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ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America – Las Vegas Sun News

January 31, 2026

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EDITORIAL:

ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America

Friday, Jan. 30, 2026 | 2 a.m.

View more of the Sun’s opinion section

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• Columnists – local and syndicated writers
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The killing of Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street over the weekend should end any remaining illusions about where Donald Trump’s second-term presidency is headed. This was not an isolated tragedy, not a “confusing situation,” not the regrettable outcome of a tense encounter. The killings of Renee Nicole Good and Pretti in Minneapolis are an inflection point — the moment when the authoritarian impulses Trump has long telegraphed crossed fully from rhetoric into bloodshed.

Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse who cared for veterans at the VA, and a concealed-carry license holder. He was standing in the street, exercising his constitutional rights to speak and assemble freely as part of a peaceful protest. He attempted to help a female protester get to her feet after she was thrown to the ground by federal agents.Within seconds, he was shot dead from behind, killed by his own government even though he posed no threat and was defenseless at the time.

Almost immediately, Trump administration officials rushed to the microphones to smear Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.” But video evidence and even Customs and Border Protection’s own preliminary review reveal the lie being spread by Trump’s minions to manipulate the American people, distort the truth and consolidate power in Trump.

This pattern should be chillingly familiar. During his first campaign, Trump demonstrated that he was willing to violate the law and lie repeatedly to manipulate the public about his business acumen, his wealth and his relationships with everyone from Russian oligarchs to an adult film star.

Now, in his second term, the message is unmistakable: Laws, court orders, constitutional rights and even the lives of the American people, are expendable if they interfere with his pursuit of power and impunity.

Pretti’s killing did not happen in a vacuum. In January alone, at least eight people have died in encounters with federal immigration officials or while in ICE custody. In several of those cases, eyewitness accounts and recordings directly contradict the official narratives issued by the administration. At least two of the dead were U.S. citizens who asked only to exercise their constitutional rights to move, assemble and speak freely; to lawfully carry a firearm; and, if accused of wrongdoing, to receive due process.

Instead, they were met with what can only be described as summary executions by a federal force that increasingly resembles a private army loyal to Trump alone.

Moreover, the Trump administration has shown an alarming comfort with lying about the circumstances surrounding the death of Americans at the hands of ICE.

Consider the facts in Pretti’s case. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed he “approached officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun,” neglecting to mention that the weapon was holstered and he never reached for it. The government’s own preliminary review concedes there was no brandishing — only a refusal to move while filming agents, followed by an attempt to help a woman up, then being swarmed by federal agents and then gunfire. In fact, it was federal agents who removed Pretti’s gun from its holster prior to shooting the unarmed and incapacitated man multiple times in the back, ending his life.

The same script played out earlier this month with the killing of Good, a Minneapolis mother of three shot in her car by a federal agent. Her last words to the man who killed her as she tried to drive away from the scene: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Hardly the sentiments of a terrorist.

She, too, was instantly labeled a “violent rioter” and “domestic terrorist.” Trump himself claimed she ran over an officer. Video evidence shows that she had the wheels of her car turned away from the federal agent who shot her, undermining the administration’s certainty and raising profound questions about the use of lethal force.

And then there is the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban immigrant who died in ICE custody in El Paso, Texas. ICE claimed suicide. A witness described a chokehold. An autopsy found injuries consistent with a chokehold and potentially with homicide. Once again, the official story collapses under scrutiny.

Trump administration officials have suggested that because Pretti carried a holstered weapon and filmed agents, that his killing was “legally justified.” By this standard, law enforcement should have opened fire on the thousands of Jan. 6 attackers who killed and maimed Capitol police, or Kyle Rittenhouse, or the armed militiamen who invaded the Michigan statehouse, or the armed demonstrators intimidating voters in Arizona.

For those who voted for Trump, take note. The danger that was once reserved for immigrants, people of color or LGBTQ Americans is now at your doorstep. This is not Barack Obama or Joe Biden ordering masked federal agents into the streets without training. It is not a Democratic administration asserting that it is “legally justified” for the federal government to shoot anyone who lawfully carries a gun near a protest. It is Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which controls every branch of the federal government.

Nor should we forget that as Trump proclaims support for the protesters in Iran and says the state shouldn’t kill them, his administration is killing protesters in the U.S. because they oppose his policies.

Worse still, as conservative commentator Joe Rogan pointed out last week, it appears that one of Trump’s primary motivations for sending ICE into the streets is simply to distract from an even larger national scandal: the Epstein files.

