LOGAN – A hastily organized demonstration against ongoing U.S. Immigration and Border Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol operations drew some 300 protestors to downtown Logan on Sunday, Jan. 25.
The event was intended to protest what organizers called “the execution” of Alex Jeffery Pretti by ICE agents on the street of Minneapolis on Jan. 24.
After initially meeting in the square at the Cache County Historic Courthouse, local organizers led the protestors in a parade up and down Main Street. The demonstration was peaceful, with protestors sticking to public sidewalks and only impeding light Sunday traffic when they occasionally crossed Main in mass.
The protest was organized by We The People Cache Valley, a group that describes itself as a non-partisan, pro-democracy group supporting freedom of the press and the integrity of government institutions.
The local group functions as a “Protests-R-Us” service for the nationwide Indivisible organization, having mounted monthly demonstrations against Trump administration policies throughout the previous spring and summer months.
In contrast to those earlier protests, where attendees were mostly senior citizens, the turn-out for the anti-ICE demonstration here on Jan. 25 was predominately young adults and teens.
Local organizers included Jim Evans, representing We the People Cache Valley, and Naomi Landry, a Cache Valley native who now resides in Davis County.
The local protestors carried a mix of homemade and pre-printed signs, which Evans said expressed their outrage over the death of Pretti at the hand of federal officials and also voiced opposition to the reported abduction of a 5-year-old migrant child in Texas.
The local event was one of hundreds across the nation on Sunday, according to Evans, all within a day of Pretti’s death to express heighted opposition to federal immigration action.
The Cache Valley protest also served as a prelude to a larger “ICE Out for Good” demonstration scheduled in Salt Lake City at 3 p.m. that same day. That event was sponsored by Salt Lake Indivisible, the Party for Socialism & Liberation, the Salt Lake Democratic Socialists of America and the Utah Progressive Caucus.
Pretti was shot and killed by ICE agents during an altercation in Minneapolis on Saturday. According to Gregory Bovino, the director of the U.S. Border Patrol, those agents were attempting to disarm Pretti when the fatal shots were fired.
At a press conference later that day, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz once again disputed claims that federal officials are in his state to remove violent offenders, calling their presence a “federal occupation” and a “campaign of brutality.”
In response to similar charges earlier in the week, Sen. Nate Blouin (D-Millcreek) proposed a bill in the Utah Legislature that would limit immigration enforcement action in Utah. That measure – entitled Senate Bill 136 — was tabled by a 6 to 3 vote in the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee.
In Minnesota, Sen. Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) laid the blame for Pretti’s death squarely on Walz’s shoulders.
“This tragedy is the result of escalating tensions fed by Gov. Walz, who has used inflammatory rhetoric against law enforcement … and encouraged Minnesotans to resist rather than comply with law enforcement,” Johnson told reporters.
“In many states, top leaders fully cooperate with ICE and (the Department of Homeland Security) and people are safer because of it.”