{"id":4469,"date":"2026-01-30T13:32:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=4469"},"modified":"2026-01-30T13:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:32:47","slug":"even-the-top-prosecutor-in-minneapolis-doesnt-know-the-identity-of-alex-prettis-shooters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=4469","title":{"rendered":"Even the Top Prosecutor in Minneapolis Doesn\u2019t Know the Identity of Alex Pretti\u2019s Shooters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>    <!-- BLOCK(acast)[0](%7B%22componentName%22%3A%22ACAST%22%2C%22entityType%22%3A%22SHORTCODE%22%2C%22optional%22%3Afalse%7D)(%7B%22id%22%3A%22even-the-top-prosecutor-in-minneapolis-doesnt-know-the-ident%22%2C%22podcast%22%3A%22intercept-presents%22%2C%22subscribe%22%3Atrue%7D) --><\/p>\n<p>\n  <iframe src=\"https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/intercept-presents\/even-the-top-prosecutor-in-minneapolis-doesnt-know-the-ident?accentColor=111111&amp;bgColor=f5f6f7&amp;logo=false\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"acast-player__embed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p><!-- END-BLOCK(acast)[0] --><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"has-underline\">In the two months<\/span> Minnesota has been under siege by federal agents, immigration officers have shot and killed two U.S. citizens, poet and artist <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/08\/ice-agent-identified-shooting-minneapolis-jonathan-ross\/\">Renee Good<\/a> and ICU nurse <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/26\/alex-pretti-va-nurse-minneapolis-cbp-shooting\/\">Alex Pretti<\/a>. Local and state law enforcement say they\u2019ve been blocked from properly investigating the shootings of Good and Pretti.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe federal government has blocked our state BCA, so that\u2019s the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. They are the state law enforcement agency that has authority to investigate any kind of deadly use of force involving police,\u201d says Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who is leading local investigations into the killings of Good and Pretti.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve not gotten anything from the federal government,\u201d Moriarty says. \u201cTo tell you how odd this situation is, we are getting our information from the media \u2026 we are not getting that from the federal government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Akela Lacy speaks with Moriarty, whose office has jurisdiction over both killings. Moriarty says federal agents have blocked local and state law enforcement from properly investigating the killings. Even Moriarty, the top prosecutor in Minneapolis, does not know the identity of the agents who killed Pretti.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In response, Moriarty says, \u201cWe set up a portal and asked the community to send any kind of videos or any other kind of evidence so that we could collect absolutely everything that we possibly could.\u201d The BCA, she says, was even \u201cblocked physically, actually, by federal agents from processing the scene where Alex Pretti was shot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, attacks by the administration on Minnesota\u2019s Somali citizens persist. At her first town hall of the year in Minneapolis, an attendee sprayed Rep. Ilhan Omar with an unidentified substance on Tuesday. Trump has backtracked on some of his bluster and removed Border Patrol Gregory Bovino from Minnesota, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/28\/greg-bovino-tom-homan-ice-deportation-trump-minneapolis\/\">replacing him<\/a> with border czar Tom Homan. <\/p>\n<p>None of that has changed things on the ground yet in Minneapolis, says Moriarty. \u201cMinnesotans care about their neighbors. They\u2019re delivering meals to people. They are there and they do not approve of the fact that their federal government is attacking them and their neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hear a lot of people talking to us about how they understand the threat from the administration or from DHS on their neighbors and on their communities, and it\u2019s really much more rooted in an understanding that they think their freedoms are under threat, even if they are not an immigrant or even if they don\u2019t really have deep ties to immigrant communities, that this really matters to them and it really bothers them,\u201d says Jill Garvey, co-director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stacup.org\/\">States at the Core<\/a>, an organization that leads and runs ICE Watch training programs. \u201cSo we hear a lot from folks who just haven\u2019t been engaged previously. But this for all those reasons is enough for them to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garvey says her organization is training community members in how to properly document ICE. \u201cWe also know that we can\u2019t stop all this aggression,\u201d Garvey says. \u201cThe aggression is the point of these operations. So we can\u2019t guarantee that people aren\u2019t going to be targeted with violent actions from federal law enforcement. What we can say is, if you\u2019re doing this in community, other people are going to be watching.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garvey says the administration\u2019s claims that paid agitators are fueling protests around the country is a baseless attempt to save face as public opinion turns against it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just another part of the propaganda machine. They need an explanation for why they\u2019re losing. \u2026 This is a very basic training that we\u2019re providing and that most other people are providing to folks rooted in how to be a good neighbor, frankly. How to assert your rights, how to protect your neighbor\u2019s rights,\u201d says Garvey.<\/p>\n<p>Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-intercept-briefing\/id1195206601\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2js8lwDRiK1TB4rUgiYb24?si=e3ce772344ee4170\">Spotify<\/a>, or wherever you listen.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-transcript-nbsp\">Transcript\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Akela Lacy: <\/strong>Welcome to The Intercept Briefing, I\u2019m Akela Lacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Federal agents have shot three people in Minnesota, killing two U.S. citizens, since they descended on the state in December as part of President Donald Trump\u2019s massive surge in efforts to hunt down immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kristi Noem: <\/strong>Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world. If you are considering entering America illegally, don\u2019t even think about it. Let me be clear: If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>The administration quickly tried to paint poet and artist Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti \u2014 the two people killed by ICE and Border Patrol Agents this month in Minneapolis \u2014 as \u201cdomestic terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>KN<\/strong>: If you look at what the definition of \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d is, it completely fits this situation on the ground. This individual, as you saw in the video that we released just 48 hours after this incident, showed that this officer was hit by her vehicle, she weaponized it \u2026 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reporter<\/strong>: The White House has labeled the man who was killed in Minnesota a \u201cdomestic terrorist.\u201d Is that something you agree with? And have you seen any evidence?<\/p>\n<p><strong>KN:<\/strong> When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of \u201cdomestic terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gregory Bovino<\/strong>: This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>But video evidence circulating online and digital investigations from various news outlets flatly refuted those claims. After massive outrage from the public and even some of Trump\u2019s Republican colleagues \u2014 several of whom are now joining Democratic calls for him to fire Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem \u2014 Trump has, as of Monday, appeared to backtrack on some of his bluster.