In the past 30 days, three shooting deaths at the hands of federal immigration agents has captured the nation with massive protests and condemnation – beginning in Northridge with Keith Porter Jr. on New Year’s Eve, who was killed by an off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, then Renée Good on Jan. 7 by an ICE agent and most recently Alex Pretti by Border Patrol on Jan. 24.
A new book by Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, points to a troubling trend: federal immigration agents are becoming increasingly emboldened to use deadly force.
Titled “The ICE Shooting Scorecard,” the book documents 31 shootings by ICE agents in just the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term. According to Hutchinson, every shooting was against an individual who posed “no threat to ICE agents.”
“They go where they want to go, do what they want and, most importantly, they can use deadly force whenever they want to … because they know they’re protected [by the] Department of Justice and, of course, the Trump administration,” Hutchinson said, describing the agency as having “absolutely no checks or balances.”
In a Facebook Live video Sunday morning, a day after Pretti was killed, Hutchinson wasted no time in calling him a hero – an intensive care nurse for the Department of Veteran Affairs who was trying to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground by ICE agents.
Pretti was holding his cell phone when he was pepper-sprayed and wrestled to the ground by agents. Videos taken of the incident appear to show an agent removing a gun from Pretti’s waist before the first shot was fired. In less than five seconds, agents had fired 10 rounds.
Federal officials initially claimed that Pretti, who was legally licensed to carry a handgun, had approached Border Patrol officers with a gun and “attacked” them. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon before he was killed and described his actions as “domestic terrorism.”
Firsthand witness accounts and videos taken of the shooting have largely contradicted this portrayal.
“Give praise and tribute to his life and his work and his dedication and the supreme tragedy of it being snatched away by a lawless, out of control, vigilante, deadly, murderous operation masquerading as law enforcement,” Hutchinson said. He went on to call Pretti a “standard bearer for fighting and standing up for justice and against oppression and abuse.”
Looking at the many protests and demonstrations that have cropped up following the shootings, Hutchinson bluntly called them “ineffectual,” saying they haven’t done anything. Instead, he wants the officers involved in Pretti’s death to be identified, saying the public has the right to know.
Following the shooting of Porter, multiple organizations and community members in the Black community, including Black Lives Matter LA and the LA Urban Policy Roundtable, demanded that the identity of the off-duty agent who killed him be disclosed. Through court documents, it’s believed his name is Brian Palacios.
Hutchinson doubts that the Republican-controlled Congress will call for any sort of hearing over the ICE shootings. While Democrats do have the right to call for a hearing, Hutchinson doesn’t see legislators calling for one until there is a mass demand for it.
“I haven’t seen one hearing that’s been called on ICE’s use of deadly force,” Hutchinson said. “Make no mistake, … [a shooting] can happen again [and] it will happen again here.”
“The ICE Shooting Scorecard” is available on Kindle for free. It can be purchased through Amazon.
This topic suffers from sloppy reporting, exaggerations and liars on both sides. Remember, the way to get ICE out of your area is to take away their “reason” to be there.
Make your LA City and California state governments RELEASE for deportation all *CONVICTED CRIMINALS* that ICE requests. Easy!
When City and state prisons release them onto your streets, ICE must hunt them on your streets!
1. ICE was sold to us to deport “the worst illegal criminals,” NOT employed and productive immigrants!
2. Now, ICE and Border Patrol are *carelessly and sloppily* deporting honest, hard-working people, some who are IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR IMMIGRATION PAPERWORK!
3. Leftist mass media and leftist politicians CONSTANTLY OMIT FACTS and MISREPRESENT these situations.
4. These lies purposely INFLAME residents. Next, the unstable ones physically assault ICE or BP, or bring firearms to a demo, and thus ASK FOR trouble!
Remember, it was President who Obama built the cages and deported 3 million illegal immigrants, and no one rioted. Why not?
Because mass media and ruthless politicians weren’t misleading, lying and manipulating people’s emotions—because they were happy with Obama—even though he did the EXACT SAME THING.
Now that mass media and leftist politicians desperately want Trump out—so they can keep their fat salaries and under-the-table bribes—they stoop to thorough dishonesty that causes riots and gets their puppets killed.