Deaths mount as Trump immigration push intensifies
Federal agents involved in multiple shootings during immigration enforcement
Protests in Minneapolis against Trump’s immigration crackdown
Six deaths in ICE detention centers since start of 2026
WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) – The fatal shooting of a man in Minneapolis on Saturday added to a mounting death toll in U.S. President Donald Trump’s intensifying immigration push this month, increasing scrutiny on the crackdown as backlash builds.
The incident was one of five shootings in January involving federal agents conducting immigration enforcement, including the fatal shooting of Minnesota woman Renee Good. At least six immigrants have died this month in federal immigration detention, an unusually rapid pace.
Minneapolis has become the focus of the Republican president’s crackdown this month, with some 3,000 agents deployed. Thousands of protesters took to the streets despite sub-zero temperatures on Friday to voice opposition to Trump’s enforcement and demand he withdraw the agents, which Minnesota officials have called an occupation.
Trump has argued the militarized operations are necessary to remove criminals from the U.S., but many of those arrested were picked up solely for possible civil immigration violations – the legal equivalent to a traffic violation.
Here is a closer look at the deaths from federal immigration enforcement and the often-conflicting accounts of what happened in each case.
FATAL SHOOTINGS IN MINNESOTA
The man killed in Minneapolis on Saturday was a U.S. citizen, identified in news reports as Alex Pretti, 37, a registered nurse and lawfully permitted gun owner.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said a Border Patrol agent fired at the man, who resisted agents’ attempts to disarm him, but local leaders challenged that account.
In a bystander video verified by Reuters, multiple agents struggle on the ground with Pretti, and appear to strike him before a shot is fired. Pretti falls down, after which multiple additional shots can be heard.
The shooting followed Good’s death earlier this month, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross fired into her vehicle.
Within hours of that shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist” who tried to ram the ICE officer with her car, although the department has not presented evidence of a link to terrorism. Video shows Ross fired as Good’s car moved past him.
ICE, BORDER PATROL FIRING AT SUSPECTS
Federal agents have been involved in three other shootings this month during immigration actions.
The day after Good’s death, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan man and woman in Portland, Oregon, after what DHS called “a targeted vehicle stop.”
DHS said the driver, Venezuelan immigrant Luis Nino-Moncada, attempted to run over the agents before the agent fired, wounding Nino-Moncada and his passenger, a Venezuelan woman.
The Justice Department later charged Nino-Moncada with assaulting an officer. His passenger, Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, pleaded guilty this week to entering the U.S. illegally in 2023.
On January 15, an ICE agent shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg in Minneapolis after DHS said he fled authorities.
DHS said Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, and two other men hit an officer with a snow shovel and broom handle, prompting the shooting, DHS said at the time.
Court documents unsealed this week, opens new tab told a different story. An FBI affidavit said the ICE officers had scanned a license plate registered with a different person suspected of an immigration violation, leading them to chase the wrong person before the alleged assault and shooting.
DETENTION DEATHS RISE
At least six people have died in ICE detention centers since the start of 2026, following at least 30 deaths in ICE custody last year, a two-decade high.
The death of Cuban immigrant Geraldo Lunas Campos has received the most scrutiny after federal authorities provided shifting accounts of what happened.
ICE initially said Lunas died on January 3 at a Trump-era detention camp on the grounds of a U.S. military base in Texas after experiencing “medical distress.”
After the Washington Post reported, opens new tab the death would likely be classified as a homicide by the El Paso County medical examiner, DHS issued a new statement saying Lunas tried to commit suicide and then resisted security officers and died.
The medical examiner released a report this week that found the death was a homicide due to “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,” the Post reported.
On January 14, two other immigrant detainees died: a Nicaraguan man found unresponsive in the military base site, called East Camp Montana, and a Mexican man found unresponsive in a Georgia detention center, according to ICE.
Both deaths remain under investigation, but ICE said the Nicaraguan man, Victor Manuel Diaz, was presumed to have committed suicide.
The other deaths occurred in Houston, Philadelphia, and Indio, California, ICE said.
Trump increased immigration detention to record levels, with 69,000 held as of early January, according to ICE statistics. Some 43% of the detainees picked up by ICE had no criminal charge or conviction, the figures showed.
Reporting by Ted Hesson; Additional reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Craig Timberg and Rod Nickel
Ted Hesson is an immigration reporter for Reuters, based in Washington, D.C. His work focuses on the policy and politics of immigration, asylum and border security. Prior to joining Reuters in 2019, Ted worked for the news outlet POLITICO, where he also covered immigration. His articles have appeared in POLITICO Magazine, The Atlantic and VICE News, among other publications. Ted holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and bachelor’s degree from Boston College.
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