Source: Cleveland.com. by Olivia Mitchell
Faten Odeh, executive director of CAIR-Ohio’s Cleveland and Northern Ohio chapter speaks at the Faith Christian Church in Cleveland after the Border Patrol killing of Alex Pretti.Olivia Mitchell
CLEVELAND, Ohio - A coalition of Cleveland religious leaders, students and activists announced plans for a general strike Friday and called for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following recent deaths involving federal agents in other cities.
The coalition held a press conference Tuesday at Fifth Christian Church in Cleveland to announce a rally scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at Public Square. Organizers cited three deaths as the catalyst for the planned action: Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs intensive care nurse shot by a Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old poet shot Jan. 7 in Minneapolis by ICE agent Johnathan Ross, and Keith Porter Jr, a 43-year-old shot on New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles by an off-duty ICE agent.
“No work, no school, and no shopping until our cities are safe and ICE terror has ended,” said Zoe Wagner, a Case Western Reserve University senior who helped organize a student walkout earlier in January.
ICE’s Detroit office, which covers Ohio, did not immediately provide comment. Democrats have recently called for impeachment or and removal of Kristi Noem, Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. DHS described all three victims as safety threats.
According to the Trump administration, Porter posed a threat by shooting his gun in the air on New Year’s Eve when he was shot. Unlike the killings of Pretti and Good, there is no footage to shed further light on the matter.
The Trump administration has claimed that Good weaponized her vehicle against officers before Ross shot through her windshield and driver’s side at close range. Yet video shows her pulling her car forward slowly after agents had surrounded it and yanked on the door.
The administration has also claimed that Pretti, a licensed gun owner, brandished a gun, but footage shows him holding a cellphone, not a gun. Agents pepper sprayed Pretti, took him to the ground and shot him several times after he attempted to help a woman during a protest.
Rev. Evan Regis Bunch, senior pastor of Fifth Christian Church, said federal agents are not being held accountable.
“Federal ICE agents are moving through our streets like wolves, snatching members of our community, disrupting our workplaces, de-sanctifying our church, and spreading a virus of fear,” Bunch said.
While ICE has not focused much attention on Cleveland compared to other American cities, this week marked one year since the immigration raid on Cilantro Taqueria in Cleveland Heights.
Faten Odeh, executive director of CAIR-Ohio’s Cleveland and Northern Ohio chapter, proposed alternatives to the current immigration enforcement system.
“ICE should be replaced with a different system that handles immigration more safely,” Odeh said. “Perhaps we can replace it with a civil court-based, non-militarized immigration system that prioritizes due process, dignity and public safety.”
The coalition directed specific demands to the Cleveland Community Police Commission, urging limitations on local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Earlier this month, the Cleveland Division of Police released a rare statement indicating it would not assist with any ICE operations.
Rev. Charles Graves IV, rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Shaker Heights, connected the anti-ICE movement to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“If we believe in anything that King did, then we are called to do what he did in our time, too,” Graves stated. “And what did he do and what did those with him do in that time? They led strikes and walkouts.”
Organizers emphasized that their goal is to eliminate fear in immigrant communities. They say everyone is less safe when people are afraid to contact authorities.
“When immigrants trust the community, when immigrants feel safe, and when immigrants feel at home, everybody is safe,” Bunch concluded.
