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Sat 24 Jan 2026 21.32 EST

Large protests spread across US cities on Saturday – including Minneapolis, New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Providence, Rhode Island – after 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a registered nurse living in Minneapolis, was shot dead by federal agents.

The wave of demonstrations come just one day after thousands marched through the streets of Minneapolis to protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Protesters again braved the extreme cold to speak out against the agency and show support for Pretti and others who have been harmed by the surge of immigration agents who have flooded the city in recent week.

Thousands more rallied in Union Square in New York City, with footage showing demonstrators shouting: “Say it once, say it twice, we will not put up with ICE!”

Videos analyzed by The New York Times appear to contradict federal accounts of the shooting. The man, an I.C.U. nurse, was an American citizen with no criminal record, the city police chief said.

Jan. 24, 2026

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The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said it had joined Minnesota state officials in filing a federal lawsuit on Saturday night “seeking to prevent the destruction of evidence related to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.” The text of the lawsuit was not immediately available.

John Mitnick, who once was the head attorney at the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration, criticized his former agency on Saturday night. “I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty,” he wrote on social media.

Jan. 24, 2026
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Federal immigration agents have broken windows and dragged occupants out of their vehicles. They have forcefully tackled people to the ground. They have pushed and shoved protesters, and deployed pepper spray directly in their faces.

For weeks, residents have documented the scenes unfolding as federal agents pursue President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The videos have circulated widely and intensified outrage and fear among many Minnesotans.

Marty Kurcias, 76, who was protesting at the airport on Friday, said the aggressive treatment he has seen of Minnesotans was jarring. “It can’t go on like this,” he said, adding, “We don’t abide by cruelty or violence.”

Images of a man getting pepper-sprayed at close range while being held down by Border Patrol agents fueled more tension in Minneapolis.

Jan. 23, 2026

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There was the American citizen dragged out of his home in subzero weather in his underwear. And the detention of a 5-year-old boy wearing a Spider-Man backpack and a hat with floppy ears drew outrage from school officials.

But photos of a Border Patrol agent squirting pepper spray in the face of a man who was being pinned down by fellow officers on Wednesday searingly captured why the ongoing immigration operation has been met with furious resistance on the streets of Minneapolis.

“No one looking at this image can seriously claim this is about public safety,” said Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis. “It should alarm every American because if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.”

When federal immigration agents pounded on the door of his Minneapolis home, the oldest son in a family of 10 knew he had to move his siblings to a safer place.

Their mother, a 41-year-old Indigenous Ecuadorian office cleaner without a known criminal record besides minor traffic offenses, had been detained in early January because she entered the country illegally. Her eldest children feared they would be next, leaving behind their 5-month-old brother and six other children under 16 years old.

“The immigration agents were knocking on our door very late at night, and that’s when I became afraid,” said the 20-year-old son, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear additional family members could face deportation. “I’m afraid that I’ll be taken and my brothers and sisters will be in the hands of the government.”

The White House used a photo that was digitally altered with Google AI tools in its PR campaign against resistance to the federal agents’ assault on Minnesota, according to a Google detection system that confirms whether the tech giant’s AI tools were used to alter a photo.

In the original photo, local civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong was shown being escorted by authorities after her arrest in connection to a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The version published by the White House’s official X account showed an image that had been altered to make it appear as if Levy Armstrong were openly weeping.