Hundreds of people gathered this Saturday in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Washington DC and Chicago to protest the shooting death in the city of Minneapolis of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, perpetrated by agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) within the framework of the demonstrations that have filled the streets of the city in the state of Minnesota against the anti-immigration operation carried out by the United States authorities.
The protests, which have also taken place in the town where the events occurred, have spread throughout the country with messages against ICE and acts of tribute to the deceased.
In Minneapolis, more than a thousand people have participated in a vigil in memory of Pretti held in Whittier Park – near the scene of the events -, in which those gathered have carried candles and signs against the federal body. There have also been clashes with deployed police officers, according to local media reports.
In other large cities like Washington, a march has brought together hundreds of people who have headed towards the Department of Homeland Security building located in the southwest of the city, where they have chanted: “Shame”, according to the ‘Washington Post’.
New York, the largest protest
The largest protest has taken place in New York and in cities such as Los Angeles or Chicago, which have also been among the objectives of the tenant of the White House with the deployment of the National Guard, mobilizations have taken place against the immigration raids in Minnesota.
During the day on Friday, thousands of people also took to the streets of Minneapolis to denounce abuses committed in recent weeks in ICE operations after, on January 7, another federal agent shot and killed US citizen Renée Nicole Good. A week later, a Venezuelan citizen was shot in the leg.
This mobilization has been framed in a great day of protest in which the organizers have called for strikes – work, school and consumer – “to unitedly oppose the actions of the federal government against the state”, within the ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest movement that encompasses more than one hundred organizations such as unions, civil rights groups and religious entities.
The Government led by Donald Trump launched the anti-immigration operation Metro Surge last December in Minnesota, which the White House tenant has justified by claiming an increase in crime. The actions of the agents, such as the death of Good or the arrest of a five-year-old child, have unleashed outrage among the state’s population.
Trump says Minnesota government is ‘inciting insurrection’
The President of the United States, Donald Trump, affirmed this Saturday that the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, are “inciting insurrection.” “The mayor and governor are inciting insurrection with their pompous, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric!” the Republican president wrote on his social network, Truth Social.
Trump also posted an image of what he claimed was the deceased’s gun. “This is the gunman’s weapon, loaded (with two full extra magazines!) and ready to go,” Trump noted in his message.
The US president called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “patriots” and congratulated them for having “arrested and expelled from Minnesota” 12,000 illegal immigrant criminals, “many of them violent.”
“Minnesota is fed up”
The governor of the state of Minnesota, Tim Walz, has asked federal authorities to let state and local security forces be in charge of the investigation. “Let the investigators ensure that there is justice (…). The state has the personnel to keep people safe. Federal agents should not obstruct our work,” he noted on social networks.
“Minnesota is fed up. This is disgusting. The president must end this operation. Remove the thousands of violent and untrained officers from Minnesota. Now,” he added in a previous message.
Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey has also called for the withdrawal of federal troops. “How many more neighbors, how many more Americans have to die or be seriously injured for this operation to end?” he asked at a press conference. “This operation is not generating security in our city,” he stressed.
