‘They are unprofessional, pathetic, cowards’: Moulton calls for ICE to be defunded, prosecuted after Minneapolis shooting

Local News

Massachusetts officials speak out about the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, by ICE agents

Rep. Seth Moulton and other Massachusetts officials took to social media to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement after agents killed a second Minneapolis resident on Saturday.

“What we saw this morning on the streets of Minneapolis is another outright murder by federal officials,” said Moulton. 

Moulton’s video came in response to ICE agents fatally shooting another Alex Pretti, 37, on Saturday. Pretti was an ICU nurse at a VA hospital. 

“You pathetic little cowards who have to wear face masks because you are so damn scared couldn’t even effectively wrestle a guy to the ground, so you needed to shoot him,” said Moulton.

Moulton, a Marine Corps veteran, called the agents involved in Pretti’s killing “unprofessional, pathetic cowards.”

“Because if a Marine, an 18-year-old Marine did that, in Iraq in the middle of a war zone, he would be court-martialed. Because it is murder,” he said

Moulton said that he voted to defund ICE and demanded that ICE agents and the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, face prosecution.

“Director Lyons who is running ICE right now, I hope you are hearing this from this Marine to you, you guys are criminal thugs, you need to be held accountable to the law if you think you can enforce it, and you need to be prosecuted, right now,” Moulton said.

Other Mass. officials have spoken out against Pretti’s killing.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley took to X to call Pretti’s death an execution.

“We must abolish ICE, end qualified immunity for ICE agents, and ensure accountability,” Pressley said.

“The federal government continues to throw money, more than MA’s state budget, at ICE to hire untrained agents who have repeatedly terrorized our communities, killing U.S. citizens & detaining children,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell said.

Senator Elizabeth Warren called for an end to ICE’s presence in Minnesota. 

“Republicans in control of Congress could put a stop to this chaos,” said Warren.

Senator Ed Markey called ICE agents “Trump’s thugs” in a X post.