Minnesotans Mourn Pretti’s Death and Call for Local Law Enforcement to Step Up

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesotans who have spent weeks protesting the Trump administration’s immigration raids in their city are taking a moment to mourn Alex Pretti’s death — but only as they make clear their great anger over how the federal government has swarmed Minneapolis.

Across the city, medical professionals, business owners and others told NOTUS their daily routines have been fundamentally disrupted by the federal surge. They say they’ve changed how they run their lives and businesses in hopes of guarding their community against immigration agents. And they say their experience has led them to believe they can’t rely on any authority to protect them from danger.

Demonstrators on Sunday quietly gathered with homemade signs around a mound of flowers at the site of Pretti’s death. One read “NO SECRET POLICE.” Another called Pretti a hero.

Federal agents were out of sight, and Minneapolis police officers stood guard instead. They monitored the crowd at a distance, maintaining a friendly demeanor despite the growing tension in the frigid air as the hours dragged on and the temperature dropped below zero.

The tension eventually broke Sunday afternoon: A masked woman yelled that the officers were too busy protecting Customs and Border Patrol agents who committed “murder.”

Police on the scene remained stoic. Hours earlier, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said on CBS that “people have had enough.”

Several people who visited the vigil on Sunday described the various ways locals have taken matters into their own hands, without relying on local police to protect them from federal agents.

A long-haired yoga instructor told NOTUS he joined an encrypted Signal chat group that organizes grocery pickups for immigrants who are too afraid to leave their homes. A young salesman who visited the vigil to hand out coffee to demonstrators, and who also takes part in the food distribution network, said neighbors who feel trapped will wave flags representing their country of origin to catch the attention of friendly-looking passersby, who then get the word out to those in the network.

Encrypted text channels split up to cover different regions of the Twin Cities — one has more than 900 members — now coordinate sightings of ICE raids and ping every few minutes to alert the community so that immigrants can hide and citizens can show up to bear witness and blow loud whistles to warn others about the presence of agents.

One woman said a Vietnamese restaurant on Nicollet Avenue — in a foodie part of Minneapolis known as “Eat Street” where Pretti was killed — has for weeks kept its doors locked at all times and only opens them for scheduled pickups from trusted customers.

Chris Taylor, a freelance photographer, said a Mexican restaurant he frequents now has a “door man” who stands guard.

Niko Le Mieux, a financial technology entrepreneur who stopped by the vigil, criticized the Trump administration for what he called a devastating miscalculation: “Minneapolis is not the soft target they thought it was.”

“Minneapolis became self-reliant in 2020,” he said, during the protests after the police killing of George Floyd. Those demonstrations strengthened the bonds of a community that grew to distrust law enforcement, he said, while it also taught it how to defend itself from rioters.

Inside the retro Glam Doll Donuts — whose proximity to Pretti’s killing turned it into a center of reflection on Sunday — a group of medical professionals said they were frustrated that no one in power has stopped Immigration and Customs Enforcement from developing a persistent presence at the city’s main hospital. The fact that Pretti was a nurse, albeit at a Veterans Affairs facility rather than a local hospital, only sharpened their rage.

They said ICE agents now regularly bring chained detainees into the Hennepin County Medical Center and stand guard by their beds. Staffers described how ICE agents act more invasively than sheriff’s deputies who bring in prisoners.

“When the patient is being bathed, deputies usually step out of the room. These guys don’t leave,” one medical professional said.

That person detailed how ICE agents kept a close presence over a man with a tracheostomy, whose windpipe remained cut open to keep him hooked up to a breathing machine.

“Where is he going to go? You’re going to tell me he’s a flight risk?” that person asked.

That privacy matters when, as two hospital employees said, ICE detainees appear with serious wounds that do not match the incidents federal agents claim caused those injuries.

A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to questions about the employees’ allegation.

The medical staff expressed their disgust at the way ICE agents standing guard had initiated conversations with health care assistants — positions largely staffed by foreigners — pointing to one alleged incident in which a federal agent asked how long that employee had lived in the country, scaring her. Hospital administrators in recent weeks have devised convoluted staffing schedules to avoid allowing any immigrant nursing assistants to be anywhere near rooms with ICE agents.

Staffers who spoke to NOTUS described how one nursing student there, Basir Sadaat, was recently detained just a few days after crossing paths with ICE agents stationed at the hospital. They are now trying to raise money through GoFundMe to help his family. His coworkers nearly broke into tears describing their affection for him.

One employee wondered aloud whether hospital leaders — who recently described the medical center as “fully in crisis mode” over a financial deficit that will only get worse with looming Medicaid cuts — would be willing to fight with the same federal government it depends on for money.

“Can they do anything? Look at our law enforcement,” the person said, pointing out that even armed cops haven’t stood in ICE’s way.