Less than 24 hours after a group of Nyack high school students, local activists and one county official held a lively rally in Hezekiah Easter Veterans Memorial Park to denounce the treatment of immigrants and non-immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) forces operating in Rockland County, federal ICE agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old registered nurse who was recording the actions of the agents.
Pretti, who worked at the veterans hospital in Minneapolis is the second person killed by ICE agents this month, following the shooting of Minneapolis mom Rene Good a little more than two weeks ago.
The situation there appears to be untenable and deteriorating fast. Nyack’s own Charles Homans, a native Minneapolitan, writes eloquently in a New York Times story published today that a nearly worst-case scenario is playing out in the Twin Cities.
Here’s a quote from Homans’ story that I found most disturbing: “The federal agents themselves looked more like a platoon of soldiers navigating a hostile foreign capital than conventional law enforcement in an American city.”
Although the conflict has not risen to that level of bleakneas, Rockland has experienced its own ICE-related horror stories, and local officials, activists and residents say the controversial agency’s activity is leading to fear and disrupting communities all over the Hudson Valley.
Local Democrats, most notably the legion of candidates running for the right to challenge Republican Mike Lawler for Rockland’s only congressional seat, have condemned ICE’s presence and actions in Rockland and most of have called for the defunding or complete abolishment of the agency.
Beth Davidson, a County legislator from Nyack who is also a parent and former school board member, was at the protest to support the high school activists.
“I was so proud to join my young constituents from Nyack High School at a student-led protest against ICE’s lawless and barbaric behavior,” said Davidson, who is among Democrats running in the NY-17 primary, in an email.
National Democrats, who remain outnumbered in both the House and Senate, say they will not fund ICE or any other Homeland Security budgets until Trump takes steps to de-escalate the tensions in Minnesota.
Trump administration and ICE officials have said the Good and Pretti killings were justified, saying agents were defending themselves from threats uncooperative. On social media, Lawler did not respond to the latest shooting in Minneapolis or the rally in Nyack. For the most part, he has supported ICE efforts in so-called Sanctuary cities.
Organizers of the Nyack rally, who wished to stay anonymous as they navigate their early forays into protesting government action, said in a statement:
“We are so grateful to those who showed their support to us today as we protested against ICE’s regime of terror in this nation. We are even more grateful to all the students that turned out today to protest. The amount of people we turned out gives us hope that what ICE is doing to our communities will not go unpunished. This is just the beginning of our movement to bring awareness to the horrors that ICE is inflicting on our country. Keep your eyes on us, we’re not done yet.”
Editor’s note: To see a full slideshow of Andrea Swenson’s best pictures from the event click on the arrows below:
See more of Andrea’s recent Photo Shoots here and find even more of her outstanding work on Instagram.