A group of hundreds, many of them nurses still wearing badges after walking from their nearby hospitals, performed a Nightingale Tribute \u2014 a traditional send off for nurses \u2014 for Pretti, who was killed Saturday by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis.<\/b>
\nHundreds gathered outside the Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center on the Near West Side to honor Alex Pretti, who was shot to death Saturday by two Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, as well as all others killed by federal immigration enforcement.
Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen born in northwest suburban Streamwood, worked as an ICU nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Minnesota.
The group, many of them nurses still wearing badges after walking from their nearby workplaces, performed a Nightingale Tribute \u2014 a traditional send off for nurses \u2014 while calling for ICE to be abolished and pushing for a general strike modeled after one in Minneapolis.
\u201cWe are demanding more from our representatives than just strongly worded letters, or Tweets, or grandiose speeches romanticizing the sacrifice of others,\u201d Michael Applegate, a Navy veteran, told the crowd Wednesday evening. \u201cPut some skin in the game or get out of the way, because we will not stand for your cowardice or complicity any longer.\u201d
Hours earlier, Gov. JB Pritzker visited the makeshift memorial outside the Veteran\u2019s Hospital, leaving a bouquet of white flowers. A day earlier, health care workers held a rally at the same site to demand accountability in Pretti\u2019s slaying.
Jacquelyn Ceplecha, an emergency room nurse and rapid responder, said people want ICE off the streets and for the violence to end.
\u201cStop letting ICE come back,\u201d Ceplecha said after the rally. Illinois politicians \u201ckept talking about how \u2018We won\u2019t stand for this,\u2019 but yet we saw ICE active and hurting people in our city.\u201d
Pretti was the third person shot in Minnesota by federal agents this month. Pretti was shot a mile from where Renee Macklin Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was killed by an ICE agent Jan. 7. Another man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis of Venezuela, was shot in his leg Jan. 15.
That\u2019s in addition to the two people feds fired on in the Chicago area last year: Silverio Villegas Gonzales, who an agent shot to death last September, and Marimar Martinez, who was shot and survived, later to be charged and subsequently acquitted of federal charges.
The two agents who fired 10 shots into Pretti\u2019s back have been placed on administrative leave since Saturday, according to DHS officials, who seem to be walking back rhetoric after reportedly demoted Border Patrol Cmdr.-at-large Greg Bovino accused Pretti of wanting to \u201cslaughter\u201d law enforcement agents without any evidence.
Bovino was expected to leave Minneapolis Tuesday after being replaced by border czar Tom Homan.
But the crowd wasn\u2019t satisfied with those developments.
Some speakers called for money from immigration enforcement to be redirected to health care.
Dennis Kusuth, a Cook County nurse, was among them.
Kusuth called on people to recognize the \u201cstate sanctioned violence\u201d of unaffordable health care. He said it\u2019s all one issue.
Some politicians blame the city\u2019s crime or the lack of health care on immigrants, he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a lie,\u201d Kusuth said. \u201cIt\u2019s because they spent all your money on ICE. The billionaires and their lackeys in Congress are criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n