Minneapolis protests and US walkouts after fatal federal immigration shooting of Alex Pretti

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis and students across the United ‍States staged walkouts to demand the withdrawal of federal immigration agents from Minnesota following the fatal shootings of two US citizens.

The protests on Friday came as the Department of Justice launched an investigation following the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal officers in Minneapolis last Saturday.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed at a press conference the DOJ’s civil rights division is working with the FBI to investigate whether officers violated Pretti’s civil rights in the incident.

Pretti, a 37-year old nurse at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, was shot dead during an operation by federal officials from the Department of Homeland Security.

After the incident, both traditional and social media aired video footage that contradicted initial statements from DHS, which said Pretti had threatened officials with a weapon.

DHS chief Kristi Noem quickly referred to Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” which outraged Pretti’s friends and family.

Pretti’s death and the federal authorities’ actions in enforcing immigration policy sparked outrage and protests in Minnesota and across the country, with many critical of the shooting calling it an execution.

Students and teachers abandoned classes from California to New York on a national day of protest on Friday, which came amid mixed messages from the Trump administration about whether it would de-escalate Operation Metro Surge.

Under a national immigration crackdown, President Donald Trump has sent 3000 federal officers to the Minneapolis area who are patrolling the streets in tactical gear, a force five times ⁠the size of the Minneapolis Police Department.

Protesting the surge and the tactics used by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, several thousand people gathered in downtown Minneapolis in sub-zero temperatures, including families with small kids, elderly couples and young community activists.

In a Minneapolis neighbourhood near the sites where Pretti and Renee Good, were fatally shot this month by federal ‍immigration agents, about 50 teachers and staff members from local schools turned out to march.

Rock star Bruce Springsteen lent his voice to the protest, taking the stage at a fundraiser for Good and Pretti in downtown Minneapolis.

With the words “Arrest the President” plastered to his guitar, he played his new song Streets of Minneapolis, written in response to the deaths.

“No work. No school. No shopping. Stop funding ICE,” ran a slogan on the organisers’ website, nationalshutdown.org, that listed 250 sites for Friday’s protests across 46 states and in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington.

In Aurora, Colorado, public schools closed on Friday due to large anticipated teacher and student absences. The Denver suburb saw intense immigration raids last year after Trump claimed it was a “war zone” overrun by Venezuelan gangs.

In Tucson, Arizona, at least 20 schools cancelled classes in anticipation ‌of mass absences of students and employees.

Walkouts were planned at 90 high schools in Georgia. On the campus of DePaul University in Chicago, protesters chanted and held signs with slogans such as “sanctuary campus” and “fascists not welcome here”.

High school students bearing anti-ICE signs staged a walkout from class in Long Beach, California.

In New York, a long parade of high-school-age protesters marched toward downtown Brooklyn chanting anti-ICE obscenities.

Weeks of viral videos showing the aggressive tactics of heavily armed and masked agents on the streets of Minneapolis have driven public approval of Trump’s immigration policy to the lowest level of his second term, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

As uproar over the ICE operation grew, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, was dispatched to Minneapolis, saying his officers would return to more targeted operations, rather than the broad street sweeps that have led to clashes with protesters.

Trump said earlier this week he wanted to “de-escalate a bit” but on Friday the president reiterated his accusation that protesters in Minnesota were insurrectionists.

with dpa