<\/p>\n<p>After having attacked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz publicly and blaming him and other Democrats for the killing of Pretti, Trump spoke by phone with Walz and said they \u201cseemed to be on a similar wavelength.\u201d For his part, Walz said Trump had agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>By Tuesday, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino and several agents were set to leave the state. Tom Homan, Trump\u2019s border czar, is <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/28\/greg-bovino-tom-homan-ice-deportation-trump-minneapolis\/\">expected to take over<\/a>. The two agents who fired at Pretti \u2014 whose identities are still not public \u2014 have been placed on administrative leave as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, local and state law enforcement have accused federal agents of stymying investigations into the killings of Good and Pretti, and have sued to stop the feds from destroying evidence in both cases. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who oversees criminal cases in Minneapolis and has come under attack from Trump\u2019s Department of Justice, has called Trump\u2019s decision <em>not<\/em> to conduct a federal investigation into the killing of Renee Good \u201cincomprehensible.\u201d Moriarty\u2019s office has jurisdiction to investigate both killings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, we\u2019re joined by Minneapolis\u2019s chief prosecutor, who\u2019s part of the team of state and local officials investigating the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Welcome to the show, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mary Moriarty:<\/strong> Thank you so much.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>We\u2019re speaking on Wednesday morning, and your office just held a press conference announcing the formation of the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/crime\/larry-krasner-progressive-prosecutors-ice-trump-20260128.html\">Project for the Fight Against Federal Overreach<\/a>.\u201d Can you tell us about what the aims of this group are? Who\u2019s in it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> It was formed to support prosecutors around the country with resources and just a collaboration should the federal government come into their cities or their jurisdictions, because these issues can be complicated and sometimes resources are scarce and it\u2019s helpful to have the support of other people around the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The other goal, I think, is to really assure the public. One of the things that we\u2019ve seen here in Minneapolis, and in Hennepin County and in Minnesota, is that people are seeing federal agents engage in behavior which seems unlawful or at least inappropriate, and they aren\u2019t seeing any consequences or accountability.<\/p>\n<p>I have tried to make it very clear that as Hennepin County attorney \u2014\u00a0and by the way, that\u2019s Minneapolis and its many suburbs \u2014 that our office does have jurisdiction over shootings, any kind of homicide that happens in Hennepin County. It does not matter where you work, if it\u2019s federal government or not. We do have jurisdiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There are some more complicated issues involving potential federal defenses, but those are something we would face in court. And so I think it\u2019s helpful for us as prosecutors to be collaborating across the country to ensure our communities that we will stand up and we will hold people accountable should they engage in unlawful behavior in our cities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> In that vein, can you tell us about the investigations you\u2019re conducting into the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> So, as you know, and as I think the country probably knows, the federal government has blocked our state BCA, so that\u2019s the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. They are the state law enforcement agency that has authority to investigate any kind of deadly use of force involving police. Now their authority is statutory for Minnesota Peace Officers, but they still have the expertise. This is all they do. <\/p>\n<p>And I had talked to the FBI, I had talked to the U.S. attorney, I had talked to the head of the BCA when Renee Good was killed. And we all had an agreement \u2014 which was unsurprising because all of us work well together \u2014 that there would be a joint investigation into the shooting and killing of Renee Good. And then suddenly, the BCA got kicked out. We were told that came from Washington, the administration, essentially. And so we were determined to do as much investigation as we could in conjunction with the BCA.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We set up a portal and asked the community to send any kind of videos or any other kind of evidence so that we could collect absolutely everything that we possibly could. And the whole goal is to try to collect enough evidence to make a decision about whether charges are appropriate or not. And we are actually doing the same thing in the shooting of Alex Pretti; the BCA is conducting an investigation there. They were also blocked physically, actually, by federal agents from processing the scene where Alex Pretti was shot.<\/p>\n<p>That actually led us to get a search warrant. The BCA drafted a search warrant. We made sure a judge was available. And so a judge signed a search warrant, and federal agents would not allow access to the scene even with that. And so that is why we filed the lawsuit in federal court Saturday. And we asked also for a temporary restraining order to force the government to preserve and not alter any of the evidence in that case. Later Saturday evening that was granted by a federal judge. And then there was a hearing two days later on Monday for the judge to hear from both parties to decide whether that TRO should be permanent \u2014 and we\u2019re waiting to hear the judge\u2019s ruling on that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> So your office and the BCA sued the Department of Homeland Security, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel. It\u2019s my understanding that in this hearing that you\u2019re talking about, the judge didn\u2019t issue an immediate decision, but it\u2019s still ongoing and you have this temporary restraining order to provide access to evidence. Have you been able to access it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> No. So actually the temporary restraining order was actually just to force the federal government to preserve and not alter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>Mmm, OK.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM: <\/strong>We\u2019re not at the point of getting access or asking the court for access yet. It was because they were, like I said, physically preventing the BCA from processing the scene.<\/p>\n<p>I have heard various officials in the administration make the claim that it was actually the public that prevented the BCA from entering the scene. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s a lie, or they just don\u2019t know what they\u2019re talking about, but we had a prosecutor there. I was in contact with the BCA. I was watching livestream video, and you could see federal agents standing about 2 feet apart with large batons. And so there\u2019s absolutely no way the community prevented the BCA from getting there.<\/p>\n<p>But because they went to such great lengths to block the BCA from trying to just do what they normally do \u2014 what their job is \u2014 and because of hearing very plainly that the administration has no intent to investigate the shooting of Renee Good \u2014 in fact, bizarrely, they were going to investigate her and her widow \u2014we are taking this step by step. And so the first step was to ask a court to order the federal government to preserve that evidence and not alter it in any way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>You\u2019ve said that you have substantial evidence to consider charges in the case. Are you going to charge the officers in \u2014\u00a0I\u2019m talking about both cases \u2014 in Good\u2019s case and in \u2014? <\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> My goal was to collect as much evidence as we possibly could and then make a decision about whether charges are appropriate or not. I\u2019m not going to say what we\u2019re going to do or promise that we are going to do it because it really is important to gather as much evidence as we can.