Read our editorial on Trump’s mass deportation terror campaign as a response to the imperialist economic crisis here.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis non-fatally in Minneapolis January 14. Sosa-Celis is expected to recover from his gunshot wound, according to monopoly media reports. The shooting comes just 7 days after ICE executed legal observer Renee Good during a raid in the city.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Sosa-Celis fled from a “targeted” ICE traffic stop on 01/14. When an agent attempted to arrest Sosa-Celis after the chase, two people came to his defense, striking the agent with a snow shovel and broom. The agent then shot Sosa-Celis in the leg, which the DHS labeled “a defensive shot.” Reports from the monopoly media counter the DHS story, citing Sosa-Celis’ mother and eyewitness video footage which together suggest the agent shot Sosa-Celis as he was fleeing into his house. Both Sosa-Celis and the agent were hospitalized for their injuries.
In addition to Sosa-Celis, the two people DHS claims defended him have also been arrested for allegedly assaulting a federal law enforcement agent. They have been identified as Venezuelan immigrants Alfredo Alejandro Ajorna and Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezema.
Eyewitness video depicts federal agents surrounding Sosa-Celis’ house shortly after the shooting. Agents can be heard in the video firing teargas through the windows. At least one small child was in the house at the time, according to monopoly media.
The protests in Minneapolis against ICE—which have continued daily since the January 7 ICE murder of Renee Good—received a renewed impulse following the shooting.
As seen in social media videos, protesters the evening of January 14 vandalized two unmarked FBI SUVs, leaving messages such as “Only good agent is a dead one,” and “Fuck ICE” spray painted on the side of one. The vehicles’ windows were smashed and their bodies heavily dented. As those messages were being written, a different protester can be heard in recordings saying: “This is what you get when you come to Minneapolis.”
The FBI posted a $100,000 bribe for information leading to the arrest of protesters who vandalized the SUVs and the return of firearms, body armor, dossiers, other items it claims were taken from the vehicles.
Videos on social media from that night shows federal agents in gas masks deploying tear gas and other chemical weapons against demonstrators who gathered at the scene of the shooting. Protesters responded with fireworks aimed at police. At least two people were arrested at the protest.
In response to the steady protests in Minneapolis and around the country, ultra-reactionary President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in a social media post Thursday morning, which would legally open him to deploy the US military to repress the demonstrations.
Image: One of the FBI vehicles damaged by protesters January 14 in Minneapolis following the ICE shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis; Max Nesterak, Minnesota Reformer
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