Readers Write: GOP losing ground after Pretti shooting, lawmaker reactions, CEO letter

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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I am a Somali American, a former Republican candidate in Minnesota, a nurse who has worked in intensive care and a lawful gun owner with a concealed carry permit. I once believed conservative leadership could help fix our state. Today, I feel abandoned by the Republican Party and by the conservative movement I thought I belonged to.

What we are seeing in Minnesota right now is not “law and order.” It is performative cruelty. Federal immigration and border agents have turned Minneapolis and St. Paul into a stage for a national political show, treating our cities as enemy territory because they are blue, diverse and home to immigrant communities. That is not public safety. It is punishment.

The killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and lawful gun owner, crystallized this for me. As someone who has cared for critically ill patients, I recognize the kind of professional his colleagues describe: Someone who shows up to help. As a concealed carry permit holder, I also know that simply having a legally carried firearm does not make a person a “terrorist” or justify a death sentence. When an ICU nurse trying to document and de-escalate a situation ends up dead at the hands of federal agents, something in our system is deeply broken.

I did not vote for a government that treats my neighbors like threats to be crushed. I did not sign up for rhetoric that calls communities “garbage” or rushes to brand people like Pretti as dangerous before the facts are even clear. You cannot claim to defend the Constitution while ignoring due process, equal protection and basic respect for human life.

I am leaving the Republican Party. I will not attach my name to a movement that treats entire cities and communities as collateral damage. From now on, I will support peaceful protest, community organizing and candidates — of any party — who love this state enough to serve all Minnesotans.

Fadil Jama, St. Paul

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Given the uncritical endorsement by Republicans of the open and obvious thuggish behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its siege of Minnesota, I can’t imagine ever again voting for a Republican candidate for any office. And I will increase my financial support of candidates who oppose Republicans to help ensure they are not elected. To be clear, I have voted for Republicans in the past. No more.

Fred Morris, Minneapolis

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I grew up in Minneapolis when Dwight Eisenhower was president. I was too young then to vote for him, but he was such a good leader that I became a Republican — an Eisenhower Republican. I liked Ike so much that in my senior year at the University of Minnesota I was chair of the Republican Association and remained a Republican until President Donald Trump.

No need to explain to conscientious Republicans why Madel and I cannot be Trump Republicans. Our party is split; all Republicans now must decide whether they are Eisenhower Republicans or Trump Republicans. As I said, I like Ike, and I trust all thinking Republicans agree.

Roger Nelson, Woodbury

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Thank you to the handful of Republican representatives (state Sen. Julia Coleman, state Rep. Nolan West) and candidates (Madel) who are finally speaking out and taking action regarding the horrendous events caused by our nation’s leaders and their federal agents within our great state and throughout the country (“Some GOP lawmakers push back on DHS surge,” Jan. 27). It starts with a few voices who are each able to reach a few more, and the movement toward a better society begins. Your courage to speak out is noticed and appreciated and will affect how we vote in upcoming elections.

A man named Alex Pretti is dead after being shot by federal agents during an immigration operation in Minneapolis, an event recorded by bystanders and already mired in disputed accounts. In that grim, irrevocable interval when a public servant should speak with careful restraint, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer chose instead to posture.

Emmer announced that Minnesota’s local and state leaders had “empowered criminals,” cautioned that it was “dangerous” to draw conclusions, sneered that others were “jump[ing] to asinine conclusions,” and then, with self-satisfaction, added that he was “grateful no Border Patrol officers were harmed.” Read that last line again, slowly, and ask yourself what sort of moral arithmetic is being performed when a dead Minnesotan becomes a footnote to Emmer’s gratitude. He was not merely “waiting for the facts.” He was busy preloading them.

This is a betrayal of Minnesota’s civic character: the decency that tells us not to use a fresh death as a cudgel, not to treat neighbors as props in a national crackdown. People have every right to defend law enforcement; they do not have the right to malign the dead to flatter power.

What is most revealing here is Emmer’s moral confusion. He speaks as though not “jump[ing] to conclusions” was the same thing as sneering at those who demand clarity. As though loyalty to law enforcement required public indifference to a dead citizen. He presents himself as the guardian of caution yet immediately indulges in his own prejudgment, apparently mistaking his own callousness for principle.

Mark Triola, Dayton

I read one of many articles on Pretti’s killing (“Minneapolis in grip of fear, exhaustion and rage,” Jan. 26). From the article: GOP state Rep. Mike Wiener said, “Yes, protest is your First Amendment right. But there are times when, is it the best thing to do?”

Rep. Wiener, the Constitution is not a document of convenience. The Constitution is not meant to be applied only when it suits you. The Constitution and its amendments are being completely ignored by the president. And that should concern everyone! Even you.

Teresa Maki, Minnetonka

Hey, business leaders: Congratulations, you managed to write the most insipid, banal and meaningless letter possible (“Letter from CEOs on immigration actions in Minnesota stirs strong public reactions,” Jan. 27). Thank heavens you weren’t in charge of writing the Declaration of Independence; we would still be ruled by Britain, and our Constitution would read like a corporate policy manual.

You say you have been working behind the scenes with federal, state and local officials to advance real solutions. How about working in front of the scenes and bringing visibility to those actions? Are you afraid of offending your customer base? Or the Trump administration?

Your letter claims a commitment to the communities in which you operate. Actions speak louder than words, however. And, business leaders, your actions have been silent, silent, silent.

Barbara Dahlgren, St. Paul

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Nice try, Minnesota corporations. Minnesotans are begging you to stand up against the federal forces that are brutalizing our communities. You respond with a letter asking federal, state and local officials to work together to de-escalate tension. Let me get this right: The U.S. government has cut off federal funding that we paid for with our tax dollars. It has sent armed and masked agents who break into our homes without judicial warrants, unlawfully detain citizens and immigrants with legal status, abduct toddlers and shoot us for exercising our constitutional rights to speak, assemble and bear arms. It has refused our state investigatory agencies the right to investigate the shooting of Minnesotans in our streets.

What would you like our state and local officials to do to de-escalate? Use nicer words? Hand over the voter records? Stop seeking injunctions to protect our constitutional rights? This is a moment when we each need to decide: Are we for the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution, or are we for the lawless administration stripping us of our rights?