<\/p>\n<p>We still don\u2019t have the autopsy results in either case. That\u2019s not unusual because the medical examiner does not issue preliminary results. They\u2019re very cautious; they do a bunch of testing. I understand what it\u2019s going to say in the Renee Good case, and I know that the family has released the results of an independent autopsy.<\/p>\n<p>But I think both autopsies will be very important evidence \u2014 maybe even more than, say, in most cases, we would want the gun, we would want the shell casings, we want the car in the Renee Good case. But we get cases submitted to us every day that don\u2019t have all of the evidence that we would want. That\u2019s just not how things work. And so the goal is to get as much as we can and to get to a point where we feel like, OK, we\u2019ve got enough here to make a decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cBCA, when they complete an investigation and once the case is closed, whatever that looks like, they post the investigation on their website.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The important thing, I think, for the public here and across the country is that the BCA, when they complete an investigation and once the case is closed, whatever that looks like, they post the investigation on their website. Anybody can take a look at it. And our goal, also, is very complete transparency. We make a decision, and we explain to people what evidence we were relying on, and I think that\u2019s the only way people have trust in their government \u2014 the only way they can have trust in their government if they can actually see what the evidence said and understand why a decision is made.<\/p>\n<p>So that\u2019s really important. We have not made a decision about whether charges are appropriate, but I do believe, and my statement was that we are going to get enough evidence to be able  to make those decisions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> On Tuesday, Customs and Border [Protection] notified Congress that two agents fired their guns during the killing of Pretti. Was your office aware of that prior to that statutory? This was like a statutory notification that The Associated Press obtained and reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> Yes. We\u2019ve got videos, many different videos, and we\u2019ve looked, we\u2019ve synced them. We\u2019ve looked at it from many different ways, and it certainly appeared that way.<\/p>\n<p>But one interesting thing is, we\u2019ve not gotten anything from the federal government. So I was asked recently about \u201cHave we received the body cam from the federal agents?\u201d Well, I have no official notification that the federal agents were wearing body cam. So, I mean, to tell you how odd this situation is: We are getting our information from the media or from that report; we are not getting that from the federal government.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Similarly,  there\u2019s been some discussion around figuring out the identity of the officers who shot Alex Pretti. I\u2019m assuming that your office is aware of the identity of these officers?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> No \u2014 they haven\u2019t shared <em>that<\/em> with us. And so this is a question that people have asked me that I think people probably have interest in. They\u2019ll say, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just subpoena records? Why don\u2019t you just subpoena the identities?\u201d that kind of thing. <\/p>\n<p>If this was state, if we were trying to seek information from a state agency or records or something like that, it would be very straightforward. We could subpoena it. There\u2019s a body of law by the U.S. Supreme Court that if you are seeking information from a federal agency, you can\u2019t just issue a subpoena. You have to make the case \u2014 and to bore everybody to tears or to get into the weeds, it\u2019s called \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>Please do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM: <\/strong>TOUHY, T-O-U-H-Y. It outlines a process that you have to go through to ask for information. So it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re actually going to get it. So we\u2019re taking this step by step.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve gotten very well versed in the federal law. And so we\u2019re just making sure that we are doing all the things that we need to do, trying to collect all the evidence we need to collect. But no, we do not know the identification of the people who shot Alex Pretti.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> I also just want to mention for our listeners that with the law enforcement killings of Good and Pretti, nine people have died so far this year \u2014 either ICE shot them, or in Pretti\u2019s case Border Patrol, or they died in ICE custody.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> The BCA is actually doing another use-of-force investigation because a man was shot in the leg on January 14; he fortunately survived. But that is another shooting, and that is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mprnews.org\/story\/2026\/01\/22\/man-shot-in-leg-by-ice-in-minneapolis-did-not-attack-officer-women-say\">third investigation that the BCA is doing<\/a>, and I expect they\u2019ll submit their investigation to us for consideration of charges as well.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Has there been the same sort of efforts by fed federal agents to stymie that investigation or has that been an easier \u2014?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> Yes. No, same lack of cooperation or response. And the BCA had the same problem with that scene too. So it\u2019s been very consistent, non-cooperation, and I won\u2019t even say non-cooperation, but just blocking every attempt by the BCA to do what they\u2019re supposed to do by law and what is best practices.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> There was a story that I saw in <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2026\/01\/alex-pretti-killing-ice-minneapolis-neighborhood-war-zone.html\">Slate<\/a> that mentioned that observers on the scene \u2014 after BCA had been blocked from the Pretti shooting scene \u2014 that they saw the federal agents leave. And you\u2019ve mentioned like they\u2019re not investigating it, so I don\u2019t know why they would stick around, but that was just shocking to me that they were, and if that\u2019s accurate, that they were blocking \u2014 not shocking, but adding to the things that are frustrating about this, that they\u2019re blocking and then they\u2019re leaving the scene so that they\u2019re not preserving it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> Correct. People may have seen videos of people with BCA written on their jackets. They did go out there when they had the opportunity, and they did do as much as they could. But of course the best practice would be that you arrive at the scene as soon as \u2014 or shortly after it happens, and process everything there before people have gotten into the scene.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Right. On Tuesday night, also in Minneapolis, someone sprayed an unidentified substance on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/27\/us\/ilhan-omar-town-hall-minnesota.html\">Rep. Ilhan Omar<\/a> during her first town hall of the year. What can you tell us about that incident, and is your office investigating it?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> So the Minneapolis Police Department is investigating it. It will be submitted to our office, I anticipate. The man who was seen on video doing that is in jail. We do have a period of time to make a decision and look at all the evidence, and I think MPD is still doing the investigation. So I think we have probably until later today or tomorrow to make a decision about whether charges are appropriate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And I should say: Our office prosecutes felonies in Hennepin County. (We do all youth, so juvenile, so it can be a misdemeanor, low-level crime.) If something is a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor, a lower level crime, that is charged in the particular city where it happened. So we would be reviewing for potential felony charges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> The entire premise of these raids and Trump\u2019s attacks on Minneapolis in particular is to go after Somali immigrants, and much of that rhetoric has been directed at <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/17\/somali-lresistance-ice-patrol-minneapolis\/\">Somali residents in Minneapolis<\/a>, including Omar herself. I wonder if you can talk about how that political rhetoric is fueling violence and the consequences here?