Meta, Google Under Fire for Letting ICE Run ‘White Nationalist-Inspired Propaganda’ to Recruit Agents
Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“The impact of an unqualified army of ICE agents being unleashed across the country has been severe,” wrote Reps. Becca Balint and Pramila Jayapal.
A pair of House Democrats on Thursday demanded that the tech behemoths Google and Meta stop allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use their platforms to bolster the Trump administration’s efforts to recruit agents for its mass deportation campaign and lawless assault on communities across the United States.
In letters to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Reps. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) wrote that they are “alarmed by recent reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has partnered” with the tech giants “as part of a large-scale campaign that uses white nationalist-inspired propaganda to recruit immigration enforcement agents.”
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ICE, the lawmakers wrote, has “taken to Google’s platforms to draw in more applicants using advertisements that use white nationalist themes.” As for Meta, Balint and Jayapal pointed to a recent Washington Post story showing that DHS “spent $2.8 million on recruitment ads across Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram” last year.
“Since August, the agency has paid Meta an additional $500,000 to run recruitment advertisements on its platforms,” the House Democrats wrote. “In the first three weeks of the government shutdown last year alone, ICE spent an astounding $4.5 million on paid media campaigns.”
DHS, which oversees ICE, has repeatedly used white nationalist-linked rhetoric in social media posts and recruitment ads. Investigative journalist Austin Campbell reported for The Intercept earlier this month that “the Department of Homeland Security’s official Instagram account made a recruitment post proclaiming, ‘We’ll Have Our Home Again,’ attaching a song of the same name by Pine Tree Riots.”
“Popularized in neo-Nazi spaces, the track features lines about reclaiming ‘our home’ by ‘blood or sweat,’ language often used in white nationalist calls for race war,” Campbell noted. “It isn’t new to see extremist right-wing ideology perpetuated in online culture. What is new is seeing it echoed in official messaging from a federal law enforcement agency with the power to detain, deport, and use lethal force.”
In their letters on Thursday, Balint and Jayapal demanded that Meta and Google “cease further enabling this conduct,” arguing the companies are “complicit” in the Trump administration’s dangerous onslaught against US communities.
“The impact of an unqualified army of ICE agents being unleashed across the country has been severe,” they wrote.
Original article by Jake Johnson republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
Thousands take to the streets to protest latest ICE’s latest killing in Minneapolis
Protesters gather at Embarcadero Plaza for a protest in San Francisco, January 24, 2026, in response to a fatal shooting in MinneapolisPROTESTERS took to the streets across the United States over the weekend after a man was “executed” in Minneapolis during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Footage aired across social media showed a group of officials from the Immigration Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency surrounding Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse on Saturday before shooting him after a brief struggle.
The footage showed Mr Pretti, a legal gun owner, was disarmed by Ice officials before being shot.
After the shooting, an angry crowd gathered and protesters clashed with federal officers, who wielded batons and deployed stun grenades.
The Minnesota National Guard was assisting local police at the direction of Governor Tim Walz, officials said.
Guard troops were sent to both the shooting site and a federal building where officers have squared off with demonstrators daily.
Information about what led up to the shooting was limited, police chief Brian O’Hara said.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when they tried to disarm him.
Bystander footage of the shooting that emerged soon after, show Mr Pretti with a phone in his hand but none show him with a weapon.
During a news conference DHS secretary Kristi Noem accused Mr Pretti of trying to “impede a law enforcement operation.” She questioned why he was armed but did not offer details about whether Pretti drew the weapon or brandished it at officers.
President Trump accused local politicians, including the Democratic governor and mayor, of “inciting insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric.”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York urged Democrats to “refuse to vote to fund Ice.”
The Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) condemned the killing as a “continuation of the fascist invasion of Minneapolis and an increase in state-violence against our working class and people.
“We are calling for arrests of all federal agents involved in these tragedies and for Ice to be removed completely from Minnesota by building on the general strike.”
The CPUSA was referring to the general strike in Minneapolis on Friday which saw thousands of workers walking out on strike and more than 700 businesses closing to protest against the presence of Ice agents.
The Party of Socialism and Liberation said: “The people need to use our power to shut down business as usual and make it impossible for this reign of terror to continue.”
Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/thousands-take-streets-protest-latest-ices-latest-killing-minneapolis
dizzy: I occasionally quote Morning Star articles in full without asking. Morning Star‘s copyright is recognised.
‘What the F*ck Did You Do?!’ Video Contradicts DHS Claims About Killing of Alex Pretti
Original article by Julia Conley republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
The footage of the fatal shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, said one journalist, “shows that the final act of his life was trying to help a woman who was being physically assaulted by the masked agents who would then kill him.”
