New Yorkers Vow to Give Schumer and Dems ‘Hell’ Ahead of Vote to Fund ICE
WTF, Chuck…WTF, Hakeem? Protesters carrying cartoon images lambasting Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gather in Union Square on Jan. 24 following the murder of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents in Minneapolis earlier that morning. Photos/Joe Maniscalco
By Joe Maniscalco
Working class New Yorkers incensed over the grisly murder of 37-year-old Veterans Affairs ICU nurse and trade unionist Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis this past weekend are vowing to give Senate Democratic Caucus boss Chuck Schumer and other feckless Dems in Congress “hell” this week for their ongoing failure to confront out-of-control ICE agents.
“We need Nuremberg trials for the people of ICE—for the people who are committing crimes against humanity here in our country,” New York City Council Member Chi Ossé [D-36th District] told the hundreds of protesters who returned to Union Square on Jan. 24—just one day after thousands more flooded New York City streets in solidarity with Minneapolis’ “Day of Truth and Freedom” action.
Pretti’s murder at the hands of ICE agents earlier in the day on Saturday came less than a month after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renee Good on the streets of Minneapolis. Trump administration officials backed the actions of ICE agents in both killings.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” Pretti’s family said in a statement released over the weekend. “Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.”
It’s Time For A General Strike: Union Square protesters cheer calls for a general strike to stop ICE agents from continuing their reign of terror on the streets of American cities.
Seven Democrats—including local Reps. Tom Suozzi [D-Long Island, Queens] and Laura Gillen [D-Long Island]—last week helped Republicans pass a new Department of Homeland Security spending bill with billions of dollars earmarked for ICE. The vote came just prior to heavily armed ICE agents shooting Pretti to death early Saturday morning in Minneapolis after the Veterans Affairs ICU nurse put his body in between them and two other civilians they were terrorizing.
“No child should ever have to live in fear of their family getting detained simply for living their lives, but that is the kind of country that Trump is building while Chuck Schumer and [Rep.] Hakeem Jeffries look the other way,” New York City Democratic Socialists of America Co-Chair Gustavo Gordillo told Union Square protesters on Saturday. “Last week, seven Democrats voted—with Hakeem Jeffries’ permission—they voted to fund ICE. But it is not too late to stop this funding of ICE to continue because the Senate has to finalize this vote.”
That Senate vote is slated for Jan. 30—this Friday. Council Member Ossé said the upcoming vote is an opportunity for U.S. Senators to “either increase funding for ICE—or say no to this tyrannical Gestapo.”
“We need ten [Senate] Democrats to vote against this budget increase,” he said. “So, I'm calling for you all today to make sure that we are calling Chuck Schumer's office, to make sure that we're calling [Sen.] Kirsten Gillibrand’s office and telling them to vote no.”
“I don't want to hear shit about reforming ICE,” New York City Council Member Chi Ossé told Union Square protesters on Saturday. “I don't want to hear shit about training these ICE agents. We need to abolish ICE.”
Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of the NYC-based People’s Forum, told Union Square protesters on Saturday that now is “not the time for us to step back.”
“Now is the time for us to push even harder for a general strike if we want to defend democracy—if we want to abolish ICE,” he said. “If we want to shut down this fascist regime, now is the time for a national shutdown. Some Democrats in the Senate will tell you to wait until November—to wait for the midterms. But we cannot wait while more Renees, while more Alexes, while more Marias and Joses are killed and murdered and deported—our lives cannot wait until November.”
AFGE Council 238 President Justin Chen released a statement over the weekend condemning the “appalling murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents.”
“Every federal employee takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” he said. “The actions of ICE and CBP agents operating in Minnesota violate that oath and undermine fundamental constitutional protections, including due process. Just one week before Alex Pretti was killed, our Executive Board unanimously adopted the Minneapolis Solidarity Resolution, condemning ICE’s militarized presence in the Twin Cities and demanding accountability for the killing of Renee Good. The murder of Alex Pretti makes those demands even more urgent.”
Protesters gather for an emergency action in Union Square on Saturday in response to the murder of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents in Minneapolis earlier that day.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, meanwhile, issued a statement saying that the AFL-CIO “mourns the senseless killing of another Minneapolis resident by federal agents” and that “America’s unions join the call for ICE to immediately leave Minnesota before anyone else is hurt or killed.”
Many in the labor movement, however, charge that Shuler—much like Schumer and the rest of the Democratic Party establishment—is failing miserably to meet the threat that the Trump administration and ICE now pose to the citizenry.
“The ultimate power we have is our labor—and that means we must be organizing towards a general strike,” Van Deusen told Work-Bites ahead of Minneapolis’ “Truth and Freedom” action. “It must be something that’s not only on the table, but is actually something the AFL-CIO takes the lead on—and that is something that [AFL-CIO President] Liz Shuler has not done. As far as I’m concerned, she is a coward and she is unimaginative. She must be pushed, and the national AFL-CIO must be pushed, to rise to the movement to defend our republic and to defend our democracy.”
Palestinian rights activist and WBAI radio commentator Linda Sarsour warned Union Square protesters on Saturday that Pretti’s murder in Minneapolis at the hands of ICE means “anyone can be shot and killed by a law enforcement officer in this country with the defense of the United States President.”
“Pretti was defending a colleague,” she said. “If the country is not going to stop for one minute and reflect on what is happening when a white woman is killed, when a white man is killed—then what happens when the next victim is a Black man, or a Black woman, or a Muslim woman, or a Muslim man, or a Mexican, or a Filipino? This is going to set a precedent that if we are quiet now, then that means that all of us can be killed with impunity.”
Gordillo also said that it’s now up to Sen. Schumer to “keep his caucus in order” ahead of Friday’s vote to funnel billions more to ICE.
“It's [Schumer] who gives permission to ten Democrats to collaborate with this authoritarian regime,” he added. “We're not going to end at sending emails—we’re not going to stop with making phone calls. We're going to organize, we're going to march—and we're going to replace them if they don't fight for the people. We saw this week that Minneapolis unions went out on strike, [and] the people withdrew their labor. We're capable of so much more if we unite.”