Over the past few weeks, federal agents (like ICE and CBP) have descended on Minneapolis and terrorized that community while disregarding the agency’s stated mission of enforcing immigration laws. The result has been the fatal shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

It’s been so blatant that even athletes who are typically disengaged from politics have been compelled to speak out. And former 12-year MLB veteran Kole Calhoun is the latest athlete to join the likes of Spencer Strider, the WNBA and NBA players.

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On Monday, Calhoun — who last played in 2023 with the Guardians — took to his Instagram Story and said that Pretti was murdered. Calhoun then proceeded to offer a powerful look into his perspective as a baseball player and a strong rebuke of Trump’s deployment of ICE onto American cities.

Calhoun went on to write:

I spent most of my adult life in a team game.A team comprised of different nationalities, different backgrounds. Some players were privileged, many were not. Some of my best friends from those times were people whose first language is not English. Those players did not look like me. But I watched as those players built a better life for themselves and passed that better life down to their family by sending earnings to them, buying them houses in their native countries, bringing them to America so they could be together again. That was their dream and baseball was their way.

I’ve stayed out of speaking on politics because I really don’t understand it. I knew I didn’t when yards once filled with flags of sports teams or child achievements were replaced with a person’s favorite politician. I knew l didn’t understand it when I could no longer have civil conversations with long time friends because views were being pushed on me. I’ve always sat somewhere in the middle and could understand the points raised by both sides but those were personal then and politics is not kept personal or confidential anymore.

I was raised to think different, to BE different, and that used to be a good thing.”Don’t be like everyone else” or “who cares what they think” were words echoed by my parents that gave me the freedom to fail and keep going. Being kind was a quality to strive for and helping others was admirable, especially when no one was watching.

The United States we live in now could not be more divided, but this is a turning point. The images and videos from Minnesota are alarming, on all fronts, to what this country was built on and our core values as a society are under attack. There is right way to do things and a wrong way and the tactics on display for the world to see, the ones designed to create fear and intimidate by recruits of this administration, are the wrong way.

What this administration is doing when it comes to immigration is blatantly racist, targeting people based on the color of their skin or the sound of their last name. There is a much more civilized way to do this that involves working together with state officials as opposed to inserting the administrations will on a state whose citizens have stood up for their neighbors and said this is not right!

I’ve been silent because that is easy. But silence is a privilege and silence is complicit. Standing up and speaking for what you believe in takes courage. I don’t care about what side you’re on or who you voted for, this is wrong. This is wrong and is imposing on the basic freedoms we have in the country. Wake up! Speak out!

We’ll see if more MLB players take his words to heart and speak out.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Ex-MLB player delivered powerful Trump condemnation amid ICE shootings