointed out that the local CBS affiliate interviewed Rob Doar, a gun rights attorney for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. After examining the video evidence, Doar said that there was no justification for shooting Pretti. But he advised that “carrying out your second amendment rights, while exercising your first amendment rights” puts you at an enhanced risk.  

Discussion on what tactics to adopt during the St. Anthony protest was widespread.

A protester proposed taking the street and blocking traffic. “We need to make them listen,” he said. Another demonstrator replied, “Make who listen?  Who are we aiming our fire at — the people driving down the street that we are trying to win, and who are honking their support?”  Others agreed and the proposal was dropped.

Thousands held a vigil at Whittier Park near the shooting at 5 p.m. the day of the killing, according to media reports. The action was called by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition.

Over 1,000 people gathered at a Minneapolis church for a Singing Resistance vigil the same day. Songs were sung in grief and solidarity. @singingresistancetc is a group that kicked off in January to empower a collective voice, connect with the community, and urge action. “Minneapolis is really hurting, but Minneapolis is also doing some really, really beautiful things,” said Annie, a member of the group in an Instagram post after that vigil.

“AFL-CIO Mourns Killing of Minneapolis Union Member, Reiterates Calls for ICE to Leave Minnesota” was the title of a January 24 press release by the country’s main labor federation.

“The AFL-CIO mourns the senseless killing of another Minneapolis resident by federal agents. Alex Jeffrey Pretti was a VA intensive care unit nurse and a member of AFGE Local 3669 — a brother in our union family,” read the statement by AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler.

“As tens of thousands of Minnesotans made clear peacefully and powerfully yesterday [January 23], the Trump administration’s horrific operation — and their actions aimed at stoking violence and chaos — must end. America’s unions join the call for ICE to immediately leave Minnesota before anyone else is hurt or killed. We demand local authorities conduct a full, transparent investigation that will lead to accountability for this tragic and violent act, and for Congress to use its power to hold ICE accountable.”

January 23 mobilization and economic shutdown

Pretti’s murder came the day after tens of thousands marched and rallied in downtown Minneapolis and throughout the area on the coldest day in seven years. Hundreds of small businesses closed in response to the call for “no work, no school, no shopping.”

Trade unions, many of which had joined the call for the January 23 Day of Truth and Freedom, issued strong statements in support of the economic shutdown and street mobilizations that day.

“The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) stands in solidarity with our members at Local 1005, and all other workers and people in Minnesota, who participated in the ‘Day for Truth & Freedom’ against the ICE operations in Minneapolis. We are outraged by ICE’s attacks on people engaging in their right to assemble and protest, its detainment of children, and its killing of Rene Good and a second, unidentified, person today,” said the ATU statement issued the morning of January 24.

“We call on ICE to leave Minneapolis immediately to end the violence and chaos that it has inflicted on the people of Minnesota. We call further for transparency, meaningful investigations, accountability, and the full protection of civil rights of workers and our communities to assemble and protest without fear of violence or retaliation. In this moment of collective action, we stand united with all people of good conscious who are mobilizing for human rights, dignity, and justice.”

Many union members took part in the January 23 march and the concluding rally at the Target Center, which drew more than 10,000 people.

Speakers at the rally included faith leaders, and local community members whose lives have been impacted by the ICE siege. The latter included a Latina, whose father and uncle were grabbed by ICE in a November 18 raid on a factory in St. Paul, and a Somali Uber driver who was harassed by ICE at the airport and stood his ground in a video that went viral.

The international presidents of the Teachers Union, Service Employees International Union, and the Communication Workers of America were among the featured speakers at the Target Center rally. Members of these unions have been targeted by ICE, sometimes with the collusion of employers who try to intimidate and get rid of workers fighting for safety and better working conditions.

It is noteworthy that the discussion under the Minnesota AFL-CIO Facebook post publicizing the call for the January 23 shutdown included comments attacking the union’s stance for opposing the ICE crackdown — indicating divisions within the working class in Minnesota on this issue.

There are also anti-working-class prejudices among some immigrant rights supporters, who see workers, especially white workers, as the problem. This was expressed by a reactionary sign with a huge picture of Trump that read “Trump Still Polling Well with Working-Class American Pedophiles.”

A ‘General Strike’?

Protest actions continued on Sunday, January 25, including a rally and spirited march of several thousand through downtown Minneapolis.

Rally speakers referred to January 23 as a “General Strike” and called for “Expanding the General Strike.”

This is inaccurate wishful thinking. No major union organized to shut down their workplace, although several encouraged their members to participate as they could. Polls show that workers, like the general population, are divided on immigration. The widespread and growing revulsion at ICE tactics, and the massive protests, open opportunities to win more unions and workers to act on the understanding that “an injury to one, is an injury to all.”

