ACLU of Hawaiʻi Stands in Solidarity with ACLU of Minnesota in Demanding Immediate Action After the Killing of Alex Pretti by Federal Agents

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
January 25, 2026

HONOLULU, HI – Like many across Hawaiʻi, we woke up Saturday morning with the horrific news that federal agents shot and killed a man after brutally beating him for exercising his constitutional rights. The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaiʻi (“ACLU of Hawaiʻi”) stands with our ACLU family of Minnesota and across the country in strongly condemning this killing and demand these violent and dangerous federal agents immediately and unconditionally withdraw from Minnesota.

ACLU of Hawaiʻi Executive Director, Salmah Y. Rizvi shared:

Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse for the Department of Veterans Affairs — a caregiver and a witness — whose life should not have ended at the hands of the state. May he rest in peace, may his witness be elevated, and may his loved ones be strengthened with steadfast perseverance. His death demands accountability and a reckoning with federal enforcement practices. Systems built on fear and impunity endanger us all. The authoritarian’s paramilitary, ICE, must be abolished.

The ACLU of Minnesota Executive Director, Deepinder Mayell added:

This tragedy is further proof that these federal agents are out of control and critically endangering our communities. ICE and CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] must end their operations in our city before anyone else is harmed, and an independent investigation must be conducted.

In July 2025, Congress voted to add an unprecedented $170 billion to the Trump administration’s already massive budget for immigration enforcement, which has funded these indiscriminate raids. Congress is now negotiating the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) budget for the coming year, which would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, enabling them to continue their lawless operations across the country without adding any serious limits on their abusive and violent tactics.

Naureen Shah, director of immigration policy and government affairs at the national ACLU shared:

Congress must rein ICE in before what happened in Minneapolis happens yet again. Senators must reject a DHS budget that allows these lawless agencies to continue putting our communities in danger.

The ACLU of Hawaiʻi calls on Hawaii’s congressional delegation to demand an immediate and independent investigation and reject the increase in funding the DHS budget. We call on Hawaiʻi Governor Josh Green, our state legislators, and our county mayors and other elected officials to support the Campaign for Immigrant Justice in passing legislation to protect our local communities here in Hawaiʻi from the lawless, abusive, and violent tactics we are now witness to.