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> It is. We have a very vibrant immigrant community. Many immigrants from many countries are here, including our Somali neighbors. They are mostly peaceful, just like other immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Before all of this started, before they took down these numbers from their website, the federal government had numbers that showed that American-born citizens committed crimes at a higher rate than immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>To be clear, as the prosecutor for all of Hennepin County here, first of all, there was no influx of immigrants that were coming here to commit violent crime. In fact, violent crime has gone down here. And that\u2019s not because of ICE\u2019s presence \u2014 that was going down, as it is around the country. So there\u2019s no justification for ICE to be here because we have \u201cviolent crime.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>And the whole idea \u2014 at least what they claim, what they say it is \u2014 it\u2019s about fraud. Well, this is not how you investigate fraud. Investigating fraud involves looking, I\u2019m dating myself, I always want to say bankers boxes of documents but \u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>I know what that is. [Laughs]<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM: <\/strong>It\u2019s really meticulous! It\u2019s really painstaking and tedious, and you have to look through records. It isn\u2019t snatching people off the street. So this has nothing to do with our immigrant community, and it has done tremendous damage. When you target a particular community and make ridiculous claims about what they\u2019re doing, that can and has led to violence here against Somali neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>And so it\u2019s very damaging, and Ilhan is my representative. She has been, I think, the recipient of the worst, just terrible rhetoric, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/06\/trump-ice-minnesota-somali\/\">violent by the president on down<\/a>. And it\u2019s just, especially after what happened to [Minnesota state Rep.] <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/06\/20\/minnesota-lawmaker-shootings-disinformation-taylor-lorenz\/\">Melissa Hortman and her husband who were assassinated<\/a>, and another legislator was shot along with his family \u2014 there are consequences for the things that people say.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There are people out there that are really struggling with mental health. We in fact have set up, and we partner with other agencies, to do threat assessments when we get people who are making threats against electeds. And a lot of these people are struggling with mental health. Some of them aren\u2019t; some of them are radicalized, and they get the idea in their head that doing something to someone is somehow a good idea. And so there are consequences for words.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s been devastating for our Somali community to have all of this hatred directed at them. And, Ilhan, I see her at events. We\u2019re at the same events. She\u2019s the last one there talking to her constituents. She has more public town halls than anyone I\u2019ve ever seen. She has more public town halls than anyone in the state. She\u2019s courageous to show up. She\u2019s always there to talk to her constituents, and obviously what happened last night is extremely alarming. I\u2019m grateful that she is OK. And we have, I think, reports that the substance was not toxic. So that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n<p>But the violent rhetoric, the lies, I would say, just has to stop. I know it isn\u2019t going to, but I want people to know it has consequences and sometimes those are very violent consequences.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Thank you also for mentioning the assassinations of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman.<\/p>\n<p>I also want to mention this is \u2014 aside from the political violence that we\u2019re talking about \u2014 that shooting was carried out by someone who was posing as a police officer, in the midst of this situation where as Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a recent<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5W4T7fR8i-w\"> interview<\/a>, local law enforcement are being overwhelmed by thousands of these <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/collections\/unmasking-ice\/\">immigration agents who are not clearly identified<\/a>. They\u2019re not wearing badges, and people don\u2019t know who they are. And so that contributes to the sense of not knowing who is protecting you, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> Yes. It\u2019s frightening. And there, I think, will be legislation in our session, which starts next month about creating greater laws to penalize people who impersonate police officers.<\/p>\n<p>It is frightening. All of the ICE presence, most of them are masked. And so do you know who this person is when they\u2019re giving you commands? It\u2019s hard to describe how frightening it is here, how much this dominates everybody\u2019s existence right now.<\/p>\n<p>I know of no parent who hasn\u2019t had to have some kind of conversation with their child \u2014 and I\u2019m talking about 4, 5, 6, and older \u2014 because that child is frightened that ICE is going to hurt them or hurt their family or hurt their classmate. ICE is sending brochures into schools promising families that are having food security problems access to food. They\u2019re doing that in schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And we\u2019ve all seen the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nlhwZuxDl-E\">videos of the Hmong gentlemen<\/a>, elder gentlemen. And by the way, the Hmong \u2014 I think we have the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/race-and-ethnicity\/fact-sheet\/asian-americans-hmong-in-the-u-s\/\">second highest population of Hmong<\/a> in the country \u2014 but for those who don\u2019t know, they fought for the United States in the war in Laos. And so they are here because they were going to be killed and persecuted in Laos. So they helped us, they\u2019re here.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And yet we have situations where we had this Hmong elderly gentleman who was marched out of his house. And just noticing it\u2019s 5 degrees here today. 5. And that\u2019s been the consistent temperature in January. So they marched this gentleman out in his boxers and Crocs, and his family was able to throw a blanket around his shoulders.<\/p>\n<p>They drove him around for an hour and evidently dropped him back off. He is a citizen. And he has no record. They mistook him for somebody who\u2019s actually in one of our prisons, and the prison had notified ICE that the man was in prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And we all have seen the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-minnesota-boy-father-detained-342f319fafb766d13afe07f5bcc1f112\">boy, the precious boy, with the bunny hat<\/a>. His father was here seeking asylum. And so he jumped through all of the legal hoops that he was supposed to, relying on our government, doing what he was supposed to do. Then they swoop in, and they snatch his 5-year-old boy and him. And I think they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/01\/28\/texas-immigration-detention-dilley-protest-5-year-old\/\">sent them to<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/01\/28\/texas-immigration-detention-dilley-protest-5-year-old\/\">Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThey use this word like, \u2018detain,\u2019 which sounds pretty antiseptic, right? We\u2019re talking about a cage. We\u2019re talking about a jail, a prison.