5 Things You Need to Know About ICE, Trump, and the Death of Alex Pretti
The internet is on fire following the death of Alex Pretti, an anti-ICE protester shot during a scuffle with ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, over the weekend.
Pretti’s is the second such death in the Twin Cities this month, taking place just blocks away from the fatal shooting of anti-ICE protester Renee Good, who was killed while driving her car towards an ICE officer on 7 January.
Pretti’s death has sparked even fiercer debate than Good’s. What is known and generally agreed upon is that Pretti was legally armed with a concealed handgun, inserted himself into an ICE arrest, and was avoiding restraint when he was shot.
However, official reports and public analysis of the incident vary widely on other details, like whether Pretti posed an active threat to officers, whether he reached for or brandished his firearm, and whether the use of deadly force was justified.
Preempting an investigation and the release of bodycam footage, activists quickly seized upon Pretti’s death to fuel large-scale protests and an online information war echoing the campaign that buoyed the 2020 George Floyd riots.
Indeed, as observed by podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey:
“On Instagram, it’s 2020 all over again. Women, including many, many Christian women, are being completely duped by the anti-ICE propaganda. Believed the “ICE arrested a lone 5-year-old” completely. It’s demoralizing. I am working HARD in my DMs and posts and on my show trying to combat this nonsense and appeal to these women.”
So, in the interest of placing facts before feelings, here are five things you need to know about ICE, Trump, and Alex Pretti’s death.
1. The Propaganda War is Real
As you might have predicted, the legacy media has, like clockwork, framed Alex Pretti’s death through an anti-Trump lens.
Instead of interrogating why Pretti put himself in harm’s way to impede federal officers and shield a criminal (more on all that in a moment), regime-aligned outlets have largely focussed on lionising Pretti, even framing him in martyr-like terms.
The taxpayer-funded ABC has led the charge on this front, having already published 21 reports (and counting) that depict Pretti as a kind-hearted ICU nurse who loved his dog and the outdoors, while dismissing official reports about his death from the Trump administration.
In the New York Times’ hagiography, Pretti was described as a “calm presence amid hospital chaos”, a mentor to colleagues, and deeply committed to his family and friends.
The BBC, meanwhile, can’t stop gushing about Pretti even as it continues to sweep aside the genocide of 35,000 Iranians.
One network was even caught using an AI-edited image of Pretti that made him look more attractive than the original.
Whether you ask AP, CBS, NBC or PBS, you’ll learn that Pretti was a compassionate, community-oriented professional whose unjust death is, at best, the byproduct of a cold and callous Trump administration.
Let’s name this for what it is: a deliberate propaganda war using selective reporting, emotional manipulation and rage-bait to further entrench Trump Derangement Syndrome in the public imagination.
2. Deportations Under Trump are Low
Speaking of Trump, here’s a fun fact you won’t hear on the nightly news: Trump has deported far fewer illegal immigrants than either Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
Though he talks tough, President Trump still trails his predecessors by millions of deportations.
Under Barack Obama (2009–2017), the US carried out the largest sustained deportation effort in modern history, which even earned him the nickname ‘Deporter in Chief’. Total removals and returns across Obama’s presidency numbered around 5.3 million, with formal deportations peaking above 400,000 in a single year.
Under Joe Biden (2021–2025), deportation totals again rose sharply, driven mainly by record border crossings. Across Biden’s term, the US recorded around 4.6 million removals and returns, mostly at the border.
By contrast, Trump’s first term (2017–2021) produced about 2 million removals or returns over four years.
In Trump’s second term so far (2025–early 2026), arrests and detentions have increased and the Trump administration has claimed very large numbers by including “self-deportations”. However, formal deportations are widely estimated at only around 300,000 so far, with total removals still far below either Biden’s or Obama’s.
And if you want to understand just how easy it is to manipulate the masses, consider the case of Tom Homan.
Homan served in senior ICE roles under both Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Under Obama, he oversaw hundreds of thousands of deportations every year and even received a Presidential Rank Award for his work. In 2012 alone, formal removals under his watch hit 409,000 — one of the highest totals on record.
Fast forward to 2025, and Homan, now Acting ICE Director under Trump, oversaw roughly 300,000 deportations — a significant drop. Yet somehow we’ve been led to believe that Trump-era Homan is a fascist and a Nazi, even as Obama-era Homan was a hero worthy of decoration.
3. Alex Pretti Took Deadly, Illegal Risks
Like Renee Good before him, Alex Pretti didn’t stumble onto the scene of his death by accident.
A media investigation found that Pretti was part of an anti‑ICE ‘rapid response’ network already active on site minutes before the shooting, using coordinated communication and tracking systems to locate, surround and disrupt federal agents during an arrest.
Before and after Pretti’s death, the network used highly sophisticated tactics, the report says, including:
– Encrypted Signal chats to track, summon and mobilise anti-ICE “rapid responders” in real time
– Street-level spotters and whistle alerts monitoring ICE agents’ movements
– Detailed license-plate tracking of suspected ICE vehicles
– Rapid deployment of sensational, emotionally charged videos to shape public perception
– Nationwide protests coordinated within hours by socialist, communist, and Marxist-Leninist groups
– Narrative escalation from “observer shot” to “execution” to “ICE Gestapo”
– Calls for barricades, general strikes, and other insurgent-style disruptions
– Media laundering presenting organisers as neutral witnesses while concealing their far-left activist roles
There are also credible reports that this was not Alex Pretti’s first run-in with ICE. According to CNN, Pretti had a physical altercation with ICE in which he broke a rib just a week before his death.
