Hundreds of people lined Ala Moana Boulevard in Honolulu on Sunday to protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti over the weekend in Minneapolis.
The 37-year-old ICU nurse was at a demonstration.
This was the second time this month that a U.S. citizen was killed during an encounter with federal agents. Renee Good was fatally shot behind the wheel of her vehicle on Jan. 7.
Liz Rees with Refuse Fascism Hawaiʻi was one of the organizers of Sunday’s protest. It was put together in less than a day.
“I think people are waiting and looking for a way to connect, for a way to join up. And for many people, I think it's also therapeutic. You can sit at home and watch the news, and it can make you, you know, crazy so to speak,” she said.
“You can feel isolated. You can feel alone. So even just for ourselves and for our own morale, to see that there are hundreds of people who are going to come out on a Sunday afternoon who are going to converge quickly, no matter what, to be with like-minded people who are frightened, who are terrified of what is truly happening, is a good thing.”
The demonstrators blew whistles, cheered, and played music on Sunday.
Reagan, a 15-year-old, was there with her family, including her 6-year-old brother.
“It's so crazy that we live in a place where people are afraid to go to school … people are afraid to protest, to practice their right to protest peacefully. And the fact that people protesting peacefully is getting them killed. I didn't want to see that happening anymore,” she said.
“Even though we're young, we are still able to be educated and stand up to the things that are going on that can seem out of our control, since we can't vote yet. But it makes me really happy that I have a lot of friends and see a bunch of people in my community and school standing up to things like this," Reagan told HPR.
Myra, a retired kindergarten teacher, said seeing so many people at the protest made her feel “ more hopeful than [she's] been in a long time.”
In a written statement, the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi condemned the actions of ICE agents in Minneapolis.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz also released a statement over the weekend that he would be voting against the congressional funding measure for the Department of Homeland Security.
“I am voting against any funding for DHS until and unless more controls are put in place to hold ICE accountable,” he wrote. “These repeated incidents of violence across the country are unlawful, needlessly escalatory, and making all of us less safe.”
U.S. Reps. Jill Tokuda and Ed Case voted against the DHS funding measure, which passed out of the House last week.
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