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>And they use this word like, \u201cdetain,\u201d which sounds pretty antiseptic, right? We\u2019re talking about a cage. We\u2019re talking about a jail, a prison \u2014 for a 5-year-old child. And to have the administration say, \u201cWell, he is in better hands.\u201d And who would want their 5-year-old child in the hands of ICE and then in a cage or a jail?<\/p>\n<p>And we\u2019ve seen these incidents over and over where I don\u2019t know if you saw the video that came out recently. This was actually after there were some hopes here, I guess, that the ICE presence would diminish. But that same day we see <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/prem_thakker\/status\/2016224431308202428\">videos of an ICE agent <\/a>saying to somebody, \u201cIf you raise your voice, I will erase your voice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknown agent: <\/strong>I will tell you this, brother,\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknown man: <\/strong>What?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknown agent: <\/strong>I will tell you this: You raise your voice, I will erase your voice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknown man:<\/strong> If I raise my voice, you\u2019ll erase my voice?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknown agent: <\/strong>Exactly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknown man: <\/strong>Are you serious? You said, if I raise my voice, you\u2019ll erase my voice?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Unknown agent: <\/strong>Yeah.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM: <\/strong>We saw another video that same day of a woman sobbing, and she has a small child in her arms, because ICE is hauling away someone in her family. We see these, and it\u2019s like the administration says, don\u2019t believe your eyes.<\/p>\n<p>But everybody can see the videos here, and we can see what\u2019s going on. And this isn\u2019t about public safety. And I could go on and on about how what\u2019s happening is really preventing our office from prosecuting people. But I\u2019ll stop.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> No, actually, I\u2019m curious what you have to say about how this is stymieing being able to actually investigate things. But secondarily, is law enforcement and your office equipped to handle these forms of violence fueled by political rhetoric, especially when it\u2019s coming straight from the top?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> You know, for our office, we\u2019re reactive in many ways, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> We try to be proactive in prevention, but that\u2019s very difficult here. And so we are often reactive. I think, I have reflected a lot on the role of local law enforcement here. I\u2019ve had conversations \u2014 we have something like 38 different jurisdictions here in Hennepin County, and I have talked to them. I\u2019ve sent them an email. And I\u2019ve made it clear to them that they do have jurisdiction to do investigations just like they normally would, and they should submit potential cases to us. And some of the things I hear are, \u201cWhat about sovereign immunity?\u201d and that kind of thing. And we have said repeatedly, \u201cThat\u2019s legal stuff. Let us deal with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019ll just say that we haven\u2019t had a single case referred to us by local law enforcement this entire time. And I think that there\u2019s a role there \u2014 and I acknowledge that we\u2019re in unprecedented times \u2014 but that, I think, there\u2019s a role that local law enforcement should be playing here.<\/p>\n<p>I know there have been discussions about, well, we don\u2019t want to get into it with federal law enforcement. And at the same time I\u2019m listening to the interview that\u2019s come out of the woman \u2014 people are calling her the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/01\/27\/us\/stella-carlson-alex-pretti-witness-video\"> woman in the pink coat<\/a> \u2014 who is videotaping what happened to Alex Pretti, and she\u2019s talking about how frightened she was, how frightened everybody is, but they feel compelled to bear witness and be there.<\/p>\n<p>And so I have tried to challenge our local law enforcement: You know, you\u2019re here to protect and serve. Sometimes they\u2019ve said, well, we don\u2019t want to be political. And I\u2019ve said, this isn\u2019t about politics. You can think it\u2019s a good thing that ICE is here. What we\u2019re talking about is if members of your community are being \u2014 if excessive use of force is being inflicted upon them, what are you going to do? Are you going to investigate?<\/p>\n<p>And sure, blockades there, you may not know who the agent is. And I\u2019ve also heard fear on the part of police that they may get arrested for obstruction or worse. But I think we\u2019re at the point where they need to make some decisions: Are they here to protect and serve the community? And that means their community members. Even if that means intervening when they see ICE engaging in unlawful behavior and doing investigations and submitting cases to us. <\/p>\n<p>I can\u2019t help but think having been living with this since the federal agents have been here, if they thought there would be accountability, if that would end some of the behavior, if that would deter some of the behavior, because I know the administration has said, \u201cYou have absolute immunity. Nobody can do anything to you.\u201d And that is simply not the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But we haven\u2019t gotten to the point where there has been accountability for any of the behavior that we\u2019ve seen. And I continue to encourage local law enforcement to intervene, to investigate, to send us cases, even if they\u2019re not sure what it is. But to this point, we haven\u2019t received a case.<\/p>\n<p>[<strong>Break<\/strong>]<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> There is a dynamic here that I want to touch on and that <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2024\/03\/22\/mary-moriarty-minnesota-reform-police-union-removal\/\">I\u2019ve covered, with respect to your office<\/a>, which is that both local and federal law enforcement and Republican officials have targeted you throughout your time in office, in part for your reform policies, but also in response to you charging a police officer in 2024 for killing a driver, Ricky Cobb II. How is that playing out here? Is that dynamic generally? Is that affecting any of the efforts on behalf of your office or these other Minnesota law enforcement agencies to respond to these two killings?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> No, it isn\u2019t, and I think I will have plenty to say about the way I would say Renee Good and Ricky Cobb situations have been approached by many \u2014 very differently at some point \u2014 perhaps when I\u2019m out of office.<\/p>\n<p>And I said this when I campaigned and I\u2019m very proud of this: I have not let politics enter into any of our decisions. We charged the officer who shot and killed Ricky Cobb because we very much believed we had a case \u2014 a good case \u2014 and we knew it would be difficult, but we thought it was appropriate to attempt to hold the state trooper accountable.<\/p>\n<p>There were a lot of politics involved there. But ultimately, we ended up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hennepinattorney.org\/news\/news\/2024\/May\/rl-release\">dismissing<\/a>. And I know sometimes it\u2019s reported that I got pressure from the governor. We dismissed it because it was the ethical thing to do. Certainly the governor at some point was threatening \u2014 was, I guess, going to take it away from us, I can only guess for the purpose of dismissing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019m pretty immune to political pressure because I very much believe \u2014 I fundamentally believe \u2014 that a person in this situation, when we\u2019re talking about prosecution and justice, I mean, we do things that matter, that matter to people\u2019s lives. That goes for law enforcement and community members. And I think it\u2019s extremely important that we not be swayed by politics, that we do the best we can and we make the right decision. And I continue to believe that we made the right decision in charging the trooper, [Ryan] Londregan, in Ricky Cobb\u2019s death. We made the right decision to dismiss it when there were many complications with the lack of cooperation by law enforcement in that case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And we are going to do the right thing in this case. We\u2019re collecting all of the evidence so we can make sure we\u2019re making a decision with as much as we can possibly get, and then we will sit down and see, is it appropriate to charge or not?