PR Fallout of the Second ICE Fatality: This One Is So Much Worse — and Bloodier Days Are Coming

Before you read this column, go grab yourself a nice cup of coffee. Maybe reheat a warm, tasty pastry and slip into a comfy pair of slippers.

Because this column contains hard, unflinching political truths that will be difficult to digest: Comfort food (and slippers) are the “spoonful of sugar that’ll make the medicine go down.”

But I’m telling you upfront: You’re not gonna like it.

After all, you’ve seen the video:

An armed protester was very clearly resisting arrest. Instead of deescalating, he was fighting and wrestling with ICE agents.
Prominent Democrats — both within Minn. and nationally — were encouraging protesters to interfere with federal agents, further endangering everyone. They deliberately sowed the seeds of chaos, violence, and bloodshed.
The federal government has every right to enforce immigration law. If Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) wanted his immigration policy to become the law of the land, he should’ve run for president. According to the U.S. Constitution, the federal government sets America’s immigration policy — not the governor of the 22nd biggest state.
There’s a multibillion-dollar immigration fraud scandal raging in Minn.: Vast quantities of tax dollars were stolen by the same “immigrant community” that Gov. Walz is protecting.
Yes, protesters have a First Amendment right to peacefully protest, and yes, protesters also have a Second Amendment right to own a loaded weapon — but they don’t have the right to physically impede and/or violently obstruct a federal investigation. If they do, the fact that they’re armed is something law enforcement officers will justifiably consider when assessing risk. (Pro Tip: If you’re wrestling, fighting, and getting pepper-sprayed by ICE agents who are simply trying to do their jobs, it’s probably not a peaceful protest.)

All of the above is true. No argument.

But political PR isn’t about what’s true; it’s about emotions, spin, and public perception.

When it comes to the real world, Ben Shapiro is exactly right: “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” But when it comes to PR, alas, the opposite is true: “Feelings don’t care about your facts.”

The heart wants what it wants.

Yesterday’s ICE shooting in Minn., which killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, is different from the Jan. 7 death of Renee Good in three important ways:

Alex Pretti is a more sympathetic victim. He was an ICU nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital. Whereas Renee Good radiated “Karen” vibes — with her smug, self-important “wife” rudely harassing ICE agents — Pretti was, allegedly, trying to assist a woman who was knocked to the ground.
The video evidence is less supportive. (Although, not everyone will agree.) From my perspective, neither shooting demanded lethal force, but I understood ICE’s argument after Good’s death: A 4,000-pound Honda Pilot, with its wheels spinning on icy roads — that had already sideswiped an ICE agent! — posed a clear and obvious threat to the other agents. But Pretti’s footage seems to show a man, surrounded by half a dozen ICE agents, who was shot multiple times after having his weapon removed. Now, if Pretti was trying to grab an ICE agent’s gun while wrestling on the ground, the shooting was 100% warranted. (Or if ICE had legitimate reasons to believe Pretti had a second weapon.) But beyond that, the optics of ICE shooting an unarmed ICU nurse is manna from Heaven for leftists: It’s the greatest propaganda gift they could’ve asked for!
Once is an accident; twice is a trend. Simply by being the second victim, Pretti’s death feels different — and has a different emotional call-to-arms. Before, it was, “They killed her!” Now it’s gonna be, “They’re killing us!”

Remember: PR is about emotion, not facts. And right now, the Democrats have the “moral outrage” card.

Unless we take it away from them.

Anyone remember Elián González? The six-year-old little boy whose mother and partner died when they attempted to flee communist Cuba and immigrate to the United States?

On April 22, 2000, under the orders of the Clinton administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Services raided his mother’s family’s Miami home — with guns drawn — and seized the little boy, sending him back to Cuba:

I’m old enough to remember on Easter Saturday, April 22, 2000, heavily armed federal agents seized six-year-old Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint from a closet in his uncle's Miami home where he had been hiding. Reno & Holder defied a court order & sent him back anyway. pic.twitter.com/GVNvwLQ4Tv
— T (@Rifleman4WVU) January 23, 2026

The parallels are obvious: Armed federal agents enforcing immigration law, booting “illegals” out of the country. A “states’ rights” versus “federal rights” legal dispute. Photos and videos that swayed public opinion.

And a very sympathetic victim.

Bill Clinton had his faults (and how!), but he 100% understood PR. Note his comments after his INS agents — at gunpoint — seized a six-year-old little boy and shipped him back to Cuba:

The Department of Justice, under the leadership of Attorney General Janet Reno, went to great lengths to negotiate a voluntary transfer. Even yesterday, the attorney general worked very hard on this, late into the night, showing great restraint, patience and compassion.
When all efforts failed, there was no alternative but to enforce the decisions of the INS and the federal court, that Juan Miguel Gonzalez should have custody of his son. The law has been upheld, and that was the right thing to do.