The efforts to win the hearts and minds of the largest possible majority of working people to the fight to demand “ICE Out,” and eventually amnesty and a path to legalization for all undocumented immigrants living and working in this country, and to overcome anti-worker prejudices among some protesters are essential for making progress in resisting the ICE crackdown.

Louise Halverson, reporting from Minneapolis, contributed to this article.

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POSTSCRIPT: An Immigrant Worker’s Testimonial

A friend wrote on Facebook the very eloquent piece reproduced below. She is not a U.S. citizen but a permanent resident who is quoted anonymously to protect her from retribution by federal authorities. It is worth sharing because it really captures the essence of what is happening in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Minneapolis has been living with some level of ICE occupation for something like 54 days now. Of course, it has become much worse and more visible in recent weeks, but it began that long ago, initially targeting our Somali community. Now there are thousands of ICE and Border Patrol officers here, and hundreds of residents have been snatched off the streets and out of houses. Many have been injured — some catastrophically — and two observers are dead.

This morning’s murder was of another good human being, another helper who was protecting yet another helper and died doing it. An ICU nurse who helped veterans. While armed, he never brandished his weapon. It was removed from him before he was shot, and he was shot multiple times in the back — several more times, it seems, to make sure he was dead. His last words, to the woman he was defending from ICE, were, “Are you ok?”

The brutality of it all is staggering. Yet still, there are those who immediately refuse to believe what they can see with their own eyes because Kristi Noem contradicts it with a made-up story. Another senseless murder. Another martyr.

And it is all happening in a city full of immigrants — and people who look like they might be immigrants — who are now forced to hide from our own government.

People are unable to do laundry if there isn’t a machine in their building, so neighbors with white skin are doing it for them and bringing it back so they can stay safe. They can’t go to the grocery store, so hundreds of others bring boxes of food after long workdays. There are collection points everywhere for essentials — food, diapers, toilet paper. They can’t pay rent if it’s not safe to go outside to work, and on February 1, many will come up short.

This city, full of nonprofits and civic and religious groups, is packed with organized, generous people who are showing up.

They are recording ICE vehicles, noting license plates, observing — just like Alex was. People are giving rides to children so parents don’t have to leave home, escorting them to bus stops, standing watch near schools so we can protect our neighbors’ kids from being taken by our own government.

Others wait with warm cars and phones and extra coats outside the federal building where people are dumped into bitter cold miles from home, phones confiscated, with no chance to call for a ride home. This happens often — many are picked up without just cause.

Almost everyone I know is doing something with some regularity. Everywhere I go, I see people wearing whistles around their necks, ready to sound the alarm with a practiced code. The danger is real. Two are dead. So many are hurt. Thousands are living in fear. Constitutional rights are trampled daily. And that Second Amendment so many preach about didn’t matter at all today.

We continue to record, and we continue to protest, because we must bear witness to this terror. We can’t bear this alone; the world must see what is happening here. Democracy dies in silence. They have to see that people are being brutalized, that citizens are being pulled off streets too, that due process is being denied and even court orders are not being followed. There will be a reckoning someday, and for that reckoning there will be a record, a web of evidence created by all of us. But meanwhile, we are occupied by our own government.

None of this is really about “fraud” (a subject in which our grifter-in-chief is an expert!) or Minnesota’s actual undocumented residents. Minnesota has less than 1% of this country’s undocumented population. If this were truly about numbers, Texas would be a focus — but Texas is a red state. This is about Trump’s hostility toward Minnesota and what it represents: a place that has largely embraced immigrants, where strong human rights laws exist, where vulnerable people come to be safer.

We’re the only state that didn’t go for Reagan. A state that never went for Trump. Despite our recent scandals, a lot works here. And all of that is an affront to this administration.

Even with the brutal windchills of the coldest part of a Minnesota winter, we couldn’t stay inside tonight without gathering. At 7 o’clock, the city streamed outdoors to its street corners. My church pulled together a singing vigil for this evening, quickly put together, but well attended. We sang songs to help us keep going, to remember why we are here, to mourn, to take a collective breath, breathe in hope and breathe out our anguish. We sang to mourn, to breathe together, to remember why we keep showing up.

Driving home, I passed small groups on corner after corner, candles glowing and breath plumes visible in the cold, each small group holding its own vigil.

Despite what you may see on the news, this is a beautiful city filled with good people of every background. There may be more exciting places to visit than Minneapolis — but there is nowhere else I would rather live. The neighbors I’ve met over the past month have only cemented that.

No city should ever have to live under occupation by its own government. No community should be terrorized for its commitment to human rights and where some of their residents came from.

But if there is one thing this moment has made clear, it is this: while cruelty may be loud and armed with power, solidarity is everywhere here — focused, steady, and brave. And it is stronger than fear.

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