Jan. 26 (UPI) — Former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have condemned the Trump administration’s chaotic immigration crackdown that has resulted in the deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis, stating that the core values of the United States and the rights of Americans were under threat.
The separate statements from the former Democratic presidents were published Sunday after masked federal immigration officers fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis a day earlier, the second protester to be killed by federal immigration officers in the city in less than two weeks.
“Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them,” Clinton said in a statement.
“If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back.”
Obama, with his wife, Michelle Obama, called Pretti’s killing “a wake-up call” for every American “that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”
Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at a VA hospital, was shot multiple times at close range on Saturday by federal agents who had swarmed and wrestled him to the ground.
He was killed less than three weeks after a federal agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, in Minneapolis while she was in her car, apparently driving away from the scene.
The Trump administration has come under growing accusations of mischaracterizing the shootings in order to justify and impugn them.
The Department of Homeland Security has claimed that Pretti “violently resisted” officers attempting to disarm him, and that, “fearing for his life,” an agent fired “defensive shots,” killing the man. It has also described Good as a domestic terrorist and the officer who killed her as also having been fearful for his life.
Democrats and critics have pointed to videos that captured both shootings, saying they contradict the Trump administration’s claims. They have also criticized the administration for blocking local police efforts to investigate the shootings.
In his statement, Clinton said that at every chance, Trump administration officials “have lied to us, told us not to believe what we’ve seen with our own eyes and pushed increasingly aggressive and antagonistic tactics, including impeding investigations by local authorities.”
“It is up to all of us who believe in the promise of American democracy to stand up, speak out and show that our nation still belongs to ‘We the People,'” Clinton said, quoting the opening words of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution.
Obama called on the Trump administration to “reconsider their approach” and work with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Frey, as well as local and state police, to prevent further chaos.
“Every American should support and draw inspiration from the wave of peaceful protests in Minneapolis and other parts of the country,” he said. “They are a timely reminder that ultimately it’s up to each of us as citizens to speak out against injustice, protect our basic freedoms and hold our government accountable.”