Despite a federal law mandating the release of the files by Dec. 19, Trump’s Justice Department has released only about 1% of the files thus far. At its current pace, the department won’t release all the files until 2030.

Last week, Rogan implied that ICE’s massive ongoing operations are designed to distract from Trump’s potential involvement in a child-sex trafficking ring. It’s an immigration crackdown weaponized to divert attention from one of the few scandals that could stand in the way of Trump’s authoritarian ambitions.

We don’t know if Rogan is correct or not, because like everyone else, we haven’t seen the files. What we do know is that regardless of the motivation, Trump and his minions are trashing the Constitution and killing American citizens with no cause or legitimate justification.

Authoritarianism does not arrive all at once. It advances in steps, each normalized by fear, propaganda and the vilification of the dead. The killings in Minneapolis mark the moment when the line was crossed, when the erosion of rights turned unmistakably lethal. If Americans do not recognize them as such, the next inflection point may come even closer to home.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America – Las Vegas Sun News

ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America – Las Vegas Sun News

January 31, 2026

• News, Business Sports, Politics, Opinion, Entertainment, Calendar, Raiders, Podcasts, Las Vegas Weekly, Subscribe

EDITORIAL:

ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America

Friday, Jan. 30, 2026 | 2 a.m.

View more of the Sun’s opinion section

• Editorials – the Sun’s viewpoint
• Columnists – local and syndicated writers
• Letters to the editor – readers’ views
• Write a letter to the editor

The killing of Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street over the weekend should end any remaining illusions about where Donald Trump’s second-term presidency is headed. This was not an isolated tragedy, not a “confusing situation,” not the regrettable outcome of a tense encounter. The killings of Renee Nicole Good and Pretti in Minneapolis are an inflection point — the moment when the authoritarian impulses Trump has long telegraphed crossed fully from rhetoric into bloodshed.

Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse who cared for veterans at the VA, and a concealed-carry license holder. He was standing in the street, exercising his constitutional rights to speak and assemble freely as part of a peaceful protest. He attempted to help a female protester get to her feet after she was thrown to the ground by federal agents.Within seconds, he was shot dead from behind, killed by his own government even though he posed no threat and was defenseless at the time.

Almost immediately, Trump administration officials rushed to the microphones to smear Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.” But video evidence and even Customs and Border Protection’s own preliminary review reveal the lie being spread by Trump’s minions to manipulate the American people, distort the truth and consolidate power in Trump.

This pattern should be chillingly familiar. During his first campaign, Trump demonstrated that he was willing to violate the law and lie repeatedly to manipulate the public about his business acumen, his wealth and his relationships with everyone from Russian oligarchs to an adult film star.

Now, in his second term, the message is unmistakable: Laws, court orders, constitutional rights and even the lives of the American people, are expendable if they interfere with his pursuit of power and impunity.

Pretti’s killing did not happen in a vacuum. In January alone, at least eight people have died in encounters with federal immigration officials or while in ICE custody. In several of those cases, eyewitness accounts and recordings directly contradict the official narratives issued by the administration. At least two of the dead were U.S. citizens who asked only to exercise their constitutional rights to move, assemble and speak freely; to lawfully carry a firearm; and, if accused of wrongdoing, to receive due process.

Instead, they were met with what can only be described as summary executions by a federal force that increasingly resembles a private army loyal to Trump alone.

Moreover, the Trump administration has shown an alarming comfort with lying about the circumstances surrounding the death of Americans at the hands of ICE.

Consider the facts in Pretti’s case. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed he “approached officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun,” neglecting to mention that the weapon was holstered and he never reached for it. The government’s own preliminary review concedes there was no brandishing — only a refusal to move while filming agents, followed by an attempt to help a woman up, then being swarmed by federal agents and then gunfire. In fact, it was federal agents who removed Pretti’s gun from its holster prior to shooting the unarmed and incapacitated man multiple times in the back, ending his life.

The same script played out earlier this month with the killing of Good, a Minneapolis mother of three shot in her car by a federal agent. Her last words to the man who killed her as she tried to drive away from the scene: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Hardly the sentiments of a terrorist.

She, too, was instantly labeled a “violent rioter” and “domestic terrorist.” Trump himself claimed she ran over an officer. Video evidence shows that she had the wheels of her car turned away from the federal agent who shot her, undermining the administration’s certainty and raising profound questions about the use of lethal force.

And then there is the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban immigrant who died in ICE custody in El Paso, Texas. ICE claimed suicide. A witness described a chokehold. An autopsy found injuries consistent with a chokehold and potentially with homicide. Once again, the official story collapses under scrutiny.

