Socialist Organizer Emergency Statement on Minnesota

January 24, 2026

The Labor Movement Must Extend Strike to Stop the Murder of Minnesotans and Defeat Congressional Bill to Fund ICE by $10 Billion!

Long live Renee Good! Long live Alex Pretti

After the videotaped murder of Renee Good by ICE in Minnesota, on Friday, January 23, over 50 labor unions and community organizations organized a statewide work stoppage to demand an end to the federal occupation of the Twin Cities by ICE and federal agents. Over 75,000 workers marched in Minneapolis alone despite the frigid winter weather.

On January 24, federal immigration agents executed Alex Pretti in cold blood. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse at the Veterans Affairs murdered by multiple CBP officers who shot him in the back in plain daylight and clamped down on protesters present. In response, the Trump Administration has doubled down threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and crush the righteous resistance in Minnesota.

The working-class of Minnesota is facing a rare and historically significant moment to show the country the way forward against the Trump regime. The time is now for the Labor Movement of Minnesota to extend its strike. Only the workers of Minnesota and their organizations have the power to stop the federal occupation. The mass strikes of January 23 must be extended until the federal occupation of Minnesota is ended.

Already Democratic leaders seek to put themselves before this growing mass movement, despite Democrats being responsible for the modern immigration machine. As tens of thousands of Minnesotan workers went on strike, and tens of thousands more demonstrated in solidarity actions across the country, a wing of the Democratic Party was helping pass federal legislation in the House of Representatives that would further fund federal ICE operations by $10 billion in the upcoming fiscal year. This legislation is now before the Senate.

The Labor Movement must not rely on the Democratic Party or wait for the midterm elections to vote for the same party that created the deportation machine inherited by Trump. There is no time to waste. The struggle is entering a new situation. The Labor Movement must extend its January 23 strikes and extend them into a real general strike to end the occupation of Minnesota and defeat the federal funding of ICE.

All out in defense of Minnesota! Long live Renee Good! Long live Alex Pretti!

Editor’s Note, February 1, 2026: the Democrats have since voted to fund ICE in the Senate, setting up a selling out of a movement they seek to at the same time co-op and contain.