How the Trump administration pushed Minneapolis to the brink.
a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti at close range after Pretti had been pepper-sprayed, beaten, and forced onto his knees by other agents.
Pretti, 37, was a US citizen and reportedly in the area to observe agents’ actions. He was also a registered nurse and a legal gun owner with a permit to carry a weapon — one that he was no longer in possession of when he was shot to death.
Pretti’s death is at least the third shooting by immigration agents in the Minneapolis area this year, and the second where the person who was shot died.
The shootings have understandably attracted the most attention nationwide. But since the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis began in early January, there have been widespread abuses of power US by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, including use of chemical crowd control like pepper spray and tear gas; brutality against protesters, bystanders, and immigrants; and baseless and often inflammatory arrests and detentions.
On January 7, just days into an immigration crackdown targeting the Minneapolis area that Trump officials heralded as “largest immigration operation ever,” an ICE agent, Jonathan Ross, shot and killed Renee Good as she attempted to drive away.
The White House, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and other federal officials quickly backed Ross to the hilt, describing Good as a domestic terrorist and describing the shooting as justified, despite video evidence to the contrary.
Since then, the message behind the administration’s support for Ross and the shooting seems to have been clearly received by ICE agents in Minnesota, who have behaved much more like an occupying force than a law enforcement operation: Not only have local officials pleaded with them to leave the state, they are also operating from behind masks and with militarized force, including tactical gear, riot control agents, and assault weapons.
