Alex Pretti was fatally shot on Jan. 24, 2026 by ICE agents during a protest in Minneapolis against Trump’s anti-immigrant “surge.” Only a little over two weeks earlier they had murdered Minneapolis resident Renee Good in a similar fashion. And in October 2025, a Border Patrol agent shot Marimar Martinez five times during an immigration crackdown in Chicago. She survived.

None of these victims, all U.S. citizens, were doing anything to threaten agents, as was clearly shown by video and eyewitness testimony. But Trump’s regime quickly smeared them as domestic terrorists and claimed the trigger-happy agents were just defending themselves.

Palpable outrage over the obscene justification of the Minneapolis street executions erupted in Minnesota and around the country. Pretti was an ICU nurse at the Veterans Administration. His union, the American Federation of Government Employees, slammed the Trump administration, saying, “Kristi Noem, who was responsible for carrying out the policy that led to Alex’s needless killing, and … Stephen Miller, the architect of that policy, must resign immediately. If they refuse, President Trump must dismiss them.” Noem has since been replaced.

Machinery of repression

A government apparatus that goes after critics is nothing new. But now it is leaning heavily on the charge of domestic terrorism to ramp up attacks and solidify an authoritarian state.

A historical example is the infamous Counterintelligence Program, typically referred to by its acronym COINTELPRO. This program, initially launched to undermine the activities of the Communist Party, morphed into a way to disrupt a wide range of organizations that were challenging the status quo in the 1960s. A favorite target of then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was Black civil rights groups, especially the Black Panther Party. COINTELPRO investigated, surveilled, and even sent informants into organizations to sow internal divisions.

The program cast a wide net, targeting Native American and Chicano groups, feminists, the Left, and unions as well.

Violence was also a tool. In 1969 the FBI, as part of COINTELPRO, planned and carried out the murder of Fred Hampton, the dynamic leader of the Chicago Black Panther Party.

Shredding the First Amendment

No one has talked openly about doing away with the First Amendment. But the state has erected an elaborate framework to subvert the rights to free speech and assembly. This might be deemed illegal by the courts at times, but ICE is prepared to let the bullets fly to establish suppression of democratic rights as a fact on the ground.

Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) are a key mechanism for persecuting political opposition. The first was established in New York City in 1980. Now there are over 200 throughout the country, operating under the direction of the FBI and coordinating local, state, and federal agencies in what often turn out to be fishing expeditions aimed at political opponents, especially radicals.

The ability of government agencies to share intelligence and data on U.S. residents was greatly expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack. Both major parties voted for that gutting of privacy rights, and the JTTFs got even busier spying on a range of folks.

Early in Trump’s second term an executive order, national security memo, and FBI directive broadened the definition of domestic terrorism so much (for example, describing anti-Christian activity as terrorist) that it could threaten organizations and individuals based solely on their ideology. No evidence of criminal behavior, or even intent, is required. Not surprisingly, this golden opportunity is being used to spy on dissenters.

Trump aims his ire particularly at antifa, which is more a set of anti-fascist ideas than an organization.

In a chilling move in March, nine Prairieland ICE Detention Center protesters were convicted in Texas for supposedly shooting an agent in the first federal domestic terrorism case involving antifa activists.

Pushing back

Obviously, this rollback of democratic rights could be a disaster for anyone who is organizing for social change or trying to form a union. Fortunately, working people are not going along quietly.

Millions of people have been protesting the Trump regime. And the general strike in Minnesota in response to the ICE killings has inspired folks across the nation. Hundreds of thousands of marchers in Minneapolis braved sub-zero temperatures to stand in solidarity with their immigrant siblings.

The next step is to wage a national general strike. Even some labor leaders are pondering that possibility. Members of unions and workers’ organizations can promote that as the best way to exert the power of a united working class.

Another way to resist is to expose local JTTFs as unaccountable arms of the assault on free speech. Local and regional governments must be pushed to end their collaboration with and participation in JTTFs.

Most importantly, it must be made clear that everyone has plenty at stake in this fight and must unite. Typically cautious groups, like unions, must join with folks they are not accustomed to working with such as radicals and antifa activists. They must not fall for the Trump regime’s mudslinging. This is the time to stick together and fight.

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