Minneapolis residents are leaving their “I Voted” stickers at the memorial site of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who was killed by federal immigration officials during a large-scale enforcement operation in January. The memorial, covered with flowers and signs for months, now includes the stickers from community members participating in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Community response to violent deportations
Pretti’s death occurred just days after another US citizen, Renee Good, was shot and killed by an immigration official in the city. Donald Trump’s aggressive and sometimes violent mass deportation campaign has been a key issue for voters across the country during this midterm cycle.
“I knew Alex Pretti,” said a retired physician who worked with Pretti and asked only to use his first name, Arne. “I just knew that he was a competent nurse – a really, really liked guy. And he was assassinated.” Arne left his “I Voted” sticker at the memorial site and choked up when speaking about his vote, Pretti, and when federal immigration officials killed him.
Minnesota as a major target
At the end of 2025 and early this year, Minnesota became a major target for the Trump administration. Federal immigration officials descended on the area in a large-scale operation. Community groups organized rapid response teams throughout the city to prevent officials from arresting immigrants. The immigration operation led to the shooting deaths of Good and Pretti.
Many groups involved in the immigration rapid response work have shifted their attention to the elections. In Minnesota, voters are choosing a Senate candidate and governor, as well as House candidates.
Voter sentiment and polling places
“The country has humiliated itself by putting in a bad man, a very very bad character,” Arne said of the president. “Today is a chance for America to say whether they support this kind of thing.” If they don’t oppose it, “then fuck America”, he added.
In a primarily Somali neighborhood elsewhere in Minneapolis, Reverend Shandon Klein, a progressive pastor from the Park Avenue United Methodist church, said she was “keeping a watchful eye over the polling place just to make sure I’m a non-anxious presence that’s available here and just ensuring that everybody has access to voting.” She added, “There’s a general, just, feeling of empowerment and really excited to get out there and vote.”
So far, no federal law enforcement officials have been spotted at voting sites, despite threats by the Trump administration of deploying them.
