{"id":430361,"date":"2026-01-26T06:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430361\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:46:07","slug":"medtronic-calls-for-deescalation-after-federal-agents-kill-nurse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430361\/","title":{"rendered":"Medtronic calls for ‘deescalation’ after federal agents kill nurse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AAlex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who worked at a Veterans Administration hospital, was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, 2026. [Photo courtesy of the VA]Medtronic<\/a> <\/p>\n

(NYSE: MDT)
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\n CEO and Chair Geoff Martha, Boston Scientific<\/a> <\/p>\n

(NYSE: BSX)
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\n EVP and Cardiology President Joe Fitzgerald and Mayo Clinic President and CEO Dr. Gianrico Farrugia joined nearly 60 other business leaders calling for peace after Border Patrol agents killed a nurse, 37-year-old Alex Pretti, in Minneapolis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe escalating events in Minneapolis have resulted in the tragic loss of life and have deeply impacted individuals, families, and communities,\u201d Martha said in a LinkedIn post<\/a> sharing an open letter signed by him and other business leaders<\/a>, which read:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe business community in Minnesota prides itself in providing leadership and solving problems to ensure a strong and vibrant state. The recent challenges facing our state have created widespread disruption and tragic loss of life. For the past several weeks, representatives of Minnesota\u2019s business community have been working every day behind the scenes with federal, state and local officials to advance real solutions. These efforts have included close communication with the Governor, the White House, the Vice President and local mayors. There are ways for us to come together to foster progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith yesterday\u2019s tragic news, we are calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been working for generations to build a strong and vibrant state here in Minnesota and will do so in the months and years ahead with equal and even greater commitment. In this difficult moment for our community, we call for peace and focused cooperation among local, state and federal leaders to achieve a swift and durable solution that enables families, businesses, our employees, and communities across Minnesota to resume our work to build a bright and prosperous future.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first statement from leaders of major medtech companies in one of the industry\u2019s leading hubs as it\u2019s been targeted with aggressive deportation operations by federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and\u00a0 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n

On Jan. 7, another Minneapolis resident, Renee Good, was fatally shot by an ICE agent, and local schools closed after federal agents used chemical weapons and tackled people near a high school the next day. Thousands of people demonstrated in Minneapolis on Friday as local businesses closed to protest the federal operations.<\/p>\n

After the latest shooting on Saturday, Minnesota law enforcement officials said federal agents denied them access to the scene even though they had a warrant to investigate. A federal judge soon after issued a temporary restraining order against DHS to prevent it from altering or destroying evidence.<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told<\/a> Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz that ICE would withdraw from Minneapolis if the state handed over its voter rolls. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon called that request \u201can outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. citizens in violation of state and federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Martha\u2019s post, one Medtronic employee said,\u201dThere is real fear and disenfranchised grief amongst employees. Even the most compelling mission can\u2019t be at the forefront if people feel unsafe, so thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

But some said the statement didn\u2019t go far enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe courageous and denounce ICE publicly,\u201d Venstra Medical Chief Operating Officer Jordon Honeck wrote in response to Martha\u2019s post. Honeck had a career of nearly 14 years at Medtronic.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Costello, a former Medtronic communications director, called the statement \u201csoft \u2014 especially given the scale of economic influence these companies hold.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cWith that level of impact, you\u2019d hope the leaders could move beyond the \u2018both sides\u2019 need to work it out framing, and take a clearer stance. At the same time, when you see 60 organizations signing onto something this broad, it\u2019s hard not to assume the language was intentionally watered down to get everyone on board. Still, it\u2019s disappointing. Given the very real humanitarian crisis that is unfolding, many of us were hoping for something with more moral clarity and less corporate neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, medical device industry association AdvaMed discussed<\/a> its ongoing work with the Trump administration, focused on FDA fees and operations, tariffs and U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who worked at a Veterans Administration hospital, was killed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[82352,97,252,253,9768,24521],"class_list":{"0":"post-430361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-boston-scientific","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-mayo-clinic","13":"tag-medtronic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}