ACLU demands ICE leave the streets and communities of Puerto Rico

San Juan, P.R. – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Puerto Rico on Monday demanded the withdrawal of federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from the streets and communities of the archipelago, arguing that the killing of Alex Pretti at the hands of these agents in Minneapolis once again shows that they are not respecting people’s constitutional rights and are putting everyone in danger.

“From the beginning, we have denounced the arbitrary, cruel, and discriminatory nature of ICE raids in Puerto Rico and how they violate the rights of all people, regardless of immigration status. The killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, following the killing of Renee Good, shows that this agency is not, at present, respecting the basic constitutional rights that protect everyone, and that we will continue to exercise and defend,” underscored attorney Annette Martínez Orabona, executive director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico.

Pretti, a U.S. citizen, was killed by ICE agents on Saturday while exercising his right to free speech and while observing and documenting the agents’ intervention. The ACLU, an organization dedicated to defending constitutional rights since its founding in 1920, strongly condemned the killing and demanded the immediate removal of these violent and dangerous federal agents from the streets of Minneapolis and all communities exposed to this type of attack in the United States and Puerto Rico.

“What happened in Minneapolis confirms a pattern of violent, discriminatory, unlawful operations, without real oversight and with deadly consequences,” Martínez Orabona noted.

In recent weeks, the ACLU of Minnesota and its allies filed two lawsuits related to ICE’s assault on Minnesota residents. The first is Hussen v. Noem, which challenges the agency’s warrantless arrests and racial profiling; and the second is Tincher v. Noem, a lawsuit challenging ICE violence against people in Minnesota who were exercising their First Amendment rights to gather, observe, and protest federal agents’ immigration enforcement activities in the streets.

At the local level, in just one week, the ACLU of Puerto Rico has succeeded in stopping the transfer out of our jurisdiction of three immigrants detained by ICE agents—Martín Medina de la Cruz, Diogene Fermín Fernández, and Joan Alberto Zorrilla Lora—and in ensuring their right to a bond hearing through the filing of habeas corpus petitions before the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. In these cases, the ACLU is working alongside the Legal Assistance Clinic of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law and the Immigration Clinic of the University of Puerto Rico School of Law.

These arrests occurred under circumstances that raise serious concerns of racial profiling and reflect grave due process violations, in addition to other possible legal violations that we cannot normalize. “We will continue using litigation to demand that the federal government respect due process, guarantee access to bond in appropriate cases, and stop racial profiling and punitive transfer practices that disproportionately affect immigrant communities in Puerto Rico,” said attorney Fermín Arraiza Navas, legal director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico.

The ACLU also stated that Congress has a duty to rein in ICE before what happened in Minneapolis happens again, and called on the U.S. Senate to reject a budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that would allow these out-of-control agencies to continue putting communities in danger.

In July 2025, Congress voted to add an unprecedented $170 billion to the already massive Trump administration budget for immigration enforcement, which has funded violent and indiscriminate raids. Congress is currently negotiating the DHS budget for next year, which would fund ICE and Border Patrol, allowing them to continue their unlawful operations in the United States and Puerto Rico without imposing serious limits on their abusive and violent tactics.