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Speaking of politics, getting involved in things \u2014 the Department of Justice is also investigating your office. My understanding is that there are multiple probes going on, one of which is unrelated to ICE, but related to your office\u2019s policies to address racial disparities in charging. The other came as a result of your role in the Good and Pretti cases. Can you walk us through that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> Sure. I\u2019ll talk about the subpoenas because there\u2019s been a lot on those. That subpoena actually was not served on me. It was served on Hennepin County. As the county attorney, we have a civil division here as well as a criminal division. Our civil division represents Hennepin County.<\/p>\n<p>So we advise, my office advises the county on that subpoena. I don\u2019t even think it was necessarily the people that got subpoenaed, but they were \u2014 I\u2019ve seen some of the other subpoenas \u2014 they\u2019re looking for records about immigration. But I view those efforts as just being attempts at intimidation.<\/p>\n<p>What I\u2019ll say about that is, I was actually in a meeting about the Renee Good case, when suddenly I was inundated with texts from reporters asking me about being subpoenaed, and I had no idea what they were talking about. So it seemed that the administration was leaking that I personally had been subpoenaed.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s, I think, another intimidation tactic. You can\u2019t even be honest about what you\u2019re actually doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>And then we found out I actually wasn\u2019t. It was Hennepin County, and my office does represent Hennepin County. But that\u2019s, I think, another intimidation tactic. You can\u2019t even be honest about what you\u2019re actually doing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And why on earth would you be claiming that you\u2019re subpoenaing me and the attorney general and others when we are investigating this case, or we were, just that case at the time. So I think it\u2019s pretty clear that it\u2019s politically motivated. I also learned about the DOJ investigation via Twitter. I guess I\u2019ll still call it Twitter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>I do, too.\u00a0[Laughs]<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM: <\/strong>And that\u2019s ongoing. I can\u2019t talk about that, but yeah, Minnesota has been under constant attack by this administration. That\u2019s been clear for quite some time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> After a call with Trump on Monday, Governor Tim Walz said Trump \u201cagreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.\u201d I want to ask you, what does a more coordinated fashion look like given that per Minnesota officials, they\u2019ve already been doing their statutory requirements as far as transferring legitimate cases to immigration?<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> Well, first of all, I don\u2019t believe anything until I see it with my own eyes. And the same day that happened, or the day after that happened, we saw this ICE agent telling somebody, if they raise their voice, he will erase their voice.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019ve seen no change here on the ground. So immigration, as you know, is civil. The law does not require the state to participate in federal civil enforcement. But that\u2019s what this administration wants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now, there are good reasons not to do that. And you\u2019ll hear a lot of law enforcement talk about how what a bad idea it is for local law enforcement to be participating in civil enforcement of immigration law because that means that victims of crime \u2014 who are often immigrants because they get targeted \u2014 will never call you, will never call the police. They won\u2019t be witnesses for our cases. If they\u2019re domestic violence victims, they won\u2019t call. So there are very good policy reasons and practical reasons \u2014 you want trust in the community for local law enforcement to not participate in something you are not, you don\u2019t have to participate in, because it\u2019s civil.<\/p>\n<p>And Minnesota has, as you said, has been doing its statutory responsibility, but they want more than that. And this continual refrain of violent criminals is ridiculous. If an immigrant commits a crime, if law enforcement brings us a case, they\u2019re held accountable. And then typically what\u2019s happened is that ICE decides, if they go to prison, do they want to deport them after that. That\u2019s the way it\u2019s always worked. It\u2019s not been a problem here.<\/p>\n<p>Like, how is this about violent criminals when \u2014 and I haven\u2019t looked at this for a while, but at one point, given the administration\u2019s own numbers \u2014 over half of the people that they have detained have no criminal record. It\u2019s not about violent criminals. So it seems as though the administration wants information that legally the state is not required to give. And if handing that information over actually hurts public safety, so I don\u2019t see, hopefully, the state switching positions on that.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It always has been a political question, but I think the question is, is it starting to look so bad for Republicans in this administration that for political reasons, they\u2019ll stop doing this or withdraw? I think that\u2019s what it comes down to. I mean, I thought I heard Trump saying in Iowa that this is just bad for us, not for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Every day we hear something new. And so as I said, and I think Minnesotans believe this too: We will believe it when we see it here on the ground.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> I\u2019ll just mention, what the administration wants local police to do in terms of doing immigration enforcement is part of this massive increase in <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/10\/20\/trump-national-police-force-ice-287g\/\">287g agreements<\/a> that the administration has been signing with local police departments and state departments around the country.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota has eight of them, none of which are in Hennepin County. But I read into that statement that they would be potentially trying to push more of those agreements. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019re hearing anything to that effect.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> I think they have. I cannot remember what community it was in, but they were trying to push some kind of facility on a community. And community members showed up and said no. And I think it\u2019s very unlikely that community here in Minnesota, after what they\u2019ve seen, would voluntarily want to do that anyway. The reason I think communities do that, or different counties do it, is to raise money. They get money from ICE by housing people.<\/p>\n<p>And so that\u2019s not something that Hennepin County is ever going to do. And I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not something other counties are going to do, but they do need places to house all of these people they are picking up, even though they have no records. <\/p>\n<p>And I should tell people too, we have restaurants closing because there\u2019s no one to work there. We have abandoned cars that are still going in the middle of the street because somebody\u2019s been dragged out of it and taken away. This has been devastating to the community. And at the same time, Minnesotans know how to protect one another. That is why they\u2019re showing up in droves.<\/p>\n<p>That is why they showed up on the <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/24\/strike-minnesota-ice-renee-good-alex-pretti\/\">Friday with the march<\/a>. I\u2019ve heard everything from upward of 15,000 to 50,000 people showed up. I think that day was below zero. The temperature was below zero. Minnesotans care about their neighbors. They\u2019re delivering meals to people. They are there and they do not approve of the fact that their federal government is attacking them and their neighbors.