Trump administration officials have suggested that because Pretti carried a holstered weapon and filmed agents, that his killing was “legally justified.” By this standard, law enforcement should have opened fire on the thousands of Jan. 6 attackers who killed and maimed Capitol police, or Kyle Rittenhouse, or the armed militiamen who invaded the Michigan statehouse, or the armed demonstrators intimidating voters in Arizona.

For those who voted for Trump, take note. The danger that was once reserved for immigrants, people of color or LGBTQ Americans is now at your doorstep. This is not Barack Obama or Joe Biden ordering masked federal agents into the streets without training. It is not a Democratic administration asserting that it is “legally justified” for the federal government to shoot anyone who lawfully carries a gun near a protest. It is Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which controls every branch of the federal government.

Nor should we forget that as Trump proclaims support for the protesters in Iran and says the state shouldn’t kill them, his administration is killing protesters in the U.S. because they oppose his policies.

Worse still, as conservative commentator Joe Rogan pointed out last week, it appears that one of Trump’s primary motivations for sending ICE into the streets is simply to distract from an even larger national scandal: the Epstein files.

Despite a federal law mandating the release of the files by Dec. 19, Trump’s Justice Department has released only about 1% of the files thus far. At its current pace, the department won’t release all the files until 2030.

Last week, Rogan implied that ICE’s massive ongoing operations are designed to distract from Trump’s potential involvement in a child-sex trafficking ring. It’s an immigration crackdown weaponized to divert attention from one of the few scandals that could stand in the way of Trump’s authoritarian ambitions.

We don’t know if Rogan is correct or not, because like everyone else, we haven’t seen the files. What we do know is that regardless of the motivation, Trump and his minions are trashing the Constitution and killing American citizens with no cause or legitimate justification.

Authoritarianism does not arrive all at once. It advances in steps, each normalized by fear, propaganda and the vilification of the dead. The killings in Minneapolis mark the moment when the line was crossed, when the erosion of rights turned unmistakably lethal. If Americans do not recognize them as such, the next inflection point may come even closer to home.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America – Las Vegas Sun News

ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America – Las Vegas Sun News

January 31, 2026

• News, Business Sports, Politics, Opinion, Entertainment, Calendar, Raiders, Podcasts, Las Vegas Weekly, Subscribe

EDITORIAL:

ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America

Friday, Jan. 30, 2026 | 2 a.m.

View more of the Sun’s opinion section

• Editorials – the Sun’s viewpoint
• Columnists – local and syndicated writers
• Letters to the editor – readers’ views
• Write a letter to the editor

The killing of Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street over the weekend should end any remaining illusions about where Donald Trump’s second-term presidency is headed. This was not an isolated tragedy, not a “confusing situation,” not the regrettable outcome of a tense encounter. The killings of Renee Nicole Good and Pretti in Minneapolis are an inflection point — the moment when the authoritarian impulses Trump has long telegraphed crossed fully from rhetoric into bloodshed.

Pretti was a 37-year-old ICU nurse who cared for veterans at the VA, and a concealed-carry license holder. He was standing in the street, exercising his constitutional rights to speak and assemble freely as part of a peaceful protest. He attempted to help a female protester get to her feet after she was thrown to the ground by federal agents.Within seconds, he was shot dead from behind, killed by his own government even though he posed no threat and was defenseless at the time.

Almost immediately, Trump administration officials rushed to the microphones to smear Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and “would-be assassin.” But video evidence and even Customs and Border Protection’s own preliminary review reveal the lie being spread by Trump’s minions to manipulate the American people, distort the truth and consolidate power in Trump.

This pattern should be chillingly familiar. During his first campaign, Trump demonstrated that he was willing to violate the law and lie repeatedly to manipulate the public about his business acumen, his wealth and his relationships with everyone from Russian oligarchs to an adult film star.

Now, in his second term, the message is unmistakable: Laws, court orders, constitutional rights and even the lives of the American people, are expendable if they interfere with his pursuit of power and impunity.

Pretti’s killing did not happen in a vacuum. In January alone, at least eight people have died in encounters with federal immigration officials or while in ICE custody. In several of those cases, eyewitness accounts and recordings directly contradict the official narratives issued by the administration. At least two of the dead were U.S. citizens who asked only to exercise their constitutional rights to move, assemble and speak freely; to lawfully carry a firearm; and, if accused of wrongdoing, to receive due process.

Instead, they were met with what can only be described as summary executions by a federal force that increasingly resembles a private army loyal to Trump alone.

