MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Following two fatal federal immigration enforcement shootings in Minneapolis this month, MomsRising is calling on U.S. senators to refuse any expansion of funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security and to impose stronger accountability measures on federal agencies.
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and executive director of MomsRising a non-profit advocating for women and families in the U.S., said in a statement to Congress that the organization is speaking out “on the killings and other horrors our federal government is perpetrating in Minnesota,” according to a statement released by MomsRising on Monday.
Rowe-Finkbeiner stressed that “dozens of other U.S. cities have had their lives upended — or ended — and their families torn apart by the immigration agents the Trump administration has unleashed on our communities, too many of whom are untrained and lawless. It has to end.”
The statement followed the shooting of Alex Pretti, described as “the second fatal shooting this month of a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis at the hands of a federal agent,” which has been “intensifying anger over immigration enforcement tactics,” according to Revolt.
MomsRising emphasized that “no child, mother, or family should have to grieve this kind of trauma and loss. No person should lose their life in this way. Our country must do better.”
Media coverage outlined the shooting of Pretti, who “was shot and killed Saturday [Jan. 24] during an immigration operation in south Minneapolis.” Bystander videos show that before the shooting, Pretti was “filming agents with his phone, directing traffic, and stepping between an agent and a woman who was pushed to the ground.”
He was subsequently “pepper-sprayed, wrestled to the street, and surrounded by about six agents when an agent appeared to remove a ‘gun’ and move away from him … just before the first shot.”
MomsRising stated, “As we grieve Alex Pretti and Renee Good, moms are demanding our U.S. Senators refuse to expand funding, and put in place strong accountability measures for the federal agencies that are using brutal tactics that violate our rights while traumatizing children and families and taking innocent lives.”
Further emphasizing its position, MomsRising said it is “also deeply disturbed by the cascade of lies the president and high-level federal officials unleash to smear the victims each time ICE and CBP commit an atrocity. There must be accountability measures and real change.”
Media reported that despite video evidence, “federal officials, including the Trump administration, offered a sharply different narrative — one that critics say is contradicted by video evidence.” DHS “claimed Pretti approached officers ‘with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun,’” adding that he “violently resisted” and that an agent fired “defensive shots.”
Video evidence “appears to show Pretti holding a phone, not a gun, in the moments before he was tackled.” Media coverage reported that Pretti’s parents “rejected the administration’s framing, saying, ‘The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.’”
Before Pretti’s death, Renée Good was “fatally shot by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis on Jan. 7 during Operation Metro Surge.” It was reported that the killing escalated a “political and legal fight over transparency and who controls investigations when federal agents are involved.”
Media coverage emphasized that Pretti’s death was “terrifying, deeply disturbing, and heartbreaking,” noting that “another U.S. citizen lost their life while simply showing up to peacefully advocate.”
MomsRising argued that “President Trump and Republicans in Congress cut health care for families in order to fund human rights abuses, to terrify children and hardworking immigrants, and to create chaos,” and renewed its demand for “an immigration process that balances security and compassion — NOT cuts to health care, and certainly not state-sponsored violence and cruelty.”
Follow the Vanguard on Social Media – X, Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe the Vanguard News letters. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org/donate or give directly through ActBlue. Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.
“MomsRising”…….WHO?
you could have easily used that energy to type the same exact thing into google…
I was making a point.
Thank you Remy. Keep up the great work.
Are we just supposed to guess who “MomsRising” is? Or even what they *say* they are?
I had a friend who ran a non-profit in Sac. It looked legitimate, but the board were just friends of his who agreed to be on his mostly-sham board (including me). He was quoted in the media all the time representing the ‘organization’, but basically it was just him.
So maybe, whether it be terms a lot of people don’t know the meaning of, or organizations most people have never heard of — maybe like give a brief explanation. The media, even blogs, are supposed to inform, not require the reader to do research just to understand the basics.
Yes, I made a mistake. In the course of the four hours I spent editing eight articles and writing two of mine own, I missed that in the second paragraph of this article, written by an intern writing her first article for us, that I should have inserted half a sentence explaining who the group was. Please accept my apology for this oversight on my part. Actually it was completely on me, I inadvertently took it out when I was editing the article.
I’m sensing sarcasm . . . but just in case I’m not sensing correctly, apology accepted.
I do see KO had the same reaction as me. I often, not always, make my comment first after reading the article so as to give my take without other’s input, then read the comments and comment on those. Or I just read the comments and comment on the comments, especially if it’s a rare housing article. He says, sarcastically.