They Killed Alex Pretti, But They Couldn't Crush Minneapolis

After federal agents gunned down a nurse, the city turned its rage into action.

MINNEAPOLIS ― When Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti early Saturday, people from all over the city instantly mobilized.

Eyewitnesses captured video footage of the horrific slaying and shared it on social media, and privately in Signal chats that residents have been using to help protect each other from the federal immigration agents who have been marauding through the city since the Trump administration sent them here in December.

Dozens of residents were on the scene within an hour, and it wasn’t long before hundreds more were pouring in, facing off with heavily armed federal agents. The officers stood stoically with their weapons and faces entirely covered. Residents stood just feet away, with cardboard signs and cute woven hats. They came to yell or to grieve, and some came because they just figured the community needed their help.

“I just geared up,” said Miguel, who said he was prepared to stay as long as necessary. “I don’t know what I came to do, but I just needed to be present.”

Officially, federal immigration enforcement agents are in Minneapolis to detain violent criminals who are in the country illegally. In reality, residents will tell you that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers are just nabbing Black and brown people off the streets and hauling them away. It doesn’t matter if they don’t have criminal records; 5-year-old Liam Ramos was not a criminal, but they grabbed him in front of his house last week and shipped him off to a Texas detention center with his dad.In reality, say residents, federal agents are routinely terrorizing neighborhoods with immigrants. They’re also killing citizens like Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who worked for Veterans Affairs, and Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother.“Not again! Not fucking again!” one resident screamed at agents guarding the scene where Pretti was fatally shot.