Moreover, the Trump administration has shown an alarming comfort with lying about the circumstances surrounding the death of Americans at the hands of ICE.

Consider the facts in Pretti’s case. The Department of Homeland Security initially claimed he “approached officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun,” neglecting to mention that the weapon was holstered and he never reached for it. The government’s own preliminary review concedes there was no brandishing — only a refusal to move while filming agents, followed by an attempt to help a woman up, then being swarmed by federal agents and then gunfire. In fact, it was federal agents who removed Pretti’s gun from its holster prior to shooting the unarmed and incapacitated man multiple times in the back, ending his life.

The same script played out earlier this month with the killing of Good, a Minneapolis mother of three shot in her car by a federal agent. Her last words to the man who killed her as she tried to drive away from the scene: “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.” Hardly the sentiments of a terrorist.

She, too, was instantly labeled a “violent rioter” and “domestic terrorist.” Trump himself claimed she ran over an officer. Video evidence shows that she had the wheels of her car turned away from the federal agent who shot her, undermining the administration’s certainty and raising profound questions about the use of lethal force.

And then there is the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban immigrant who died in ICE custody in El Paso, Texas. ICE claimed suicide. A witness described a chokehold. An autopsy found injuries consistent with a chokehold and potentially with homicide. Once again, the official story collapses under scrutiny.

Trump administration officials have suggested that because Pretti carried a holstered weapon and filmed agents, that his killing was “legally justified.” By this standard, law enforcement should have opened fire on the thousands of Jan. 6 attackers who killed and maimed Capitol police, or Kyle Rittenhouse, or the armed militiamen who invaded the Michigan statehouse, or the armed demonstrators intimidating voters in Arizona.

For those who voted for Trump, take note. The danger that was once reserved for immigrants, people of color or LGBTQ Americans is now at your doorstep. This is not Barack Obama or Joe Biden ordering masked federal agents into the streets without training. It is not a Democratic administration asserting that it is “legally justified” for the federal government to shoot anyone who lawfully carries a gun near a protest. It is Donald Trump and the Republican Party, which controls every branch of the federal government.

Nor should we forget that as Trump proclaims support for the protesters in Iran and says the state shouldn’t kill them, his administration is killing protesters in the U.S. because they oppose his policies.

Worse still, as conservative commentator Joe Rogan pointed out last week, it appears that one of Trump’s primary motivations for sending ICE into the streets is simply to distract from an even larger national scandal: the Epstein files.

Despite a federal law mandating the release of the files by Dec. 19, Trump’s Justice Department has released only about 1% of the files thus far. At its current pace, the department won’t release all the files until 2030.

Last week, Rogan implied that ICE’s massive ongoing operations are designed to distract from Trump’s potential involvement in a child-sex trafficking ring. It’s an immigration crackdown weaponized to divert attention from one of the few scandals that could stand in the way of Trump’s authoritarian ambitions.

We don’t know if Rogan is correct or not, because like everyone else, we haven’t seen the files. What we do know is that regardless of the motivation, Trump and his minions are trashing the Constitution and killing American citizens with no cause or legitimate justification.

Authoritarianism does not arrive all at once. It advances in steps, each normalized by fear, propaganda and the vilification of the dead. The killings in Minneapolis mark the moment when the line was crossed, when the erosion of rights turned unmistakably lethal. If Americans do not recognize them as such, the next inflection point may come even closer to home.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ICE killing in Minneapolis marks a dangerous new chapter for America – Las Vegas Sun News

Editorial cartoon: Got your passport?

@dallasnews

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2025/11/22/editorial-cartoon-got-your-passport/

#Humor #Cartoon #ICE #USPol #Dallas #Texas #MikeSmith #LasVegasSun

Masked police raids in Trump’s America could target you next – Las Vegas Sun News

EDITORIAL:

Masked police raids in Trump’s America could target you next

Immigration agents detain two men at a car wash on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Montebello, Calif. Photo by: Gregory Bull / AP

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025 | 2 a.m.

View more of the Sun’s opinion section

• Editorials – the Sun’s viewpoint
• Columnists – local and syndicated writers
• Letters to the editor – readers’ views
• Write a letter to the editor

Two fathers are dead. Their families shattered. And the blame rests squarely with Donald Trump. In the span of barely a month, immigration enforcement raids under his administration have claimed the lives of a farmworker in Ventura County, Calif., and another man struck by a vehicle on the freeway while fleeing a chaotic Home Depot roundup in Monrovia, Calif. These deaths were not unavoidable tragedies, they were foreseeable consequences of reckless policy and deliberate intimidation.

