Alex Pretti was shot and killed by US immigration agents in the streets of Minneapolis on January 24, 2026. Coincidentally, like Renee Good, he was 37 years old and originally from Colorado.
Until today I really had no words for what I felt. There was just something so familiar about him, something that told me I’d have really liked him. He was a nurse. My dad was a doctor, my younger brother studied medicine, my daughter-in-law is a nurse, I worked for a medical association. (And he reminded me of Noah Wylie in “The Pitt.” More medicine.) Maybe medicine was the connection.
He was tall, slender, bearded, smiling — just like my younger brother. The pictures of him hiking in the woods, on a trail, cycling. Again, just like my brother.
And then this morning for the first time I saw that his middle name was Jeffrey. That name runs through generations in my family. My mother’s maiden name, my older brother’s middle name, my son’s and grandson’s middle name. Surname of an uncle and three cousins. Probably more than that among the numerous descendants of my four married siblings.
So there I was, down the rabbit hole pursuing six degrees of separation. Or something.
I finally lost it when I came across this photo of Alex and his beloved dog Joule, a Catahoula Leopard dog that died recently:
Alex’s last act was trying to help a woman who’d been knocked to the ground by the still-unnamed immigration agents who, moments later, killed him.
His parents learned of his death when contacted by an Associated Press reporter.
Yes, I’m angry.
For the second time this month, I’m urging you to write to your three elected representatives in Congress (one letter will go to all three) and demand something be done:
Do it before Congress votes this Friday on its funding bill. Suggest, perhaps, that they reduce or withdraw funding for ICE. (Last year they tripled ICE’s budget and look what’s been done with it!)
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Header image: Federal officers amid tear gas after other immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. (Tim Evans/Reuters)
Don’t wait a minute
Yep. Do it right now while you are looking at the link.
ours have declared they will vote no and we are going to their offices this afternoon . we need them to continue to stand strong and fight
My two senators are Democrats, fighting the good fight, but my congressman is a Republican. I just hope that if voters make enough noise in Washington, if constituents swamp their reps with calls and letters, that Congress will understand what they’d better do (with an upcoming election in mind). We’re past party politics. This is morality politics. This is Constitution 101.
you’re so right – it’s much bigger than party
johnthecook…the tragedy in Minnesota is truly gut wrenching. Sadly, there will be unintended consequences when separating the good from the bad, especially when everyone looks and dresses the same, at first glance. The protesters should congregate well away from the melee in progress, for their own safety. But sadly, they choose not to.
A question I have is WHY did the Obama Administration bring/send thousands of UNVETTED Simoleans to Minnesota in the first place. Untold MILLIONS of Dollars have been made available to them or outright given to them at the expense of the American taxpayer. Arizona is also undergoing great turmoil with the Zipa Cafe’ undergoing close scrutiny for possible illegal activity. There are 19 of them in Arizona. Prety soon there will be no America because everyone wants to make America just like the country they came from or immigrated from. I for one am against it.
Immigrants come to America because life here looks better than what they came from. I doubt any of them came with the intent of remaking America in the image of what they left.
As for Obama resettling thousands of Somalis in Minn, see Reuters Fact Check. Reuters is one of the most respected news sources in the world, and notably more reliable than social media.
Meanwhile, if ICE had just gone into Minneapolis with warrants for the known criminals, arrested them and left, it would have been mission accomplished. Instead, we have gangs of masked thugs walking the streets, harassing or attacking the residents, and unlawfully detaining anyone who looks maybe, sorta, kinda foreign. It’s called due process, the Constitution, etc. ICE has been ignoring it.
johnthecook…there has got to be some truth to your reply. However, anyone who holds to the beliefs stated in the KORAN are here for one reason alone…to make America become an Islamic State. Our Founding Fathers would have fought “tooth and nail” to send them back from where they came from. If you think I am wrong, just try and go to an Islamic Country and do what you do as PiedType as you do here in America. It can’t be done there because they will not tolerate it. The KORAN to them is not just a way of life, it is their Law. I do believe that the Drug Cartels and the MOB would like to run America just like the Countries they came from as well. I for one don’t want it and I am sure that you don’t want it either.
As you have previously stated, you are not a religious person, but I would hope you would want to hear what Franklin Grham had to say (because you are a respected Journalist) about the tragedy going on in Minnesota. He hit the nail dead center. America is in sooo much trouble!
Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the First Amendment. That includes Muslim immigrants who’ve apparently decided they like America better than their countries of origin. If they break our laws, however, there are consequences.
No, I don’t care for Franklin Graham. But yes, America is in big trouble right now and it has nothing to do with law-abiding Muslim immigrants.
A reminder. The topic of this post is Alex Pretti. Please respect that.
johnthecook…YES MAM. I will respect that. All law-abiding immigrants should be allowed in America.
Thx John.
PiedType, as you said about Freedom of Religion is in our Constitution under the Bills of Rights. What needs to be said is the United States is a SECULAR nation, not a Christian nation. The Founding Fathers decided that because most of the wars in Europe were, at their core, driven by religious differences, the United States would not have a State Religion. That many people have the belief otherwise is a reason to remind them that the US is a SECULAR nation, and gives everyone the right to worship (or even not) as they like.
Alex Pretti’s death is an abomination, as was Renee Good’s death. Everything I’ve seen and heard about Pretti is that he was a decent man as you succinctly stated above..
As you note, the very first item in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof … ” I think that’s about as clearly and simply as it could be said.
Agreed, but so many people don’t realize why it is there and why the Founding Fathers felt it was important to be a Secular nation, rather than having a State religion. Even now, it is not uncommon to hear politicians and citizens calling the US a Christian nation, but it really isn’t. Christians may have the most adherents in the US, but that doesn’t make us a Christian nation.
When Supreme Court justices say it’s okay to keep using references to God on stamps, courtroom walls, money, the Pledge of Allegiance, etc., because it’s no longer a religious term, it’s now “ceremonial deism,” it complicates the issue.
“under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance while I was in school, after I’d had been reciting it for years without the phrase. To this day I skip those words when reciting the pledge.