AFT’s Weingarten Responds to Shooting of Second Protester in Minnesota

WASHINGTON-AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after federal agents shot and killed a second Minnesotan:

"I was in Minnesota yesterday, joining tens of thousands of people gathered peacefully to say that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not belong in our communities.

"The people of Minnesota are speaking to our federal government. They are saying: Get ICE and border patrol out of Minnesota. But the Trump administration is not listening to the people it has taken an oath to protect.

"In fact, the administration is doing the opposite. Federal agents have yet again shot and killed a Minnesotan. Alex J. Pretti was an ICU nurse who, like Renee Nicole Good, was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record.

"Statements from the administration belie what we're learning from state officials and what we can see with our own eyes in videos taken at the scene.

"The administration's rush to once again smear a victim they shot is an indictment in itself. And its rush to smear state officials is a pathetic distraction.

"Instead of restraint and accountability, we see state-sanctioned violence and disinformation. Instead of de-escalation, we have brutality and provocation.

"If the Trump administration truly believes its assessments of these shootings, it should stop blocking investigations and welcome them.

"The federal government is supposed to protect, not endanger, Americans. It is traumatizing communities, making it nearly impossible to do our work as educators, healthcare workers and public service professionals.

"Children are terrified, families are afraid to send their kids to school and people who are sick are afraid to get medical care.

"It is time for de-escalation, transparency and accountability. The federal government's actions today-both the killing and the cover-up-are a disgrace. This is not who we are as Americans.

"Since the president will not, we must call on Congress to act to create accountability for this federal malfeasance."

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.