WARNING: The following article contains graphic video.
In the original video of the shooting of a man in Minneapolis, identified by the Minneapolis Star Tribune at 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a woman in a pink coat was seen in the background filming the incident with her phone.
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Drop Site News obtained footage that appeared “to come from the direction of the woman in pink filming from the sidewalk” and showed the shooting at a closer distance than the footage taken from inside Glam Doll Donuts.
In the video, the shooting victim, dressed in a brown coat and pants, is seen filming a federal agent with his phone. He’s then seen guiding another person toward the sidewalk as the agent forcefully shoves a third person to the ground.
https://twitter.com/DropSiteNews/status/2015131503622021472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Another angle of federal agents killing a Minnesota legal observer, which appears to come from the direction of the woman in pink filming from the sidewalk.
Obtained by Drop Site News pic.twitter.com/IT56ftPkYP
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) January 24, 2026
The agent appears to pepper-spray Pretti and pull him away from the other person as a group of several other officers approach and surround him.
They wrestle him to the ground and struggle with him for several seconds before he appears to try to get up. Roughly 10 gun shots ring out and Pretti falls to the ground.
“What the fuck did you do? What the fuck did you do?” yells the woman behind the camera repeatedly.
“Cowards,” said US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) in response to the footage.
The video, said journalist Susan Glasser, “shows that the final act of his life was trying to help a woman who was being physically assaulted by the masked agents who would then kill him.”
The video contradicted the Department of Homeland Security’s claim that Pretti had approached immigration officers with a gun.
In a press conference, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino doubled down on the assertion and claimed Pretti had aimed to “massacre” Border Patrol agents while they conducted operations, but then did not explain when the victim had threatened the officers with his gun.
“Why did… Commander Bovino only take two questions, then abruptly shut down the press conference?” asked US Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif). “Because he knows he can’t defend cold-blooded murder.”
Original article by Julia Conley republished form Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
dizzy: The video may appear as “not available” above. It can be found and is important in showing what did and didn’t happen.
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Fatal Shooting by Federal Immigration Agents Reported in Minneapolis
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
The shooting took place a day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Minneapolis in the freezing cold to demand an end to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for possible updates…
Update (1:00 pm ET):
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Federal agents repeatedly tear-gassed a crowd of protesters that gathered near the site of the shooting. They also deployed pepper spray, including at a man who “either dropped or threw his sunglasses, which landed on the ground” as he was backing away from the officers. At least two flash-bang grenades were heard going off, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
The outlet reported that “several witnesses” had been “transported to the Whipple building,” a federal building where immigration agents have been working and which houses a detention center.
The Star Tribune also reported that “ICE attempted to order local police from the scene” but Police Chief Brian O’Hara refused and ordered his officers to preserve the crime scene.
Update (12:15 pm ET):
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara reported that the victim of the shooting was killed.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that the man was armed with a firearm and two magazines.
Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin posted a photo on social media of a firearm, saying that DHS had told the outlet federal agents had recovered the gun.
DHS said the man “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun… The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted. More details on the armed struggle are forthcoming. Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots.”
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement that her office was working with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which was blocked from the investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.
“The scene must be secured by local law enforcement for the collection and preservation of evidence,” Moriarty said. “We expect the federal government to allow the BCA to process the scene.”
Earlier:
Federal immigration agents reportedly shot another person in Minneapolis Saturday morning.
Local and federal officials were among those reporting the shooting on social media, where a video taken from inside Glam Doll Donuts at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue showed several agents beating a person on a sidewalk.
David J. Bier of the Cato Institute posted a video of another angle of the shooting, from the Minnesota outlet Bring Me the News.
Whistles were heard outside in the video as observers inside the store expressed shock at the beating, which happened weeks after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent fatally shot Renee Good, and 10 days after an immigration officer shot a Venezuelan man in the leg during an enforcement operation.
“They’re doing too much, man,” one man was heard saying as the agents surrounded the person.
The person appeared to be trying to get up when an agent shot them.
“Oh shit,” another observer in the store said. “Did they fucking kill that guy?”
The person’s condition and details about what had occurred before the encounter was filmed were not immediately reported.
Around 100 protesters gathered at the site of the shooting soon after, chanting anti-ICE slogans, having learned about the incident through neighborhood rapid response networks set up across the city.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, called the incident “sickening” and repeated a demand for President Donald Trump to end his deployment of armed, masked federal agents in the state.
The shooting took place a day after tens of thousands of people filled Minneapolis’ streets demanding an end to Trump’s mass deportation operation.
Original article by Julia Conley republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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