Melrose Mayor Speaks Out Against Recent ICE Actions

MELROSE, MA — Mayor Jen Grigoraitis partnered with leadership from neighboring Massachusetts communities to condemn the most recent actions by the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement organization in Minnesota.

Alex Pretti, 37, was reportedly protesting the operations of ICE in the city of Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 26 which resulted in his death after being shot by an officer. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem originally said that Pretti had brandished a handgun while protesting and arguing with officers and violently resisted disarmament. However, multiple videos filmed by witnesses to the confrontation suggest that Pretti never took the firearm out himself and had it easily taken by officers. One officer then took out his own weapon and shot Pretti multiple times at point-blank range while he was subdued on the ground.

“My job as mayor is to keep Melrose residents and employees safe, and unconstitutional enforcement surges don’t make anyone in our communities safer,” Grigoraitis said in response to the event. “Operations like the ones we’ve watched in the Twin Cities and Maine only serve to put local law enforcement in the impossible position of mediating between federal agents and scared local residents.”

Grigoraitis is one of dozens of local government leaders from around the country who field an amicus brief in federal district court in Minneapolis in an effort to stop President Donald Trump and his administration’s ICE operation known as “Operation Metro Surge.” The brief, which supports a lawsuit filed by the State of Minnesota and the Twin Cities, seeks a temporary restraining order to end the occupation by more than two thousand ICE agents.

Grigoraitis is also a member of the Metro Mayors Coalition, which has also spoke out against the actions of ICE and the federal government led by Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang. The Coalition is a collaborative of mayors and city managers from 17 municipalities in the Greater Boston area.

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