The Green Party of Michigan condemns the murder of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis. This was the inevitable result of actively encouraging an unwelcome, militarized force to act with absolute immunity in our communities. This is the third shooting by federal agents in Minnesota in less than three weeks. As long as ICE remains in neighborhoods where they are not welcome, the situation will continue to escalate.

The Facts: A Pattern of Violence and Lies

Alex Pretti was a 37 year old ICU nurse who served veterans at the VA hospital. He was a U.S. citizen. On Saturday, January 24th, he was maintaining his distance from ICE agents while recording them to ensure accountability. After agents pushed a woman to the ground, Pretti walked over to help her stand and walk away.

ICE escalated the situation at every turn. ICE agents approached them unprompted. ICE agents pepper-sprayed Alex and the woman. ICE agents shoved him to the ground. ICE agents swarmed him, bludgeoning his head with a pepper spray canister and removing his gun from its holster. Then, an ICE agent shot Alex Pretti once in the back. Over the next eight seconds, multiple agents drew their weapons and fired another nine times.

Never once did Alex face the men shooting him. Never once did he hold a gun in his hand. Alex Pretti was executed.

Notice that ICE's presence was the entire source of the problem. Their absence would have prevented the situation. If they were not there, Alex Pretti would be alive today.

But this isn't the only shooting in Minneapolis. This is a pattern of behavior of lethal force and lies from the federal government.

• On January 7th: ICE Agent Jonathon Ross murdered Renee Good. In every video of the shooting, you can see her turn her car's wheels away from the agents and slowly pull away. Jonathon Ross shot once through the windshield, then after moving to the side of the car, he shot her twice more at point blank range. The administration has called her a "domestic terrorist" and has impeded any investigations into the matter. An FBI supervisor attempted to investigate the shooting, but was ordered to close any inquiries into the agent and instead investigate Renee Good and her partner.

• On January 14th: This incident is riddled with shifting "official" narratives. According to an FBI affidavit, ICE attempted to arrest a driver of a car registered to an illegal immigrant. The driver evaded the agents until they chased him to his home. The agents tackled the driver to the ground while Julio Sosa-Celis was standing on the porch. He allegedly grabbed a broom to hit an agent that was tackling the driver. The agent then shot him in the leg. What makes this incident concerning is the unequal use of force and the shifting narratives. For days, the DHS reported that Julio was the original target of the arrest, but that was never the case. They also reported two men attacking the agents with shovels, but that also seems to be completely made up. Even in every version of the story, the grossly unequal use of force from the ICE agent is disturbing.

• On January 24th: Agents murdered Alex Pretti. DHS claims he "approached with a weapon," that he "violently resisted," and that he intended to "massacre law enforcement." Videos show that DHS is blatantly lying. We see a man using his phone to record a video, we see ICE choose to approach him and other bystanders, we see ICE push them and pepper spray them, we see ICE shove Alex Pretti to the ground, bash his face in, disarm him, and then execute him.

There are many others suffering from ICE violence, ranging from overreactions to criminal neglect. In 2025, there were 32 reported deaths from immigration detention. On January 8th, Vice President JD Vance stated "That guy [Jonathon Ross, the agent that shot Renee Good] is protected by absolute immunity." On January 22nd, Vice President JD Vance stated "I didn't say, and I don't think any other official within the Trump administration said that officers who engaged in wrongdoing would enjoy immunity. That's absurd. What I did say is that when federal law enforcement officers violate the law, that is typically something that federal officials would look into." As we've presented, he is lying about immunity and lying about conducting any investigation into the Agent that murdered a U.S. citizen. This is state- sanctioned violence.

Our Statement: The Failure of the State

We are not the only ones who see that the administration is willing to defend even the most heinous acts of ICE agents, the ICE agents see it too. They are emboldened by it. We have seen many videos of ICE agents openly threatening bystanders and pedestrians with violence. They are using the murder of Renee Good as a promise of violence against the innocent. They are choosing to approach whoever they want and they choose to escalate the situation. They know that they will suffer zero consequences from the current administration. Unfortunately, this means that consequences need to come from somewhere else.

The federal government is failing to hold itself accountable. Minnesota politicians need to be standing up. We don't want performative gestures, we want a war in the courts. Jonathon Ross needs to be detained immediately. The National Guard and police need to be following all ICE agents and protecting U.S. citizens as well as legal immigrants. Illegal immigrants need to be treated with the dignity and respect of all human beings. There should be lawsuits into DHS's interference with investigations. We demand a State Of Minnesota vs Department of Justice lawsuit immediately. Yet once again, we are unfortunately seeing a lack of any such consequences for ICE's actions.

The Green Party stands for peace, but peace is not the absence of conflict. Peace is the presence of justice. We fear that preaching pacifism to people being hunted and murdered by their own government will not end well. As John F. Kennedy warned: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."

By blocking justice, shielding murderers, and lying to the public, the federal government is making peace increasingly impossible.

ICE must leave. Now.

Green Party of Michigan
migreenparty.org

Photograph: Facebook