Celia Jiménez here, still hearing the low pitch of whistles followed by 10 gunshots in the streets of Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 24, where people are protesting the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the city and Minnesota.
ICE agents killed Alex Pretti, a registered nurse in the ICU at the Minneapolis VA Health Care. He is the second observer and U.S. citizen killed by ICE in the city this month. (The Trace, which covers gun violence in America, has set up an ICE shooting tracker.)
Pretti was carrying a gun—he had a permit to carry one. According to videos from multiple angles, it seems Pretti didn’t have a gun in his hands, and that he was shot after an ICE officer removed what appears to be a gun from him. The videos seem to contradict Kristi Noem, secretary of homeland security, who said Pretti approached ICE officers with a handgun and attacked them.
Last year was the deadliest for ICE in more than two decades, with 32 people dying in ICE custody. The Trump administration’s rhetoric says they are taking out “the worst of the worst,” but nearly 75 percent don’t have criminal convictions.
Cooperation with ICE varies across the country. In California, cooperation is restricted after Senate Bill 54 took effect in 2018. If ICE wants access to inmate information from the Monterey County Jail, for example, the federal agency has to submit documentation and proof of criminal history. The petition is then reviewed to see if these crimes are serious before the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office shares inmates’ release dates with ICE.
In 2025, the county jail released 21 people into ICE’s custody. Charges they faced included child pornography, domestic violence, gang activity and assault with a deadly weapon. This number was nearly double that of 2024, with 11 releases.
Still, these numbers are drastically different compared to pre-SB54 times when ICE picked up 213 people in 2017.
Tomorrow, Jan. 27, during the Monterey County Board of Supervisors meeting, the Sheriff’s Office will present the latest Truth Act report, a transparency report about its interaction with ICE.
While what’s happening in Minneapolis is more than 2,000 miles away, residents have organized protests in Monterey County to protest ICE. “Whistlemania,” events where people create whistle kits that can be used to alert others about the presence of ICE, happens tonight from 5-6:30pm at the SEIU Local 521 Hall in Salinas, with the next taking place Wednesday, Jan. 28, from 3-5pm at County Supervisor Chris Lopez’s office in King City.
Carmel Valley resident Victoria Rossman, who lived in Minnesota, has a family there, including two daughters and two granddaughters. She says she’s stressed and anxious about the situation, especially because her oldest is a legal observer in Minneapolis.
“I'm afraid for her, but I'm also very proud of her,” Rossman says.
She added she never expected to see such actions.
“We just really need to have clear immigration policies,” she says.
Rossman notes that Minnesotans are tough: “They're not going to back down and they're gonna fight for our country.”