Bluesky

One day after tens of thousands of Minnesotans marched in sub-zero weather to call for an end to the violent presence of federal forces on the streets of Minneapolis, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed another Minnesotan Saturday morning on the streets of the city where, on January 7, an ICE agent gunned down 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.

President Trump, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials quickly issued unsubstantiated claims that the Minnesotan who died Saturday—a man identified as Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who worked with the Veterans Administration and was an active member of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3669—was an armed “domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement,” and that the federal agent fired in self-defense.

But the immediate responses from the administration, with their propagandistic and contradictory language (including an unwarranted DHS claim that Pretti, who was reportedly a 37-year-old licensed gun owner with no known criminal history beyond traffic citations, intended to “massacre law enforcement”), mirrored discredited and widely condemned statements made by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials following the Good shooting. Expressing deep skepticism about statements from DHS and ICE as a rush to judgment, and urging calm, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz promised a thorough investigation, while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey issued a sober yet impassioned call to President Trump to end ICE’s mass surge into the city.

Back on January 7, Mayor Frey made international headlines when he challenged the validity by Noem and her aides and associates, which contradicted the evidence from videos recorded as Good was killed. “Having seen the video myself, I want to tell everybody directly: that is bullsh*t,” said Frey, who declared, “To ICE, get the f*ck out of Minneapolis.”

Frey’s statement following Saturday’s shooting employed different language. Yet, it was no less powerful, and no less compelling. And it is worth considering in its entirety.

Here is what the mayor said:

I just saw a video of more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents and shooting him to death. How many more residents, how many more Americans need to die or get badly hurt for this operation to end? How many more lives need to be lost before this administration realizes that a political and partisan narrative is not as important as American values? How many times must local and national leaders plead with you, Donald Trump, to end this operation and recognize that this is not creating safety in our city?

As you’ll hear from (Minneapolis Emergency Management Department Rachel) Sayre in just a second, we have seen these kinds of operations in other places, in other countries, but not here in America—not in a way where a great American city is being invaded by its own federal government.

I’m done being told that our community members are responsible for the vitriol in our streets. I’m done being told that our local elected officials are solely responsible for turning down the temperature. Just yesterday, we saw 15,000 people peacefully protesting in the streets, speaking out, standing up for their neighbors. Not a single broken window, not a single injury. Those peaceful protests embody the very principles that both Minneapolis and America was founded upon.

Conversely, the mass militarized force and unidentified agents who are occupying our streets, that is what weakens our country. That is what erodes trust in both law enforcement and in democracy itself. So, to everyone listening, stand with Minneapolis. Stand up for America. Recognize that your children will ask you: What side you were on? Your grandchildren will ask you what you did to act to prevent this from happening again, to make sure that the foundational elements of our democracy were rock solid. What did you do to protect your city? What did you do to protect your nation?

This is not what America is about. This is not a partisan issue. This is an American issue. This administration, and everyone involved in this operation should be reflecting. They should be reflecting right now, and asking themselves, what exactly are you accomplishing? If the goal was to achieve peace and safety, this is doing exactly the opposite. If the goal was to achieve calm and prosperity, this is doing exactly the opposite. Are you standing up for American families right now or are we tearing them apart?

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The invasion of these heavily armed masked agents roaming around on our streets of Minneapolis, emboldened with a sense of impunity, it has to end. This is not how it has to be.

So, to President Trump, this is a moment to act like a leader. Put Minneapolis, put America first in this moment. Let’s achieve peace. Let’s end this operation; and I’m telling you, our city will come back, safety will be restored. We’re asking for you to take action now to remove these federal agents.

With that, the mayor called on Sayre, the director of the Emergency Management Department for the City of Minneapolis, to address the chaos that unfolded since the beginning of the Trump administration’s massive Operation Metro Surge, which is targeting the city’s immigrant communities.

Describing “the terror and the feeling of helplessness” of the people of Minneapolis, Sayre added, “My background is in international humanitarian response in conflict zones. In Yemen, Haiti, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine. What I’ve seen here is what I’ve seen there. A powerful entity violently and intentionally terrorizing people, making them afraid to go outside so they can’t earn a living so that kids are forced out of school. This has a lasting generational impact. People can’t plan a single day of their lives because they don’t know who is around the corner and if their family member or a neighbor is about to be taken away.”