\u00a0And they are resisting in pretty remarkable but probably not surprising ways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> We\u2019re going to leave it there. Thank you for joining me on the Intercept Briefing, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty,\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM: <\/strong>Of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>This was a great conversation. Really appreciate your time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>MM:<\/strong> Thank you.<\/p>\n<p><!-- BLOCK(newsletter)[0](%7B%22componentName%22%3A%22NEWSLETTER%22%2C%22entityType%22%3A%22SHORTCODE%22%2C%22optional%22%3Atrue%7D)(%7B%7D) --><\/p>\n<div class=\"newsletter-embed flex-col items-center print:hidden\" id=\"third-party--article-mid\" data-module=\"InlineNewsletter\" data-module-source=\"web_intercept_20241230_Inline_Signup_Replacement\">\n<div class=\"-mx-5 sm:-mx-10 p-5 sm:px-10 xl:-ml-5 lg:mr-0 xl:px-5 bg-accentLight hidden\" data-name=\"subscribed\">\n<h2 class=\"font-sans font-light uppercase text-[30px] leading-8 text-white tracking-[0.01em] mb-0\">\n      We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. 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But ICE is continuing to sweep cities around the country, expanding its efforts most recently in Maine. Elected officials are warning that however the courts respond to what they describe as extreme and dangerous federal overreach in Minnesota could portend what\u2019s next for other cities. In a letter supporting the lawsuit brought by Minnesota officials including Moriarty, who we just heard from, against DHS, 20 attorneys general <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.mnd.230268\/gov.uscourts.mnd.230268.94.2_1.pdf\">wrote<\/a>: \u201cIf left unchecked, the federal government will no doubt be emboldened to continue its unlawful conduct in Minnesota and to repeat it elsewhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Next, we\u2019ll hear from someone who has been preparing communities for just that. Jill Garvey is the executive director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stacup.org\/\">States at the Core<\/a>, an organization that leads and runs ICE Watch training programs. Welcome to the show, Jill.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jill Garvey:<\/strong> Thanks for having me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Over the last few weeks, concerns about safety have hit a high point after immigration agents killed observers Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. How are you talking to people about being safe when observing and documenting agents activities, particularly when law enforcement is blatantly breaking the law?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> When we talk to people and we train people to be observers or to document what\u2019s happening in their communities, we really focus on three things. One is documentation, how important it is to have as much footage as possible, as much evidence as possible about what is happening, but to do it as safely as possible.<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s a core piece of the training that thousands of people are getting right now and are joining, essentially. We find thousands of people from all over the country every week are doing what we call ICE Watch training or documentation training. What we find is that people are scared for their safety, but that they are resolved to do this anyway.<\/p>\n<p>And so we talk a lot about maintaining a safe distance, maintaining nonviolence, not interfering, not getting between an agent and their target \u2014 because that\u2019s not just dangerous for the observer, but it\u2019s dangerous for the people directly being targeted and other potential vulnerable people in the area.<\/p>\n<p>But we also talk about doing this in community. The beating heart of what we are seeing happen in cities and people getting prepared is their sense of community. So this isn\u2019t an individual activity. If you do it together, you are much safer and it is much more effective.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThis isn\u2019t an individual activity. If you do it together, you are much safer and it is much more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> And the idea being that if you\u2019re in community that disincentivizes agents from retaliating? Or can you tell us more about how that strengthens?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s a few things. One is the more people, the more eyes on the scene, whatever the operation or activity is, the more people watching, the less likely that there will be an escalation of violence. What we see most of the time is that ICE agents or Border Patrol agents don\u2019t want to be filmed. They don\u2019t want to be documented, and they certainly don\u2019t want a crowd of people watching them even from a safe distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the footage that people around the country have seen have been these sort of violent confrontations or clashes in certain cities, and so those do develop, but it is typically after ICE agents have already escalated some aggression against a community member.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe they are targeting children for arrest or detention. Maybe they are smashing somebody\u2019s window and trying to take them out of a vehicle. More often than not, having more people on the scene means that ICE agents pull out of that neighborhood and try to find a place that is quieter.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-right\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cThe more people watching, the less likely that there will be an escalation of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>We also know that we can\u2019t stop all this aggression. The aggression is the point of these operations. So we can\u2019t guarantee that people aren\u2019t going to be targeted with violent actions from federal law enforcement. What we can say is, if you\u2019re doing this in community, other people are going to be watching.<\/p>\n<p>We wouldn\u2019t know what really happened to Renee, we wouldn\u2019t really know what happened to Alex Pretti if their neighbors hadn\u2019t been bravely recording these incidences all the way through.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> And you\u2019re talking about documentation, it sounds like mostly video recording, audio recording. Are there other forms of documentation that you\u2019re training people on, or can you tell us more about exactly how people are documenting these instances?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> Primarily it is video documentation with their phones. One thing that we talk about that I think is a surprise to people is how much we want them to narrate or create some audio documentation while they are using video. So what we find in this new wave of ICE enforcement and it being documented by residents, is that people are often taking videos, or at least a couple months ago in Chicago and some other cities \u2014 people were taking videos, and it was really hard to tell what was going on just from the visual. So increasingly people are learning that they take the videos, but they also calmly narrate everything that they\u2019re seeing just in case, their hands are shaking and the camera\u2019s kind of migrating over here, but they\u2019re seeing something really important, right?<\/p>\n<p>So that audio, that eyewitness accounting of what is happening is also really important.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Can you tell us what you\u2019ve learned from the people in the communities participating in these trainings?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> So I think what I\u2019ve learned is that this is a multigenerational pretty broad spectrum of people who are getting engaged and going out there and doing this. So we\u2019re hearing from people who are young, we\u2019re hearing from people who are old. We have people who join our trainings who say, \u201cI\u2019m 83. How do I do this safely and effectively?\u201d We hear from a lot of people in rural and more remote areas and we hear from people who have not previously been involved in any sort of protest or political activity.