Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it is protecting Americans.
This assurance arrived again last week, right on schedule, as federal agents expanded their presence in Minneapolis under the familiar explanation that they are hunting violent criminals. Murderers. Rapists. The usual collection of people who are never present at the actual arrest.
On Saturday, federal agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old American citizen participating in a protest against immigration enforcement. Officials initially suggested Pretti posed a lethal threat. According to reporting by The New York Times, he was holding a cellphone, not a gun. The distinction emerged after the press conference phase of the operation had already concluded. [NYT]
This is where the system works best. The accusation travels quickly. The clarification follows at walking speed.
ICE’s public messaging insists its operations are narrowly focused on violent offenders. Internal data and independent reporting have repeatedly shown otherwise, with large numbers of people arrested for civil immigration violations or minor, nonviolent offenses. This discrepancy is not treated as a contradiction. It is treated as branding. [AP][Reuters]
When residents protest, the narrative tightens. Federal presence becomes necessary. Tactical gear appears. Public dissent is reclassified as disorder. The presence of armed agents in residential neighborhoods is described as stabilizing, even as it produces the exact conditions it claims to prevent.
The term “criminal alien” remains central to this effort. It is not a legal designation, but it performs an essential function. It collapses immigration status, violent crime, and public fear into a single phrase that discourages follow-up questions. Once deployed, everything that happens next can be explained as protection.
In Minneapolis, that explanation now includes the death of an American citizen holding a phone. The federal government has promised reviews. Investigations. Careful consideration. ICE will continue to emphasize safety, and future press releases will likely sound identical to the last ones.
The only unstable element in the process is the public, which keeps noticing that the people being protected and the people being harmed rarely overlap.
References
[NYT] The New York Times, “Man Killed by Federal Agents in Minneapolis Was Holding a Phone, Not a Gun,” Jan. 2026.
https://share.google/CEeJ01jwXBlwNDbHJ
[AP] Associated Press, reporting on ICE arrest data and enforcement practices.
https://apnews.com/
[Reuters] Reuters, coverage of federal immigration operations and protest responses.
https://www.reuters.com/