While Pretti’s death was a tragedy, it was one he could have avoided by not taking part in an illegal, far-left insurgency.
4. Alex Pretti was Shielding a Violent Criminal
The tragedy of Alex Pretti’s death was not just that he was engaged in an illegal operation, but he did so in defence of a violent criminal.
The arrest Pretti was on site to thwart was that of Jose Huerta-Chuma, an Ecuadorian national who was in the US illegally, and whose a criminal record includes violent domestic assault, intentional bodily harm and disorderly conduct. He was also driving without a valid licence at the time ICE was trying to take him into custody.
Moreover, not only was Pretti armed with a holstered semi-automatic handgun and two magazines of ammunition when he approached ICE agents, but he physically resisted when the officers tried to restrain him. Any reasonable member of the public would not have resisted such restraint from federal agents.
Again, Pretti’s death was a tragedy — but it was also, quite clearly, an avoidable one.
5. Valuing Life Means Securing Borders
The appeal from Alex Pretti’s defenders — whether Christian or secular — has centred on the value of his life. As someone created in God’s image, Pretti’s life did have inherent worth, which is why his death is, of course, regrettable.
But why have his defenders not applied that principle to the countless American lives lost at the hands of violent illegal immigrants? Why reserve it for an American engaged in illegal acts to shield a violent criminal?
The following victims drew little online outrage or public protest compared with Pretti, yet they were also made in God’s image and were equally precious:
> Laken Riley, 22, beaten to death while jogging on the University of Georgia campus by an illegal immigrant
> Mollie Tibbetts, 20, stabbed to death in a cornfield in Brooklyn, Iowa by an illegal immigrant
> Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, raped, strangled and left in a creek in Houston, Texas by two illegal immigrants
> Kate Steinle, 32, shot in the back on a pier in San Francisco, California by an illegal immigrant
> Rachel Morin, 37, raped and beaten to death while jogging in Bel Air, Maryland by an illegal immigrant
> Lizbeth Medina, 16, stabbed to death in her Texas apartment bathroom by an illegal immigrant
> Jamiel Shaw II, 17, shot execution-style on his way home from football practice in Los Angeles, California by an illegal immigrant
> Aiden Clark, 11, killed when his school bus was hit by a drunk driver who was an illegal immigrant in Springfield, Ohio
> Melissa Powell, 47, and Riordan Powell, 16, killed in a car crash caused by an illegal immigrant in Colorado
> Ivory Smith, 7, killed in a car crash caused by an illegal immigrant in Texas
> Taliyah Crochet, 18, and Rylan Oncale, 18, killed in a car crash caused by an illegal immigrant in Louisiana
> Maria Pleitez, 42, and Dayanara, 11, killed in a car crash caused by an illegal immigrant in New Jersey
Each of these tragedies — and there are many more — serve as a reminder that ICE performs a fundamentally good and necessary role in enforcing US border laws and protecting Americans, even if individual mistakes occur or questions remain about Pretti’s death.
Like every country, America has the right and the responsibility to defend its borders, protect its citizens, and preserve its national sovereignty.
Indeed, Trump’s border program appears to be paying off. A recent Council on Criminal Justice report shows violent crime in US cities fell sharply in 2025, with homicides down 21% from 2024, robbery down 23%, carjackings down 43%, gun assaults down 22%, and motor vehicle thefts down 27%.
Hundreds upon hundreds of lives have been saved thanks to Trump’s border enforcement efforts. Indeed, there’s a strong case to be made that Trump’s border policies are a good reflection of biblical mercy. By contrast, the strident defence of illegal immigrants might best be described by the words of Proverbs 12:10: “the mercy of the wicked is cruel”.
And far from being fringe or unpopular, Trump’s border program aligns with majority public opinion. National polling has shown consistent majority support for deporting all immigrants in the country illegally — not just violent offenders — including 55 per cent in a New York Times survey, 64 per cent in a Marquette University poll, 57 per cent in CBS News polling, and 56 per cent in an ABC News survey.
Conclusion: Love Rejoices With the Truth
The more you consider the real Alex Pretti story, the less makes sense about the mainstream narrative — whether the selective empathy for armed insurgents over innocent Americans, the sweeping aside of Obama and Biden’s far higher deportation numbers, or the protests raging against a policy most Americans support.
But things do start to make sense once you consider the political incentives for those waging the propaganda war.
It’s no coincidence that both anti-ICE fatalities took place in a city whose leaders now face federal probes for a recently uncovered, multi-billion-dollar Somali-run fraud ring that ran rampant under their watch.
Choosing deflection over accountability, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have lent support to the insurgent network Pretti had joined by refusing to assist ICE, and by demonising ICE agents — who are merely enforcing US border laws — as Trump’s “Gestapo”.
But the bigger picture is electoral. While Democrats and the establishment media wax lyrical about the “human rights” of illegal immigrants and armed insurgents, their real fear is that Trump’s crackdowns threaten their built‑in electoral advantage.
You read that correctly: Years of open borders and automatic registrations have funnelled millions of non‑citizens into the US system, enlarging the pool of Democratic voters in closely contested states like Minnesota. Every deportation chips away at that advantage.
The information war is real. As Pastor Michael Clary has put it, “it isn’t Christlike to be gullible” or to be “led by your emotions” or to “outsource your critical thinking skills”.
“We don’t just get to feel sorry for an illegal immigrant and ‘stand up’ for them and call it love,” he explains. “That’s not love, no matter how strongly you feel it. Love does not spread leftist propaganda, ‘love rejoices with the truth’.” (1 Corinthians 13:6).
Stay safe out there — the lies are everywhere. But fortunately, truth wins in the end.
