The Forum Daily | Monday, January 26, 2026https://www.forumtogether.org

Another tragedy in Minneapolis. 

A team at MPR News [link removed] reports that Alex Pretti, 37, a U.S. citizen whom a federal immigration agent shot and killed Saturday, was an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and is being remembered as kind, caring and calm. 

Once again, video evidence and eyewitness accounts contradict the Department of Homeland Security’s narrative about what preceded the shooting, the MPR team reports. A separate team at The Wall Street Journal [link removed] takes a closer look, sharing and analyzing a series of video clips. 

Some Republican leaders are now publicly questioning the administration’s approach. They include members of Congress, as Meredith Lee Hill reports in Politico [link removed], and Minnesota legislators, report Walker Orenstein and Sydney Kashiwagi of The Minnesota Star Tribune [link removed].  

"It’s clear that Operation Metro Surge is causing more harm than good," Minnesota Rep. Nolan West said on social media yesterday. "It puts law enforcement officers’ lives at risk, and it feeds the chaos destroying our state." 

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara sounded concern for his own officers on "Face the Nation" yesterday, Kaia Hubbard of CBS News [link removed] reports. "This is not sustainable," O'Hara said. "[The problem isn't that] enforcement is happening, it's clearly the manner in which these things are happening." 

Meanwhile, executives from more than five dozen of Minnesota’s largest businesses — including Target, General Mills and UnitedHealth Group — signed an open letter [link removed] calling for the "immediate de-escalation" of the violence in their state, reports Victor Stefanescu and Christopher Snowbeck, also of The Minnesota Star Tribune [link removed].  

"No one wants this situation to continue and we should all work to move toward peaceful de-escalation and resolution," the letter reads. 

Stephen Collinson of CNN [link removed] has an analysis worth reading on the wider implications of the situation. 

Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s VP of Strategic Communications, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Nicci Mattey, Malaika Onyia and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

**Faith **

* My [evangelical Minnesota] church helps resettle refugees. They're terrified of ICE. | Opinion [link removed] (The Rev. Paul Calvin, USA Today) 

* Near site of Alex Pretti’s killing, a Whittier church opens its doors [link removed] (Alanna Elder, MPR) 

* MN Catholic Conference director, other faith leaders call for ‘off-ramp’ to immigration enforcement ‘crisis’ [link removed] (Joe Ruff, OSV News) 

* San Diego faith leaders, community unite in procession for immigrant families amid immigration enforcement actions [link removed] (Esmeralda Perez, CBS 8 News) 

**Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Welcome **

* Immigration expert urges families seeking asylum to prepare after 5-year-old boy taken into custody by ICE [link removed] (Jeff Wagner, CBS News) 

* The U.S. Is Forcing Afghan Allies Into Exile With No Way Forward [link removed] (Beth Bailey, Reason) 

* Opinion: El Paso’s long history of hospitality offers a lesson for U.S. immigration policy [link removed] (Kelly Ryan, El Paso Matters) 

**Federal Immigration Policy **

* U.S. judge blocks Trump administration's push to end legal status of 8,400 migrants [link removed] (Nate Raymond, Reuters) 

* Choices are slim for migrants in Nogales, Mexico, 1 year after U.S. blocked asylum [link removed] (Nina Kravinsky, KJZZ) 

* Federal judge orders feds to preserve evidence in Border Patrol shooting of Alex Pretti [link removed] (Caroline Cummings, CBS Minnesota) 

* Fronteras: Migration Policy Institute discusses ‘chilling effect’ of Trump 2.0 immigration policies [link removed] (Norma Martinez and Marian Navarro, Texas Public Radio) 

**Enforcement and Detention **

* ICE has been entering homes without judicial warrants since last summer, sources say [link removed] (Julia Ainsley, NBC News) 

* DHS: No judicial warrant? No problem. [link removed](The Washington Post Editorial Board) 

* ICE agents detain Colombian man in Utah courthouse after immigration case dismissed [link removed] (Liv Kelleher, KUTV) 

* For-Profit School Opening in For-Profit ICE Family Prison [link removed] (Whitney Curry Wimbish, The American Prospect) 

* Federal appeals court rehears challenge against Texas’ immigration law [link removed] (Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune) 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

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