Pritzker, Johnson call for ICE to be abolished after second fatal shooting by feds in Minneapolis
Jan 24, 2026
Mayor Brandon Johnson and Gov. JB Pritzker called for abolishing of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency on Saturday, after federal agents shot and killed a man in Minneapolis.Thousands of federal officers have descended on the Twin Cities in recent weeks, prosecuting President Donald
Trump's ramped-up immigration campaign.Pritzker, in a social media post, said: "It's time to abolish Trump's ICE."Johnson, in his own social media post, referred to a large anti-ICE protest in Minneapolis on Friday."One day after hundreds of thousands took to the streets to remind us of our shared humanity, ICE murdered another innocent person in Minneapolis. We are praying for the victim and their loved ones," Johnson wrote. "When they come for one of us, they come for all of us. ICE must be abolished."
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said a 37-year-old man, identified as a local ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, was killed in the shooting.Pretti, who was born in Illinois, had no prior criminal history, according to court records cited by the Associated Press.
A photograph Alex Pretti, 37, is placed at a memorial near where he was shot dead Saturday in Minneapolis. ROBERTO SCHMIDT/Getty
Pretti’s parents, Michael and Susan Pretti, lived in northwest suburban Streamwood a year after he was born, Cook County property records show.He grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and attended Preble High School, where he played football, baseball, and was on the track team. He was also a Boy Scout and a member of the choir. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in biology, society and the environment.Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting a targeted operation and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him. O’Hara said police believe the man was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.” The officer who shot the man is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said.DHS said 2,000 federal officers were deployed in Minnesota and have arrested more than 3,000 people over the last six weeks. In Minneapolis and surrounding areas, federal agents, at times led by U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, have carried out raids that have resulted in clashes with residents and protesters demanding they leave their neighborhoods.Pritzker, speaking on CNN, said it was "time" for federal immigration agents to leave Minnesota."They’re killing people on our American streets, and the American people are reacting as they should, with outrage," Pritzker said. The man is the third person to be shot in Minnesota by federal agents this month. He was shot a mile from where Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, was killed by an ICE agent Jan. 7. Another man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis of Venezuela, was shot in the leg Jan. 15."These ICE and CBP officers are untrained, they’re unqualified, unprofessional and they’re dangerous," Pritzker said.Chicagoans respond with protestsMeanwhile in Chicago, hundreds of protesters assembled in Little Village and Logan Square on Saturday afternoon, to express outraged over the killings.Yaz Ayala felt “heartbroken, frustrated,” when she first saw a video of the latest shooting.She and her boyfriend, Mike Hernandez, felt compelled to express their fury following the shooting and drove from their home in Naperville to the protest at the Little Village Arch.“I served in my country and I fought for this right, and I’m going to protect this right,” said Hernandez, 32, a Marine veteran. “This is everyone’s right. And for this [shooting] to happen is an atrocity.”
Protesters Yaz Ayala (right) and Mike Hernandez came from Naperville to join a march along West 26th Street in Little Village to protest killings of civilians by federal agents. Hernandez, a Marine veteran, said, “I served in my country and I fought for this right, and I’m going to protect this right.”Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
Ayala, who grew up in Chicago, has been protesting the Trump administration since 2016, when she was in high school. These more recent demonstrations against federal immigration authorities have been more personal.“I’m still here. I will speak up because my grandparents and my parents are immigrants [from Mexico], so I will always fight for what is right, and this is not it,” Ayala, 26, said.Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) told protesters that abolishing ICE “is not enough.” He called for the arrest and prosecution of federal agents involved in the recent deadly shootings.“A nurse, a brother. That is who they’re killing. They’re killing legal observers,” Sigcho-Lopez said. “And you saw what [federal agents] did with the other legal observers who were nearby, when they tried to grab their phones. So I tell again to Gov. Pritzker, it is not enough to film or record. It is not enough to abolish ICE. We gotta prosecute, we gotta arrest these criminals terrorizing our communities.”
“We gotta prosecute, we gotta arrest these criminals terrorizing our communities,” Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) tells protesters in Little Village, referring to federal agents who are violating civil rights. Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
A group of several dozen protesters marched for a mile, from the Little Village Arch west to 26th Street and Pulaski Road, carrying signs reading, “We are essential, not illegal,” and shouting “Move, ICE, get out the way.”In Logan Square, protester Steve Christena called the agents’ actions in Minneapolis “anti-American.”
A crowd of 200 demonstrators assembled Saturday afternoon in Logan Square to protest the latest killing by federal agents in Minnesota. The crowd later marched a short distance calling on the Trump administration to end enhanced operations.Sophie Sherry/Sun-Times
“They're not judge, jury and executioner, they’re not even police” Christena told the Sun-Times.“They don't even have the right to stop you in your car. They have no right to go into your home. They don't have the rights to do any of this s—, and it's bulls—-.”Brothers Emmett and Nick Phillips worry federal agents are only going to continue to escalate their tactics.“I’m out here to fight for neighbors and honestly to warn people before it's too late,” Emmett Phillips said. “Protest now before it's too late.”Contributing: Associated Press
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