<\/p>\n<p>The reason they\u2019re coming to these trainings and the reason they\u2019re going out with their cellphones and whistles in some places is because they\u2019re having some, I think, base reaction that is transcending typical politics to what they\u2019re seeing and what they understand the threat is.<\/p>\n<p>We hear a lot of people talking to us about how they understand the threat from the administration or from DHS on their neighbors and on their communities. And it\u2019s really much more rooted in an understanding that they think their freedoms are under threat, even if they are not an immigrant or even if they don\u2019t really have deep ties to immigrant communities, that this really matters to them and it really bothers them. So we hear a lot from folks who just haven\u2019t been engaged previously. But this for all those reasons is enough for them to step up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> On the right, some people, including the administration, claim that the individuals and the communities participating in these kinds of activities and protests are \u2014 they accuse them of being paid agitators or astro-turf groups.\u00a0What do you say to that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> I think the numbers don\u2019t really support that. The numbers don\u2019t lie. Even if you look at the footage, at the number of neighbors, residents who come out of their homes prepared to document what they\u2019re seeing in lots of places, <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/12\/03\/appalachia-nc-ice-protest-immigrants\/\">Charlotte, North Carolina<\/a>; Columbus, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; New Orleans; Chicago; LA; D.C. It\u2019s not possible that there\u2019s that many paid agitators.<\/p>\n<p>I also think it\u2019s just another part of the propaganda machine, right? They need an explanation for why they\u2019re losing. And they need an explanation to pull people off the the sense that \u201cHey, this isn\u2019t really about immigration. This is about authoritarian overreach. This is about militarizing certain cities that are political opponents or where democracy thrives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a weak argument that there\u2019s some major sophistication happening behind the scenes. I assure you there is not.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>[Laughs]<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG: <\/strong>[Laughs] This is a very basic training that we\u2019re providing and that most other people are providing to folks rooted in how to be a good neighbor, frankly. How to assert your rights, how to protect your neighbor\u2019s rights. So I think it\u2019s a little bit laughable. I also think it\u2019s a little bit desperate.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Speaking of authoritarian overreach, Trump invoked the Insurrection Act once again after an ICE officer killed Renee Good. What would happen if Trump invokes the Insurrection Act yet again? Would your advice change? If so, how are you all talking about this?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think our advice really changes other than for those people who live in places where the Insurrection Act could be invoked, understanding what that actually means. This is a pretty vague thing to invoke, or to enact, activate. So I do think it\u2019s people really understanding what it means. Does it mean that local law enforcement, local governance is disempowered in some ways? Yes, and that should be a concern for folks. But it doesn\u2019t strip you of your rights. Doesn\u2019t strip you of your First Amendment rights or your Fourth Amendment rights.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Were you doing these trainings prior to January of 2025, and what the timeline is there?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> So my organization, in partnership with some community defense networks in Chicago, started training more robustly in January 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>OK, got it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG: <\/strong>But there\u2019s roots in this training all the way back to 2017 when various groups started adapting other documentation training, and know-your-rights training into what a lot of people now refer to as ICE Watch or Migra Watch. But I think we saw a big uptick in interest from across the country in July of 2025. For various reasons, people started to get very concerned \u2014\u00a0and now, in hindsight, very good reason \u2014 that the Trump administration was really going to operationalize this playbook around <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/06\/09\/la-protests-ice-national-guard-trump-adam-schiff\/\">surging immigration enforcement officers<\/a> into certain places.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We had probably 100 people per training in the beginning, and now, like tonight, we have 7,000 people registered for training.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Is there anything else that I haven\u2019t asked you about that you think is important for people to know on these topics?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> So the recent news is that <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/28\/greg-bovino-tom-homan-ice-deportation-trump-minneapolis\/\">Bovino has been demoted<\/a>, and his sort of brand is being dismantled. But he\u2019s not a decision maker. He\u2019s not the architect of these strategies. So until we get to a point where Kristi Noem or Corey Lewandowski or Stephen Miller are really held to account for what they are doing in American cities people should be staying as vigilant as possible. Keep training, keep organizing their communities to respond when they come to Ohio or Pennsylvania or other states and cities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL:<\/strong> Many Democrats and even some Republicans now are calling on Kristi Noem to be impeached and all this stuff, and it\u2019s the lowest-hanging fruit here obviously for people. They can take Bovino out of Minneapolis, but they\u2019re just going to go on to the next city and continue doing the same thing with whoever they put in place next. So I think that\u2019s an important and fitting note for us to end on.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you so much for joining us on The Intercept Briefing, Jill Garvey,<\/p>\n<p><strong>JG:<\/strong> Thank you for having me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AL: <\/strong>That does it for this episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Sumi Aggarwal is our executive producer. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our managing editor. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer. Desiree Adib is our booking producer. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy editor. Will Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by David Bralow.<\/p>\n<p>Slip Stream provided our theme music.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to support our work, you can go to <a href=\"https:\/\/join.theintercept.com\/donate\/Donate_Podcast?source=interceptedshoutout&amp;recurring_period=one-time\">theintercept.com\/join<\/a>. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. If you haven\u2019t already, please subscribe to The Intercept Briefing wherever you listen to podcasts. And leave us a rating or a review, it helps other listeners to find us.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to send us a message, email us at <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/30\/minneapolis-ice-watch-alex-pretti-mary-moriarty\/mailto:podcasts@theintercept.com\">podcasts@theintercept.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Until next time, I\u2019m Akela Lacy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2026\/01\/30\/minneapolis-ice-watch-alex-pretti-mary-moriarty\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the two months Minnesota has been under siege by federal agents, immigration officers have shot and killed two U.S. citizens, poet and artist Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Local and state law enforcement say they\u2019ve been blocked from properly investigating the shootings of Good and Pretti.\u00a0 \u201cThe federal government has blocked our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}