Why Wouldn’t They Shoot Somebody?
ICE and intentional, inevitable tragedy.
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Evan Gottesman is managing editor of The Next Move and director of communications and special projects at the Renew Democracy Initiative.
ICE killed another American yesterday. His name was Alex Pretti, and he was a registered nurse for the VA. Pretti was filming ICE operations in Minneapolis. Videos of his death seem to show Pretti helping a woman accosted by federal agents. The ICE agents tackle Pretti, disarm him (he had a permit to carry a gun, which he did not appear to draw), and shoot him.
They shoot. Again and again and again.
Pretti is the third person shot by ICE—and the second to be killed by an immigration agent—in Minnesota in the past month alone.
We have to understand this sort of thing as both intentional and inevitable. Instead of asking, why did this happen, we need to ask, why wouldn’t they shoot somebody?
Today’s ICE agents are inclined to treat their fellow American poorly (to say nothing of their abuse of non-Americans). Instead of looking for people to perform the work of, well, immigration and customs enforcement, ICE recruitment now seeks out those who want to “defend your culture.” People who want to “defend the homeland.”
Naturally, this attracts individuals with a certain politics. Last week, we saw an ICE employee outed as a bona fide fascist. The ICE agent’s ideology is not tempered by his training, which the Trump administration shortened in order to expand the force’s manpower, rushing unqualified officers into the field. Four months of training has become six weeks.
Surely these agents are not fond of the “ICE watch” groups who film them on the job. That alone does not make the agents fascists. But law enforcement is not just any job. It requires special discipline, literally, the patience to not shoot from the hip.
Can agents de-escalate with rowdy civilians? Do ICE’s ideologically-motivated recruits have the restraint necessary to handle liberal protesters? Do ICE agents share the judgment of politicians and administration officials who demonize those protesters as “domestic terrorists”?
Why wouldn’t they shoot somebody?
The ICE agent knows that if he encounters protesters (or someone who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) and if things get ugly, then he will be exonerated by the president of the United States. The secretary of Homeland Security, and every other sycophant in government and media will clear his name too.
This is what happened with Jonathan Ross, the agent who killed Renee Nicole Good earlier this month. Within hours of the shooting, Donald Trump and Kristi Noem declared that Ross had acted in self-defense. Case closed, as far as the administration was concerned.
So it was again yesterday, with the officer who killed Alex Pretti. “An agent fired defensive shots,” the official DHS account on X declared. A rather firm conclusion to offer up so quickly, especially considering federal authorities blocked Minnesota state law enforcement from the scene. You’ll just have to take the administration’s word for it (and ignore the video evidence).
Why wouldn’t they shoot somebody?
A video making the rounds on right-wing social media shows an ICE agent complaining that protesters are getting in the way of arresting a sex offender.
Maybe that was the case in this particular instance. Maybe not. Why should the protesters believe a federal officer given the administration’s reflexive dishonesty? Millions of Americans have seen ICE harass, and, on multiple occasions, kill civilians. Should we be more afraid of a dangerous criminal who might be present in our neighborhood, or an armed agent of the state who is seemingly accountable to no one?
There’s a narrative principle called Chekhov’s Gun. Every plot element introduced in a story must ultimately be used later on. If a loaded gun is seen on stage in Act I, then it will be fired before the conclusion of the show.
Donald Trump has made ICE into a Chekhov’s Gun wherever its agents appear. The aggressively nativist recruiting language. The generous signing bonuses, lax screening, and hurried training. The sense of impunity. Allowing agents to enter homes without a warrant. All in service of protecting real Americans from invaders and subversives.
The administration grew ICE’s ranks by 120% over the past year. The majority of its agents entered service in this hyper-nationalistic, lawless milieu.
Taken together, this is what makes tragedy inevitable. When ICE shows up, misfortune seems to follow. It is that way by design.
Why wouldn’t they shoot somebody?
Here is also what’s enraging: Mark Carney stood up at Davos and spoke truth to power while the rest of Europe sat on their hands applauding politely.
Where’s Macron’s follow-through? Where’s Scholz? Where’s Starmer? Carney drew the line. He said clearly: we’re building what comes next, with or without America. And then what? European leaders go home and do what exactly?
Wake the f*** up, Europe.
You’re watching state terror unfold in American cities. Federal agents murdering people on camera. Secret detention centers. Forced disappearances. The regime threatening your sovereignty, your alliances, your economic security. And your response is standing ovations and strongly worded statements?
Here’s what meaningful pushback looks like: Boycott the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the USA. Full stop. Make it hurt. You don’t send teams to a country operating paramilitary death squads in its cities. You don’t legitimize a regime kidnapping students for speech, detaining five-year-olds as bait, murdering nurses in the streets.
Activate the Anti-Coercion Instrument completely. Not threats. Action. Sanction regime officials. Freeze assets of corporations benefiting from Venezuelan oil theft. Expel US forces from European bases. Build defense independence now, not eventually.
Support Minneapolis directly. Send international observers. Document the atrocities. Provide sanctuary for those fleeing. Amplify what’s happening so the regime can’t operate in darkness.
Here’s what we can also do:
Write to all European embassies in Washington urging them to push back; all of their emails are online.
You can call them too.
In fact, call US embassies overseas too, and tell those people that are working there, on our taxpayer money, that they are not fulfilling their oath of office—-it states right there, in the oath “protect against enemies foreign and domestic”.
Pathetic!
The USA has become a disease spreading authoritarianism globally. Carney gets it. He’s the only major leader with the courage to say it plainly. The rest of Europe needs to follow through or admit they’re just waiting to see if appeasing the bully works.
It won’t. Argentina’s neighbors tried appeasement during the Dirty War too. It just gave the regime time to kill more people.
Push back now. Meaningfully. Or watch this spread.
— Johan
Former foreign service officer
Trump encouraged, incited, and ultimately pardoned a mob to storm the Capitol because it was full of people he hated.
He's doing the exact same thing in Minneapolis.
The former was full of people who wouldn't lie and certify him as the winner. The latter is full of people who are Somali and created a "sanctuary city".
Where is next place he'll sic his mob because it's full of people he hates? Copenhagen? Toronto? San Francisco? The Supreme Court?