Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield vowed the city “stands with the people of Minnesota” in their calls for a “full and independent investigation” into the Saturday death of ICU nurse Alex Pretti who was killed by a federal agent during an immigration enforcement protest.
Sheffield was among the leaders across Michigan over the weekend to condemn federal immigration policies and violence after Pretti was fatally shot on Jan. 24 during a protest in the streets of Minneapolis. Pretti began participating in the protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs officer, according to the Associated Press.
Pretti, 37, was shot just over a mile from where an ICE officer killed 37-year-old Good.
Sheffield, in a statement, said Pretti’s death represents “another tragic and preventable loss of life.”
“What we are witnessing raises serious concerns about America’s safety, rights, and freedoms,” Sheffield said. “As more protests unfold, they must be allowed to proceed peacefully and without violence.”
Detroiters have joined communities nationwide, protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown since his return to office on Jan. 20, 2025.
In a livestreamed weekend press conference, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called on Trump’s administration to pull the “untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person.”
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also weighed in, following Pretti’s shooting, saying in a statement that the violations of rights and freedoms are unacceptable and “no one should accept this.”
“Michiganders stand with the people of Minnesota as they exercise their First Amendment right to protest and make their voices heard peacefully,” Whitmer said.
Some of Michigan’s 2026 gubernatorial candidates shared similar views. Former Detroit mayor Mike Duggan, an independent candidate for Michigan governor, said he was “sickened” by the events unfolding in Minneapolis, saying the mission from the Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records is “not recognizable today.”
“The (Trump) administration must recognize the very real pain Americans are feeling today,” Duggan said in a statement issued on Jan. 25, urging the federal government to “immediately diffuse the situation and end the violence.”
“This isn’t about left or right,” he added. “It’s about right and wrong.”
Michigan Secretary of State and Democratic candidate for governor, Jocelyn Benson, posted Jan. 24, about Pretti’s death on the social media platform X. Benson wrote that she watched footage of Pretti’s shooting “with horror,” saying that standing up to violence and protecting First Amendment rights “are not partisan issues.”
Michigan Senate Minority Leader Arik Nesbitt, R-Porter Township, a Republican candidate for governor, responded to Benson’s post on X with his own, vowing “I’ll stand WITH ICE, not the people attacking them as they try to remove dangerous criminals from our communities.”
Pretti’s shooting has renewed debate and calls from Republicans for a deeper investigation into immigration tactics in Minnesota. The president, in response, argued on Truth Social that Democratic officials encouraged people to obstruct law enforcement operations and pressed for Minnesota officials to “turn over” people who were in the U.S. illegally.
In the wake of Pretti’s death, some Democratic senators have come out in opposition to a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, the AP reported.
Joining the pushback, Michigan’s two U.S. senators say they plan to vote this week against a Department of Homeland Security funding bill.
“As all Americans can see with their own eyes, ICE and those under their command are not acting as responsible law enforcement agencies,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin said in a statement on Saturday, Jan. 24. “They are recklessly inciting violence at the whims of the President. And they must be reined in before there is more killing.”
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, responding Saturday on X to the killing of Pretti, said the Trump administration “must turn the temperature down and stop this horrific violence.”
On Sunday, Jan. 25, Peters went further, saying in a statement that he plans to vote no on the DHS funding bill this week “because it lacks necessary reforms to immigration enforcement.”
Senators have days to approve a massive spending package. Bills include annual funding for the Department of Homeland Security and money for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The bills would impose new restrictions on the department such as requiring de-escalation training for agents and adding more oversight of detention facilities. The measure passed the House of Representatives on Jan. 22 before it went to the Senate, within a larger funding package.
Trump’s administration endorsed “absolute immunity” for immigration officers following Good’s shooting death. The hard-line stance heightened efforts in Southwest Detroit and other communities across Michigan to adopt self-defense methods via transportation networks, whistles, fundraisers, patrols and monitoring ICE presence due to their effectiveness against agents in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York.
Federal officials have said Pretti was carrying a gun, but bystander videos, backed by witness accounts, don’t show him with a weapon. Instead, he is seen holding his phone up, apparently filming federal agents, before he is thrown to the ground, his gun appears to be removed from the holster by a federal agent, and then he is shot multiple times.
Detroit City Council members have said that the body is considering action to protect residents amid demands from activists to declare Detroit a sanctuary city and exile federal immigration agents that residents described as lawless and dangerous.
District 6 Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero submitted memos in the days following Good’s death, seeking a legal analysis of the council’s ability to keep ICE away from certain areas and a report on how Detroit police interact with ICE. DPD policy prohibits officers from asking residents for their citizen status, but police aren’t banned from supporting ICE operations.
Santiago-Romero represents a multi-ethnic community in District 6 that’s experienced an increased ICE presence over the last year. She has said that federal spending on “the immigration detention machine” hasn’t made communities safer.
BridgeDetroit and Detroit Free Press reporter Nushrat Rahman contributed.
USA TODAY reporters Zachary Schermele, Michael Loria, N’dea Yancey-Bragg, Kathryn Palmer, Christopher Cann also contributed to this report.
Reach reporter Nushrat Rahman at nrahman@freepress.com.