When Enforcement Becomes Execution: ICE on Our Streets

In just two weeks, Minneapolis has seen two lives taken by federal agents .. lives that should have been protected, not treated as expendable. On January 7, Renee Good, a local resident, was fatally shot. On January 24, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and a U.S. citizen, was killed.

Both deaths occurred during federal immigration enforcement operations that have extended far beyond their traditional boundaries .. beyond detention centers, airports, or border checkpoints, right into the streets of our communities.

Let me be clear: I understand ICE has a job. Their role is to enforce immigration laws and deport individuals who are in the country illegally. That is part of their mandate, and I recognize that. But no job, no policy, no law gives anyone the right to take a human life in cold blood. What we witnessed with Alex Pretti is not enforcement .. it is brutality, recklessness, and the result of a dehumanizing mindset.

Alex wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t resisting. He was a nurse, a man who spent his life saving others, helping people when they were most vulnerable. And yet, he was shot on the street as though he were disposable. Renee Good, just weeks before, faced the same fate. How many more must fall before this is recognized for what it is .. state-sanctioned violence against ordinary people?

This isn’t an isolated incident. It reflects a national problem: the militarization of federal law enforcement in the communities. Cities like Minneapolis are no longer just home to families, workers, and students .. they are now zones of intimidation, where armed federal agents roam the streets with little accountability. Residents live with the knowledge that their neighbors, their children, their friends could be treated as targets under the guise of immigration enforcement.

And the problem extends beyond ICE itself. Public figures like JD Vance, who refer to immigrants as “aliens,” normalize fear, suspicion, and hostility toward people simply trying to live their lives. This rhetoric is dangerous. It feeds dehumanization, justifying aggression and violence. We all know this is not a healthy mentality, it erodes empathy and fuels the same mindset that allows federal agents to shoot civilians without consequence.

What is happening on these streets is a morally bankrupt abuse of power. Enforcement cannot be a license to kill. Policy cannot justify dehumanization. Citizens cannot be made to feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods. Alex Pretti and Renee Good are not statistics .. they are human beings, with families, futures, and dreams. And their deaths are a wake-up call to the nation: we cannot sit silently while federal agencies act as judge, jury, and executioner.

We need accountability, oversight, and an honest national conversation about what militarized enforcement is doing to our communities. We need to ask the hard questions: How far should federal agencies go? At what point does enforcement become terror? And why are ordinary citizens being treated as collateral damage in operations meant to uphold the law?

This is not just about immigration. This is about human rights, morality, and the type of country we want to be. Killing citizens under the guise of enforcement is sick, inhumane, and unacceptable. The time to speak, to protest, to demand justice is now.

Alex Pretti and Renee Good deserve justice. All of us deserve safety, dignity, and humanity. If we fail to challenge this, we are allowing fear and brutality to define our streets .. and that is a future no one should accept.

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This piece reflects my personal thoughts and perspective on recent events and the growing brutality we are witnessing. It is my opening on this topic, a way to confront and question what is happening, and to start a conversation about accountability, humanity, and the role of federal enforcement in our communities.

Aarsh Malik