The Monrovia death unfolded with sickening familiarity. Witnesses say federal agents descended on the Home Depot parking lot — a known gathering place for day laborers — without warning, sowing panic among workers. Shouts of “la migra, corre.” (“Immigration, run!”) sent men scattering. One fled over a concrete wall and straight into freeway traffic. Minutes later, he lay mortally injured. His daughter arrived at the scene, desperate for news. She left in tears.

This would be horrific enough on its own. But the raid itself may well have been unlawful. More than a month ago, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order forbidding immigration sweeps that target people based on race, language, occupation or location. Yet ICE pressed ahead, violating not just the spirit but potentially the letter of the court’s directive.

Mere hour after the death in Monrovia, heavily armed agents staged arrests and shows of intimidation outside the Japanese American National Museum, where California Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a news conference. This was no coincidence. It was a calculated display meant to send a message: federal power will be used to humiliate, menace and silence political opponents.

These troubling tactics are part of clear and certain effort to establish a police state in the U.S. The signs are everywhere in Trump’s administration: masked troops, significant domestic surveillance, using the military in city streets, defining opponents as less than human, treating protest as insurrection and, importantly, the defiance of the judiciary.

Most Americans under 40 — especially white Americans — have little direct experience with secret police or police states after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. But now there are signs such times may be returning. China, El Salvador, Russia, Hungary, Argentina and of course, the Trump administration, are all on a path leading to private police organizations that ignore the rule of law and commit acts of terrorism designed to traumatize the nation.

If you think that describing some of the actions of federal agents right now as “terrorism” is an overstatement, we’d ask you to consider that the FBI describes terrorism as a violent, criminal and ideologically motivated act. Under the USA PATRIOT Act and Homeland Security Act, terrorism involves attempts to coerce civilian populations or influence government conduct through armed acts of violence or intimidation. ICE’s recent raids check every box. Wearing a badge doesn’t change that reality.

In fact, history has shown that authoritarian states are often introduced by a wave of domestic terrorism administered by agents of the state. It’s about more than shock and awe, it’s about traumatizing the population such that it will be pliable to the demands of the state just to get some relief from the pressure. Importantly, citizens of authoritarian states can fall victim to such tactics just as quickly as immigrants and others who are perceived as outsiders.

We are already seeing U.S. citizens swept up in ICE raids, thrown to the ground, brutalized and forcibly taken into custody despite committing no crime. In one particularly notable incident, an 18-year-old high school student repeatedly told federal officers that he was a citizen and that he could prove it. He recorded a federal officer responding by telling him “You got no rights here, you’re an illegal brother.” His crime: being a brown American in the age of Donald Trump.

Trump and our cosplaying Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have imagined an ICE whose sole purpose is to rid the United States of brown-skinned Spanish-speaking people, whom they perceive as less than human, even if they are citizens, long-time productive residents or young people who have never known any other home. Such tactics violate the Constitution and the core concept of law enforcement that has served this country in good stead for decades. It also violates a spirit of Americanism that welcomes law-abiding immigrants, who historically have fueled economic growth.

While thousands of Americans have taken to the streets to protest these brutal tactics, every instance of Trump, Noem and ICE leadership ignoring court orders, denying civil rights and otherwise seeking to neuter the power of the judiciary is another step toward a repressive police state. And too many Americans are sitting on the sidelines and refusing to get involved as our nation transforms into a cheap junta in real time.

The consequences are not abstract. Two people are dead. These were husbands, fathers and human beings who wanted nothing more than the opportunity to work hard and earn a fair wage to provide for their family. Their blood is on Trump’s hands. Innocent people have been jailed, including some innocent people sent to hellhole prisons in other countries. People who are arrested are denied the opportunity to prove their case before a judge.

There is a moral rot at the core of these operations. Law enforcement exists to protect the public, not to terrify it or act as a secret police force doing Trump’s extrajudicial bidding. Proper law enforcement should not hide behind masks. Masks are for thugs and criminals. Masks are for people ashamed of their actions.

The lawlessness and recklessness with which ICE is carrying out its immigration goals threatens not only immigrant communities, but U.S. citizens and the rule of law itself. America cannot allow armed intimidation, racial profiling and disregard for the courts to become normalized tools of governance. The lives already lost are a damning testament to where that path leads. The masked police could be coming for you next, if you have an unpopular idea or the wrong skin color.

DWD Editor’s Note: Thank you Las Vegas Sun. These masked zero-police are not normal. This President is not normal. Hang in there!

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Masked police raids in Trump’s America could target you next – Las Vegas Sun News

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