by Molly Schecter ‘27

On January 7 videos of Renée Nicole Good being shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer spread through social media. The video shows three officers approaching Good’s car and as it appears that she turns her steering wheel to attempt to drive away, an officer who was in front of the car steps to the side and fatally shoots her.

Less than a month later on January 24, 27-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot at least ten times in a span of five seconds by two Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers. Tens of millions of Americans saw video footage of the killing. It begins with Pretti recording on his phone and intervening in a dispute between a woman and a federal agent. The agent then shifts his focus to Pretti, restraining him while multiple other officers approach. They push him to the ground, and in the next seconds, Pretti’s own gun is removed from the belt area of his back before he is shot to death while lying facedown on the ground.

Pretti did not have a criminal record and in Minnesota is legally permitted to carry a concealed weapon.
A number of surveys and polls have shown that these videos, in addition to many others related to ICE operations, have tilted Americans’ views about the Trump Administration’s aggressive approach to immigration law enforcement. According to Reuters/Ipsos, 58 percent of Americans say that ICE efforts on immigration have gone too far. After the killings of Good and Pretti, 51 percent say immigration policy is going in the wrong direction, with 35 percent  believing  it is going in the right direction.

One result of the shifting Americans’ views of ICE enforcement is that a partial shutdown went into place at midnight on February 14, as democrats in Congress and members of Trump’s team struggled to compromise on funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The shutdown pauses federal funding to DHS, which oversees ICE. The struggle to compromise stems from the democrats demanding change in immigration operations after the deaths of Good and Pretti. The shutdown only affects agencies under the DHS, leaving the rest of the government unaffected. However, ICE and CBP operations are most likely to continue functioning unaffected due to funding from Trump’s 2025 tax and spending cut law that passed last summer and provided about 58 billion dollars to DHS.

Another impact of the fallout from ICE’s aggressive actions is that Tom Homan, the Trump’s Administration’s “Border Czar,” announced that the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” would end. Homan claimed that the removal is a result of Minnesota now being, “less of a sanctuary state for criminals.” However, the decision for ICE to leave the city was largely interpreted as the Trump Administration responding to decreasing public support and growing protests. Security force and ICE agents will still remain in the Minneapolis area.