Ocasio-Cortez Calls Minneapolis ICE Shooting an ‘Execution’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s “Newsroom Live” that the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis amounted to an “execution” carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Describing what she said was footage taken from a closer vantage point, Ocasio-Cortez claimed the sequence of events showed federal officers escalating the situation moments before the shooting. “There’s a second angle that appears to be circulating much closer to the incident where you see the victim, I believe his name is Alex Pretti and immediately preceding that incident in ICE officer had pushed violently a woman to the ground and he had come over to help get her up. And that is what precipitated this incident. That very quickly led to an execution, a deadly shooting in the street. What we are seeing here is a momentous, pivotal moment for the United States. And I cannot underscore enough how precipitous this moment is.”

She went on to argue that the actions of federal immigration agencies represented a dangerous expansion of enforcement powers far from the nation’s borders, with serious constitutional implications. “ICE and CBP, what we’re seeing here, we will see, which agencies were responsible but at the end of the day, under this so-called excuse of border security, where Minneapolis is over 300 miles from the United States border, we have an unleashing of federal agents and violence, exerting a tremendous amount of violence and loss of life against the American people who are well within their First Amendment rights. And in this case, it seems as though well within their Second Amendment rights.”