from the series Something I Said…
By DWIGHT HOBBES
ICE’s approach in South Minneapolis has been to douse the fire by pouring gasoline on it.
In the aftermath of Renee Good’s murder by agent Jonathan Ross, instead of reining ICE in, more were dispatched. Just as prone to gunplay. Two of whom, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer Raymundo Gutierrez and Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa, assigned to Operation Metro Surge, killed Alex Pretti.
To make things worse, both deaths were falsely accounted for. Department of Homeland Security Secretary DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Renee Good “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over [in] an act of domestic terrorism.” Video footage shows Good simply trying to wend her way through chaos as Ross shoots her through the driver’s window as he stands next to the car, in no danger of being hit at all, much less run over.
Alex Pretti was helping a woman to her feet when an agent shoved them both to the ground. Unprovoked, several agents held him down, one confiscating his legal firearm. Whereupon for no apparent reason an agent shot the unarmed man at point blank range. Then shot Pretti three more times. Another two agents fired 10 shots. ICE cleaned up a report, but witnesses and BBC footage attest the shooting was completely uncalled for. Department of Homeland Security at the time, Kristi Noem called Renee Good and Alex Pretti “domestic terrorists” before the Senate Judiciary Committee. She spun the stilted narrative in perfect keeping with President Trump’s penchant for rationalizing his actions from whole cloth. This was before he threw this faithful follower under the bus with an unceremonious firing. Following Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Alberto Mondragon’s skull was shattered. ICE agents tried to palm off the claim that he fled custody and deliberately ran into a brick wall. Hennepin County Medical Center staff ascertained that couldn’t account for bleeding and fractures throughout the man’s brain.
As if all this isn’t bad enough, immigration agents now can break and enter your home without a warrant. And the administration initiated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for 2025–2029, to the tune of billions of dollars without a word about reforming ICE.
You solve this problem by instituting respectful law and order, not by ruthless, federal occupation. But that makes too much sense. Way to go, President Trump. Keep dousing the fire with gasoline.
