Approximately 200 protestors had gathered at the intersection of Pine and Third Street as of 3 p.m. on Sunday to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The protest, organized by the Party of Socialism and Liberation, comes after federal agents fatally shot two people this month in Minneapolis, where approximately 3,000 federal immigration agents are deployed in the “largest DHS operation ever,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Tensions in Minneapolis were already high after agents killed 37-year-old Renee Good, who appeared to be steering away from agents trying to remove her from her car on Jan. 7. On Saturday, agents pinned down, disarmed and then shot Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, who’d approached them holding a camera. Trump administration officials quickly labeled Good and Pretti “domestic terrorists” who were intent on killing or injuring immigration agents despite video evidence that appears to contradict this.
On Friday, thousands weathered subzero temperatures in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, demanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement end their operation; hundreds of businesses shuttered in solidarity as part of a general strike.
Other cities — including Los Angeles and Long Beach — have held vigils and protests in solidarity, and to demand ICE leave their own communities.
While not currently on the scale of what’s happening in Minnesota, in Long Beach, federal agents have continued ramped-up enforcement. They conducted a raid on Tuesday, seizing two men who were working as gardeners in the University Park Estates neighborhood — including one who said he was a U.S. citizen. DHS has not responded to the Long Beach Post’s request for information about Tuesday’s events.
Elected leaders of Long Beach denounced Pretti’s killing. “DHS agents have murdered a man on the street in Minnesota,” said Congresswoman Nanette Barragán, who represents parts of Long Beach and San Pedro. “Donald Trump and DHS are making our country more dangerous,” she wrote on X.
Congressman Robert Garcia, who represents Long Beach, took his strongest stance yet. “Kristi Noem must be impeached. ICE must be abolished. Democrats in the Senate cannot fund DHS,” he wrote on X. “These agents need to leave our cities NOW,” he wrote. Garcia has previously called for an independent investigation into ICE’s killing of Renee Good, also in Minneapolis.
Mayor Rex Richardson called federal agents’ shooting of Pretti on Saturday “inexcusable” and said it reflected the “dangerous consequences of unchecked federal overreach in our communities.”