Alex Pretti’s Parents Say Feds Stonewalling Investigation 

While the GOP loves to tout itself as the “Law and Order Party,” that commitment apparently doesn’t extend to its own members. The parents of Alex Pretti held a news conference on Tuesday calling out the federal government for keeping them in the dark about the investigation into Pretti’s death. 

“At every turn, they have ignored us, misled us and shielded Alex’s killers,” Pretti’s father, Michael, said at the news conference in Minneapolis, alongside his wife, Susan. 

“This is not normal,” Pretti added. “It is not justice.”

According to The New York Times, Pretti’s parents claim that the U.S. attorney for Minnesota had refused to share any information about Pretti’s killing or the federal civil rights investigation into his death. The family sent a letter to the Justice Department seeking answers about Pretti’s death and received no response. 

“The government’s steadfast protection of the identities of Alex’s killers is particularly cruel given the apparent campaign to publicly disparage Alex after his death by falsely accusing him of domestic terrorism,” the letter said. 

The Department of Homeland Security still hasn’t retracted a statement alleging that Pretti intended to “do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Mind you, Pretti was simply trying to help a woman who was shoved to the ground by an ICE agent before being thrown to the ground and shot several times in the back. 

“We don’t want to be on TV; we are not political activists,” Susan Pretti said on Tuesday. “All we want is justice for Alex.”

Steven L. Schleicher, a lawyer representing Pretti’s parents, said that the Justice Department’s refusal to provide basic information, such as the identities of those involved in Pretti’s death, amounted to a violation of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

Sadly, this is par for the course with the Trump administration. Pretti was fatally shot while protesting ICE over the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis only a few weeks prior. In both instances, the federal government immediately went about disparaging the victims and labeled them domestic terrorists with no evidence to back that up. 

Much like Pretti, there has been no movement in holding Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fatally shot Good, accountable. The FBI has even refused to cooperate with state authorities in the investigation of both Good and Pretti’s shootings. 

From The New York Times:

Officials in Minnesota have blamed the federal government for obstructing access to the scene of Mr. Pretti’s shooting, and have said federal officials dragged their feet for months by refusing to cooperate with local authorities or share evidence.

In March, Minnesota’s attorney general and the local prosecutor’s office sued the Department of Justice, accusing federal officials of refusing to share key evidence about Mr. Pretti’s case and two other shootings by immigration agents in Minneapolis in January.

Then in July, Mary Moriarty, the top prosecutor in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, said that the federal government had begun to share evidence into the killings of Mr. Pretti and Ms. Good. It was a breakthrough that would enable her office to decide whether the federal agents should be charged with state crimes.

When ICE can injure and kill both citizens and non-citizens alike with zero consequence, it’s hard to see them as anything other than a state-sponsored terrorist organization. The violence is the point. It’s not about enforcing immigration law; it’s about keeping people afraid.

Beyond those two high-profile cases, there have been growing reports about inhumane conditions in ICE detention facilities. Several people detained by ICE have been hospitalized, with the official explanations not lining up with the severity of the injuries. There have been no consequences for this behavior, sending the message that ICE agents can behave with impunity. 

SEE ALSO:

FBI Uncooperative With State Law Enforcement In Pretti Investigation

Alex Pretti: DOJ Will Conduct Civil Rights Investigation