Minneapolis, a city in the US state of Minnesota, has become a hotbed of political unrest, with two people killed by federal immigration officers (ICE) in the past three weeks.

Minnesota Governor Tim Wells has called on President Donald Trump to remove federal immigration enforcement from the state. The protests are being held in support of this demand.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have said it is time for everyone to unite against the oppression of immigration enforcement. Obama has also called for support for peaceful protests in Minneapolis and across the country. Immigration matters in the United States fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government. After Trump was sworn in for a second term as president, ICE has been tasked with implementing his harsh immigration policies.

This has had a major impact on Minneapolis, which is home to about 15 percent immigrants and a large number of black Americans. Federal immigration officials have been arresting immigrants, checking their citizenship status, and detaining them. They have also been raiding and deporting immigrants. Nearly 2,000 immigration agents have been deployed here since December. Protests against their crackdown have erupted. On January 7, an immigration agent opened fire on a woman named Renee Good, who was in solidarity with the protest. Good, 37, was killed by an immigration agent. The agent claimed he had to fire in self-defense. However, there is no evidence that Good intended to attack.

Since Good's death, daily protests have been taking place demanding an impartial investigation into the incident and the removal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from the city. Meanwhile, police shot and killed a young man named Alex Pretty, who was participating in the protest on Saturday. Police say the 37-year-old Pretty tried to attack and had to return fire. US Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristy Noam defended the officers who fired the shots on Saturday. "They did what they were trained to do," she said. She also accused Pretty of brandishing a weapon and assaulting a security officer. But video taken by bystanders at the scene shows a different story. In the video, Pretty is surrounded by federal immigration agents. Some are warning her, while others are beating her. They are dragging her to the ground. A loud gunshot can be heard as Pretty falls to the ground.

He is not seen carrying a weapon anywhere in the public video. 

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said Pretty has no criminal record.  He had a gun license.  However, he was not seen carrying a gun that day. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he will file a lawsuit on Monday seeking an interim injunction to end the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. 

Trump vs. Democratic Party

The city of Minneapolis has repeatedly protested against Trump's anti-immigration policies.  Earlier, the 'Black Lives Matters' movement, which started in Minneapolis in protest of the killing of a black man named George Floyd during Trump's first term, spread across the country. 

Minneapolis has a large black population.  Among them, there is a good presence of people of Somali origin. After the civil war broke out in Somalia in the 1990s, they sought refuge in various cities around the world.

Minneapolis has become their epicenter. However, Trump is not happy with the Somali community. Some time ago, he publicly ridiculed the community as ‘scum’.

‘Somalia is a country without water, without an army and without laws,’ he said last December. Trump has repeatedly spewed venom against immigrants. Tim Wells, a Democrat, is the governor of Minneapolis, where about 15 percent of immigrants are.

The Democratic Party is raising its voice against Trump’s harsh immigration policies.

Governor Wells has demanded that the federal government remove immigration police from his state. The protesters have been demanding this for a long time.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have also issued statements condemning the behavior of immigration police in Minneapolis.

Obama said that all Americans should take the shooting of Alex as a wake-up call and think beyond party lines.

“As a nation, we have our own values. They are under increasing attack,” Obama wrote.

Sam Reim, director of the human rights organization Vera, wrote in an article that 17 people have been shot by immigration officers since Trump began his second term.