{"id":198749,"date":"2026-01-31T10:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-protesters-begin-nationwide-strike-as-doj-launches-pretti-killing-probe-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T10:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:19:10","slug":"us-protesters-begin-nationwide-strike-as-doj-launches-pretti-killing-probe-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-protesters-begin-nationwide-strike-as-doj-launches-pretti-killing-probe-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"US protesters begin nationwide strike as DOJ launches Pretti killing probe – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters call for \u2018no work, no school, no shopping\u2019 in response to Trump\u2019s deadly immigration enforcement crackdown.<\/em>
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Protesters across the United States have held \u201cno work, no school, no shopping\u201d strikes to oppose President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.
The demonstrations took place on Friday amid widespread outrage over the killing Alex Pretti<\/a>, an intensive care nurse who was shot multiple times after he used his cellphone to record Border Patrol officers conducting an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis.
The death heightened scrutiny over the administration\u2019s tactics after the January 7 death of Renee Good, who was fatally shot behind the wheel of her vehicle by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer.<\/p>\n

The nationwide strike, which followed a strike in Minnesota state last week, came as the US Department of Justice announced it would open a civil rights probe into the killing of 37-year-old Pretti. However, it has still not moved to investigate possible rights violations in the fatal shooting of Good, also 37.
United States Representative Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis, was among the elected officials promoting Friday\u2019s strike.
\u201cSolidarity with every single person participating in today\u2019s general strike against ICE\u2019s terror campaign,\u201d Omar wrote on X. \u201cYou\u2019re changing the world,\u201d she said.
Meanwhile, the White House on Friday said the demonstrators were \u201cpaid insurrectionists\u201d and \u201cpaid troublemakers\u201d, citing the \u201cprofessionally made\u201d signs they were carrying as evidence.
Al Jazeera correpondent Manuel Rapalo attended one of the demonstrations in Minneapolis, where Pretti was killed, which he said was one of the largest the city had seen since the killings.
\u201cThere is anger about the immigration raids, despite these promises from federal officials that there will be a drawdown of federal agents,\u201d Rapalo said, adding that the demonstrators said they would continue until the immigration agents withdrew from the city.
The killings of Good and Pretti followed the Trump administration\u2019s surge of immigration agents to Minnesota to specifically target alleged fraud in the Somali American community.
The deployment came amid a wider deportation drive that observers say has seen immigration agents use dragnet techniques to reach dramatically increased<\/a> detention quotas.
Earlier this week, border security chief Tom Homan, officially dubbed the \u201cborder tsar\u201d by the White House, pledged that enforcement operations would continue in the state, but said increased cooperation with local officials could lead to a \u201cdrawdown\u201d.
On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed that the agency was conducting a civil rights investigation into Pretti\u2019s killing, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re looking at everything that would shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened.\u201d
Blanche did not give details as to why the department was not also opening a civil rights probe into Good\u2019s killing, saying only that the division does not get involved in every law enforcement shooting and that there have to be circumstances that \u201cwarrant an investigation\u201d.
Trump officials had immediately labelled Good a \u201cdomestic terrorist\u201d who was trying to run over an ICE agent when she was fatally shot. Video of analyses of the killing indicated that Good was trying to drive away from the officer when she was killed.
Federal authorities have barred local and state authorities from conducting their own independent investigations into the killings.
Earlier on Friday, protesters also gathered at Howard University in Washington, DC, in a planned march to the White House.
\u201cI think that it just goes to show how many people are against this, and how this is jeopardising our country,\u201d one student told Al Jazeera. \u201cI think us all coming together and speaking out against this shows our government that we are not OK with this, and we won\u2019t let it slide.\u201d
Arizona and Colorado, meanwhile, were among the states where schools were cancelled in anticipation of mass absences. Dozens of students walked out of morning classes at Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan.
\u201cWe\u2019re here to protest ICE and what they\u2019re doing all over the country, especially in Minnesota,\u201d Logan Albritton, a 17-year-old high school senior, told The Associated Press news agency. \u201cIt\u2019s not right to treat our neighbours and our fellow Americans this way.\u201d
Protests were also held in other cities like Atlanta, Georgia, and Portland, Oregon, where the mayor, Mark Dion, urged people to show their discontent.
\u201cDissent is Democratic. Dissent is American. It\u2019s the cornerstone of our democracy,\u201d Dion said.<\/p>\n

Some businesses, reeling from a recent snowstorm that hit the eastern US last week, found other ways to show their objection to the administration\u2019s actions.
In a post on social media, Otway Bakery in New York said it would remain open and donate half of its proceeds to the New York Immigration Coalition, a local nonprofit.
In a post on X, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called the strike a \u201cdirect challenge to ICE\u2019s brutality\u201d. \u201cYour courage is inspiring the world. The power is with the people. Solidarity with everyone striking,\u201d he said.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Duchess Harris, a professor of American studies at Macalester College in St Paul, Minnesota, said public pressure can change the administration\u2019s approach, even as other avenues fail.
She pointed to the Justice Department\u2019s move to open an investigation into Pretti\u2019s killing as evidence.
\u201cI think that history teaches us that these moments can either deepen division or become turning points toward reform, and sometimes the division comes before the reform,\u201d Harris said.
\u201cI think that if you study the history of the United States of America \u2026 we\u2019ve only made the gains that we\u2019ve made through resistance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protesters call for \u2018no work, no school, no shopping\u2019 in response to Trump\u2019s deadly immigration enforcement crackdown.ShareSaveProtesters across the United States have held \u201cno work, no school, no shopping\u201d strikes to oppose President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.The demonstrations took place on Friday amid widespread outrage over the killing Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-198749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}