Dear John,
Another devastating killing during the Trump administration’s mobilization of ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis this past week. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital, was shot ten times while attempting to protect a woman who was being shoved and pepper-sprayed by border patrol agents.
The brutality we’re seeing is a “horrific illustration of what unfettered power does in the hands of leadership that celebrates and demands violence, especially from men,” writes author and extremism researcher Cynthia Miller-Idriss in Ms. this week. She highlights how ICE’s latest “wartime recruitment” push has targeted male-dominated spaces, and places where violence is the norm: gun shows, military bases, people who shopped for tactical gear and UFC fights.
“This is how men who cannot tolerate a woman’s disrespect put her in her place: with violence or the threat of it,” she continues. “The shootings of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent and Alex Pretti by Border Control—coming on the heels of a dozen other deaths of detainees over the past months—are a predictable outcome of the institutional norms and social hierarchies the administration is valorizing.”
Undeterred, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Minneapolis to protest and to continue recording ICE and CBP agents’ actions, and providing early warning systems to neighborhoods where agents are roaming. Hundreds of demonstrations are scheduled to take place across the country this weekend, with organizers holding a nationwide strike Friday, and 50501 calling for an “ICE Out of Everywhere National Day of Action” today. (Click here to find an event near you.)
The numbers we’re seeing in the streets, not just in Minneapolis but in major cities and states all around the country, are echoed in the polls. Overall approval of Trump’s immigration policies is the lowest its ever been in his second term, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. Fifty-three percent disapprove of the job Trump is doing on immigration, and a majority of Americans—58 percent—believe the ICE crackdown has gone too far.
This feels like a turning point. The courage and determination of the people of Minneapolis is showing the rest of us how to resist authoritarianism, and is inspiring people around the country to take action and stand up. To the people of Minneapolis, and all those standing in solidarity, we’re with you. Keep fighting.
Onward,
