Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images News / Getty Images
Former President Barack Obama warned Wednesday (January 28) that the federal immigration enforcement tactics unfolding in Minnesota pose a threat far beyond the state, calling them a danger to “the basic freedoms of every American.”
In a message shared on social media, Obama said “more and more Americans are voicing their outrage at the tactics being deployed by federal agents in Minnesota,” as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol continue an aggressive deportation campaign that has drawn national scrutiny.
“But it’s important to understand the broader implications of what this administration is doing,” Obama wrote, “and the threat it poses to the basic freedoms of every American.”
The warning comes amid heightened tensions in Minnesota following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti earlier this week and the killing of Renee Good, a mother, earlier this month — both at the hands of federal immigration agents, according to local officials and family members. Those deaths have sparked sustained protests and calls for accountability.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has said the federal operations have left communities on edge, particularly young people, who he warned are now living in fear of being detained or killed during immigration raids.
Obama did not spell out the “broader implications” in his post, but he followed it with a link to a recent episode of The Ezra Klein Show titled “The Staggering Scale of Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Crackdown.”
“Here’s a podcast that does a good job of laying out what’s at stake,” Obama wrote, “and why all of us need to get off the sidelines to demand change.”
His remarks follow an earlier statement issued with former First Lady Michelle Obama after Pretti’s death, which described the killing as “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”
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