The murdering, masked ICE thugs, who’ve invaded the Minneapolis region for the past weeks, have carried out another blatant execution. On Saturday, ICE agents murdered Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse working at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis, and a U.S. citizen. He was filming ICE on his phone as they attacked a woman on the street. Video footage shows Pretti filming multiple ICE agents as they pepper spray him, tackle him to the ground, subdue him, and then shoot him seconds later. Pretti had a permit to legally carry a handgun. His gun was holstered on his belt, and he never pulled it out or reached for it. Not only was Pretti completely restrained by ICE, but one ICE agent is seen on video removing Pretti’s gun from the holster before other ICE agents fire several shots at point-blank range and kill him.
ICE and Trump administration officials have tried to justify the murder of Pretti, blatantly lying as they called Pretti an “assassin” and a “domestic terrorist.” Just like when they murdered Renee Good on January 7, their message is clear: ICE agents have a green light to terrorize everyone, to brutalize and even kill those who protest their actions, whether they are citizens or not.
The goal of ICE terror is clear. They are sent into cities to terrorize the community and provoke people to respond, in order to attack them. Each day they are pushing the limits of their brutality. Just last week they abducted a five-year-old boy and his father, both here legally, and sent them over 1,000 miles away to Texas, with no contact with their family. They are breaking into people’s homes, ripping people out of their beds in their underwear in below freezing temperatures and disappearing them without any warrants. They want to terrorize and intimidate us into silence. And this is the brutality they show openly in our cities, often on camera, while the conditions in ICE detention camps are even worse. ICE has been found to have committed one known homicide in detention, and dozens of people have died in ICE custody. The real number of deaths is much higher as ICE rarely lets anyone in to monitor the conditions.
But since ICE invaded Minnesota, people have not just been intimidated into silence. They have stood together in their neighborhoods, patrolling the streets, responding to ICE, as they face tear gas and brutality. When their numbers have been big enough, they have chased ICE out of their neighborhoods.
And Friday, things were different. Many organizations, including workers in unions, schools, churches, community groups, small businesses and more called for a day of mass mobilization, with no work and no school. This allowed tens of thousands of people, despite below zero temperatures, to be together in the streets and see their potential. This is the direction things must continue to go.
We know city and state officials will do nothing but offer words. Democratic Governor Walz has agreed to bring out the National Guard to the Minneapolis region, not to restrict ICE agents, but to police protestors and those who stand up to ICE. The Democrats in Congress do the same, offering nothing but words of criticism, even as some of them continue to vote for increased ICE budgets. They may criticize Trump and ICE, but ultimately, they defend the same system that is arrayed against us.
This is a war on our lives. At home, the Trump administration is carrying out a massive transfer of wealth from working people to the billionaires, paid for by cuts to health care and social services. And abroad they are threatening countries to bend to the interests of U.S. corporations, using economic pressure and military threats. That is what they did in Venezuela when they kidnapped President Maduro in order to control Venezuela’s oil. That is what they are doing with their threats to invade Greenland, attack Iran, support the genocide of Palestinians, and more. They will stop at nothing to defend the interests of their system of exploitation and profits. And they think nothing can stop them. But they are wrong!
But we must be clear — we are on our own, but we are not alone. Their intimidation and violence will continue. And some may be too afraid to stand up first. But many others won’t. And we have the numbers on our side. We can organize our forces. Last Friday’s mass mobilization in Minnesota is a good beginning, and a chance to see what we are capable of. It is the working class who does the work to make their system run. And it is the working class who can shut their system down. And if we can organize our forces broadly enough, in city after city, we have the power to stand up to the terror they are unleashing here at home and abroad. It is up to us!
