January 31, 2026
EDITORIAL:
ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America
Friday, Jan. 30, 2026 | 2 a.m.
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The killing of Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street over the weekend should end any remaining illusions about where Donald Trump’s second-term presidency is headed. This was not an isolated tragedy, not a “confusing situation,” not the regrettable outcome of a tense encounter. The killings of Renee Nicole Good and Pretti in Minneapolis are an inflection point — the moment when the authoritarian impulses Trump has long telegraphed crossed fully from rhetoric into bloodshed.
Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse who cared for veterans at the VA, and a concealed-carry license holder. He was standing in the street, exercising his constitutional rights to speak and assemble freely as part of a peaceful protest. He attempted to help a female protester get to her feet after she was thrown to the ground by federal agents.Within seconds, he was shot dead from behind, killed by his own government even though he posed no threat and was defenseless at the time.
Almost immediately, Trump administration officials rushed to the microphones to smear Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.” But video evidence and even Customs and Border Protection’s own preliminary review reveal the lie being spread by Trump’s minions to manipulate the American people, distort the truth and consolidate power in Trump.
This pattern should be chillingly familiar. During his first campaign, Trump demonstrated that he was willing to violate the law and lie repeatedly to manipulate the public about his business acumen, his wealth and his relationships with everyone from Russian oligarchs to an adult film star.
Now, in his second term, the message is unmistakable: Laws, court orders, constitutional rights and even the lives of the American people, are expendable if they interfere with his pursuit of power and impunity.
Pretti’s killing did not happen in a vacuum. In January alone, at least eight people have died in encounters with federal immigration officials or while in ICE custody. In several of those cases, eyewitness accounts and recordings directly contradict the official narratives issued by the administration. At least two of the dead were U.S. citizens who asked only to exercise their constitutional rights to move, assemble and speak freely; to lawfully carry a firearm; and, if accused of wrongdoing, to receive due process.
Instead, they were met with what can only be described as summary executions by a federal force that increasingly resembles a private army loyal to Trump alone.
Moreover, the Trump administration has shown an alarming comfort with lying about the circumstances surrounding the death of Americans at the hands of ICE.
Consider the facts in Pretti’s case. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed he “approached officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun,” neglecting to mention that the weapon was holstered and he never reached for it. The government’s own preliminary review concedes there was no brandishing — only a refusal to move while filming agents, followed by an attempt to help a woman up, then being swarmed by federal agents and then gunfire. In fact, it was federal agents who removed Pretti’s gun from its holster prior to shooting the unarmed and incapacitated man multiple times in the back, ending his life.
The same script played out earlier this month with the killing of Good, a Minneapolis mother of three shot in her car by a federal agent. Her last words to the man who killed her as she tried to drive away from the scene: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Hardly the sentiments of a terrorist.
She, too, was instantly labeled a “violent rioter” and “domestic terrorist.” Trump himself claimed she ran over an officer. Video evidence shows that she had the wheels of her car turned away from the federal agent who shot her, undermining the administration’s certainty and raising profound questions about the use of lethal force.
And then there is the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban immigrant who died in ICE custody in El Paso, Texas. ICE claimed suicide. A witness described a chokehold. An autopsy found injuries consistent with a chokehold and potentially with homicide. Once again, the official story collapses under scrutiny.
Trump administration officials have suggested that because Pretti carried a holstered weapon and filmed agents, that his killing was “legally justified.” By this standard, law enforcement should have opened fire on the thousands of Jan. 6 attackers who killed and maimed Capitol police, or Kyle Rittenhouse, or the armed militiamen who invaded the Michigan statehouse, or the armed demonstrators intimidating voters in Arizona.
For those who voted for Trump, take note. The danger that was once reserved for immigrants, people of color or LGBTQ Americans is now at your doorstep. This is not Barack Obama or Joe Biden ordering masked federal agents into the streets without training. It is not a Democratic administration asserting that it is “legally justified” for the federal government to shoot anyone who lawfully carries a gun near a protest. It is Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which controls every branch of the federal government.
Nor should we forget that as Trump proclaims support for the protesters in Iran and says the state shouldn’t kill them, his administration is killing protesters in the U.S. because they oppose his policies.
Worse still, as conservative commentator Joe Rogan pointed out last week, it appears that one of Trump’s primary motivations for sending ICE into the streets is simply to distract from an even larger national scandal: the Epstein files.
Despite a federal law mandating the release of the files by Dec. 19, Trump’s Justice Department has released only about 1% of the files thus far. At its current pace, the department won’t release all the files until 2030.
Last week, Rogan implied that ICE’s massive ongoing operations are designed to distract from Trump’s potential involvement in a child-sex trafficking ring. It’s an immigration crackdown weaponized to divert attention from one of the few scandals that could stand in the way of Trump’s authoritarian ambitions.
We don’t know if Rogan is correct or not, because like everyone else, we haven’t seen the files. What we do know is that regardless of the motivation, Trump and his minions are trashing the Constitution and killing American citizens with no cause or legitimate justification.
Authoritarianism does not arrive all at once. It advances in steps, each normalized by fear, propaganda and the vilification of the dead. The killings in Minneapolis mark the moment when the line was crossed, when the erosion of rights turned unmistakably lethal. If Americans do not recognize them as such, the next inflection point may come even closer to home.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America – Las Vegas Sun News
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