Clinton made it less about the victim and more about the “rule of law” (which his Justice Department, unfortunately, creatively interpreted, but that’s neither here nor there).

The GOP should follow Clinton’s lead: Don’t get drawn into a public debate over whether or not Alex Pretti deserved to die, and don’t accuse him of intending to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” Because, when the focus is on Pretti, the liberals have the upper hand.

Just as the GOP had the upper hand when the focus was on six-year-old Elián González.

Instead, we should focus on the big picture:

Immigration fraud and migrant crimes are out of control — and Minn. is Ground Zero.
The Democratic Party is required to follow the rule of law — which means, it must stop inciting protesters to act violently — because too many people are getting killed. If the Democrats want to change public policy, they should do so via the ballot box, not by the barrel of a gun.
Over the last 10 years, roughly 90,000 illegal aliens were criminally convicted. They don’t have the right to break our laws, murder, rape, and hurt Americans, and then enjoy an extended vacation in Minneapolis — just because Gov. Walz disagrees with federal immigration policies. This is the United States of America, not the Personal Whims of Walz!

It’s sad that Good and Pretti died, because all lives matter. They, too, were made in the image of God.

As were ALL the American citizens who’ve lost their lives to illegal aliens, from murder in the first degree to driving under the influence, including these innocent victims:

7-year-old Ivory Smith was killed in a crash caused by Joel Enrique Gonzalez Chacin of Venezuela in Texas in 2024.
8-year-old Maverick Martzen was killed in a crash caused by Karmit Singh of India in California in 2019.
10-year-old Alex “AJ” Wise Jr. was killed in a crash caused by Rogelio Ortiz-Olivas of Mexico in Texas in 2024.
18-year-olds Taliyah Crochet and Rylan Oncale were both killed in a crash caused by Axel Flores-Cordova of Honduras in Louisiana in 2024.
19-year-olds Anya Varfolomeev and Nicholay Osokin were both killed in a crash caused by Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano of Mexico in California in 2021.
20-year-old Katie Abraham was killed in a hit-and-run crash caused by Julio Cucul Bol of Guatemala in Illinois in 2025.
21-year-old Sarah Root was killed in a crash caused by Eswin Mejia of Honduras in Nebraska in 2016.
29-year-old Grayson Davis was killed in a crash caused by illegal alien Jorge Peralta in Texas in 2024.
44-year-old Police Officer David Lee was killed by Ramon A. Chavez-Rodriguez of Honduras in Missouri in 2024.
47-year-old Melissa Powell and her 16-year-old son, Riordan, were killed in a crash caused by Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alas of Honduras in Colorado in 2024.
70-year-old Robert Boles was killed in a crash caused by illegal alien Jorge Urbina Lopez in Texas in 2025.

The GOP should make these victims as famous as Good and Pretti: show their faces; show their names; share their stories.

One day after Good’s death, I made the following prediction:

Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) desperately needs a distraction from his Somali fraud scandal, and the bigger-named Dems — including Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — smell blood in the water: If they can elbow their way to the front of the protesters and hijack their cause, it’ll elevate their profile for the 2028 primaries.
Escalating tensions is a smart strategy for Democratic hopefuls.
And this requires Donald Trump to frame the ICE shooting narrative as lawful, prudent, and beyond reproach: If he cedes an inch, his political enemies will take a mile.
(Which they’d promptly use to handcuff ICE, impeach the president, and block future federal action.)
[…]
[W] we’re going to have more conflict, violence, and bloodshed. The same city that gave us the Black Lives Matter movement will become Ground Zero for a new wave of political violence, which will quickly spread nationwide. There will be demonstrations in every major U.S. city. And the vilification of ICE agents will be (further) normalized by the mainstream media.
This will likely result in more dead civilians, more dead ICE agents, and a more divided country.

So far, the only prediction that hasn’t come true is more dead ICE agents. But I fear it’s coming.

Because, as bad as the rhetoric, demonization, and name-calling has already been, it’s about to get exponentially worse: Too many leading Democrats yearn to reap the political dividends — and the only way that’s possible is by inflaming passions, upping the ante, and cheerleading the chaos.

Nobody gains anything by appealing for calm. (Except, of course, the American people. But who cares about them?) Ain’t no fish in that pond. And if there’s one thing politicians understand, it’s how to advance their own self-interests.

Which is why bloodier days are now inevitable.

One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First: It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.

Never before have the political battlelines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.

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