Stand With Minnesota

Content warning: This article and its embedded links include descriptions of death

In 2026 so far, at least eight people have died dealing with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement; six in their custody and two from shootings. Minnesota residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good were killed within three weeks of each other by ICE in January, sparking protests in the state and across the country.

The names of the others are Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, Geraldo Lunas Campos, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Parady La, Luis Beltrán Yáñez–Cruz, and Heber Sánchez Domínguez. In 2025, there were 32 reported deaths in ICE custody, the highest number recorded since 2004. This does not include those who died trying to evade agents, like Jaime Alanis Garcia and Jose Castro-Rivera, or the 17 reported deaths in Border Control custody. These are only the reported deaths. Many detained immigrants go unaccounted for as they vanish or don’t end up in the ICE’s online detainee locator system.

Our government is making decisions about whose lives are worthwhile and whose are expendable. Migrants are not terrorists. The abuse of power and racial profiling has led to cruel extremes: mass deportation, violations of constitutional rights, and killings. The stories of their lives are important.

Renee Good was 37. She was originally from Colorado Springs, a mother of two teenagers, and a writer. Good was a poet who studied at Old Dominion University in Virginia at their College of Arts and Letters. On Jan. 7, while trying to get away in her car, she was shot multiple times by an ICE agent. Federal officials said she tried to hit them with her car and that the agents fired in self-defense. Other officials dispute these claims, saying Good was trying to flee the people trying to kill her. A New York Times video analysis confirms that Good did not strike the ICE agent with her vehicle. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press conference that Good’s actions were acts of domestic terrorism.

The disconnect is clear.

Alex Pretti was a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital. On Jan. 24, during an immigration raid, roughly two weeks after Good’s death, Pretti was killed. Pretti was phone recording ICE agents and blocking them from another person. He was then pepper-sprayed, pinned down, punched, and shot at 10 times. Three bullets hit him in the back. Noem said at a press conference that Pretti “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”

The video footage has no evidence of what the federal government has claimed.

This sparked protests in Minnesota and across the country, inspiring actions in support of immigrant rights. After Pretti’s death, thousands gathered in below-freezing weather in downtown Minneapolis to rally for justice, and people marched in solidarity across the U.S. Many joined ICE observer groups and learned about documenting ICE agents through online teachings. A national boycott took place on Jan. 30 — no shopping, school, or work.

Though Border Czar Tom Homan said that the rise in immigration enforcement in Minnesota has ended, there is skepticism that this is true, and ICE wreaks havoc regardless. Children are kidnapped and used as bait to detain parents. Federal officers sexually abuse immigrants in detention camps. Detainees are subject to harsh prison conditions, physical and verbal abuse, medical neglect, and more. The DHS wants social media sites to reveal anti-ICE accounts, and has sent hundreds of subpoenas to Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram; Google; Reddit; and Discord. ICE is silently buying huge detention centers.

Things are grim. These are among the largest deportation centers in history; there’s been a huge increase in arrests, inhumane conditions, and local economic impacts.

We all belong to each other and have to stand up for one another. Whether or not you are a U.S. citizen, have your papers, or are doing anything wrong, you can be targeted by ICE illegally. Historically, the only thing that has stopped dictatorial powers is massive numbers of people standing up against what they are seeing is not OK: the Holocaust, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, Japanese internment camps, Tiananmen Square massacre. There are things you can do.

Contacting Your Senators:

• Visit 5calls.org to find the phone numbers of representatives in your zip code

Volunteer

• Join a Rapid Response network like @northwestsiderrt on Instagram
• Attorneys, paralegals, law students, interpreters, and translators can offer services
• Volunteer with Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Immigration Justice Campaign, or Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants

Find teach-ins

• Contact your local immigrant rights organizations like ICIRR
• Search social media for the hashtags #ICEWatch, #KnowYourRights, #CommunityDefense
• Check rapid response networks, like ONE Northside in Chicago

Provide community care

• Accompany people to deportation hearings
• Support families attending hearings with childcare or rides
• Provide childcare or meals for those striking
• Provide translation services
• Coordinate mutual aid through existing networks

Protest

• Human Rights Campaign Tips for Preparedness, Peaceful Protesting, and Safety
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Staying Safe During a Protest
• standwithminnesota.com for a directory of orgs and mutual aid funds across the state

Donate to immigration defense funds or immigrant rights non profit orgs

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center

• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights
• ACLU
• National Immigration Legal Services Directory to find nonprofit immigration legal services by state, country, or detention facility

Strike/boycott

• Find strikes/economic boycotts online like nationalshutdown.us
• Cancel subscriptions from companies not supporting action
• Explore more resources for what you can do if you can’t strike by @brightblackcandle on Instagram

Post calls to actions on social media

• Amplifying immigrant voices
• Direct links to organizations
• Calls to attend specific actions

Explore Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

• Family Support Hotline 1-855-435-7693
• Know Your Rights Cards in different languages
• Know your rights and Migra watch training
• Court Watch Volunteer Program
• Immigration Legal Resources:​
• Illinois non-profit organizations that offer immigration help
• Detailed directory of non-profit organizations that offer immigration help to Illinois residents
• List of private attorneys who provide representation in immigration cases

Check F Newsmagazine’s How to Ice Watch

• How to identify ICE
• Where and how to report ICE
• If ICE is at SAIC