January 14, 2026. Washington, D.C. — 

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) demands an end to the occupation-like policing in Minneapolis and calls on political leadership in both parties to restrain DHS and ICE from further assaulting the residents of Minnesota and the general public overall. 

The recent shooting death in Minneapolis of 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti on Saturday, January 24, 2026, demonstrates that immigration enforcement has failed to serve the public interest. Most dramatically, by endangering the lives of American citizens whose very safety is invoked as justification for deporting non-permanent immigrants. 

This weekend’s atrocity comes after the killing of Renée Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and mother of three. In both instances, ICE and DHS statements flatly contradict video evidence that makes it clear that the agents’ use of firearms was wholly unjustified. Excessive use of force has also been documented in countless other incidents in which lawful residents were aggressively detained. 

We join the growing chorus that’s demanding an end to ICE’s operations in Minneapolis. The recent decision to replace Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino with border czar Tom Homan is insufficient. ICE has irrevocably destroyed its trust with the local community and can no longer serve the public’s well-being. 

ICE’s violent tactics are partly due to failures in proper training, including de-escalation tactics, alongside recruitment drives on nationalist and alt-right platforms, which have heavily stacked the agency with anti-immigrant partisans. 

ICE’s brutality, however, is also a consequence of permitting officers to attend training programs hosted by the Israeli occupation forces. It is no surprise, then, that ICE’s tactics in Minneapolis resemble the terrorization of Palestinians by Israeli forces. 

American cities are not occupied territory, and importing the tactics of the Israeli occupation into the United States endangers all Americans. Israel’s occupation forces show no regard for human life, and, unfortunately, that is what we are witnessing in our own cities now. No one will be safe in the face of a state militia that acts with total impunity. 

Ultimately, immigration reform is a bipartisan failure. It is long past time for both parties to come together and offer common-ground legislation that addresses legitimate concerns about border enforcement and the future of law-abiding long-term residents and improves the asylum and refugee processes. 

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Truly Arab, Fully American