MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury and Minneapolis are 1,304 miles apart but have been connected this past week for reasons other than a frigid, snowy weather pattern.

State and local clergy, citizens and lawmakers have been outspoken in their condemnation of a major U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence in Minnesota’s Twin Cities area that was punctuated by the killings of two people who had been protesting and/or chronicling ICE agents’ activities.

On Jan. 7, an ICE agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good, a mother of three children, as she was attempting to slowly drive away from an ICE stop on a Minneapolis street.

Then, this past Saturday, Jan. 24, Alex Pretti was shot and killed by ICE agents in downtown Minneapolis. Video shows Pretti was documenting ICE agents’ activities with his phone. In the moments preceding his death, Pretti — a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital — goes over to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground by ICE agents and sprayed, as seen on multiple videos. At that point, ICE agents start spraying Pretti’s face with a chemical agent while pulling him away from the woman.

During an ensuing melee, during which several agents pinned Pretti to the ground, one agent exclaims that Pretti has a gun — which an agent removes from a holster on Pretti’s person — and then two ICE agents shoot Pretti 10 times while he is lying on the ground.

An ongoing investigation into the shooting has revealed that Pretti was permitted to possess the gun; Minnesota is a legal carry state.

CHANGING THEIR TUNE

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, through Secretary Kristi Noem, issued multiple statements in the aftermath of the incident, initially claiming Pretti was “brandishing” a firearm and had “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement.” Those statements have proven to be false and have been heavily criticized by Democrats in Congress and several congressional Republicans as well. President Trump initially defended ICE’s action, but has since backtracked from what is now seen as a fabricated story attempting to initially absolve ICE of any wrong-doing.

Since videos taken by bystanders have shown the world what really happened in those moments before Pretti’s death, both DHS and Trump have backtracked from their original statements. Customs and Border Patrol leader Greg Bovino has been removed from the state, and Trump has softened his hardline stance in Minnesota, adding he had a “productive” conversation with Gov. Tim Walz during which he pledged a review of Pretti’s killing with state cooperation, though the DHS, not state law enforcement, remains in charge of the investigation.

Vermont’s congressional delegation was outraged by Pretti’s death.

Sen. Peter Welch called Pretti’s killing a “shocking murder” and referred to ICE as “an agency that has become a paramilitary force terrorizing American communities.” Welch also repeated his call for Noem to resign. “This must stop, immediately,” Welch wrote on X. “No more blank checks from Congress, and no more excessive force.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders called Pretti’s killing a “murder” and said, “all federal agents — ICE and Border Patrol — must be withdrawn immediately from Minneapolis and other cities.”

Rep. Becca Balint said in a statement she was “so full of rage, disgust and heartache. This man was executed at point blank range.”

She added in a statement on X, that the “evidence in the videos is much stronger than their fascist lies. What will it take for Americans to admit our own government will kill us and lie about it?”

Even Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, issued a strong statement saying it was “not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their God-given and constitutional rights to protest their government…  At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership. At worst, it’s a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans. Again, enough is enough.”

LOCALS JOIN PROTESTS

Meanwhile, Minnesotans have continued to protest in the streets, with participation from like-minded folks in other states — including Vermonters. Protests were held throughout the Green Mountain State on Jan. 10 and 11 following the fatal shooting of Good. Here in Middlebury, it’s become common to see ICE-related protests by folks on the Cross Street Bridge, including just this past Friday.

Activist groups like Middlebury Indivisible condemned recent ICE activities. Middlebury Indivisible member Jack Mayer told the Independent that he and others will continue to organize and speak out.

“We have been down this road before. When Hitler and his enablers tried to consolidate absolute power, they turned to an army of thugs, the Brownshirts, to terrify the population. Sadly, in 1930s Germany there was not a concerted pushback from people, institutions, or the clergy until it was too late. We must make a different choice, peacefully protest, and refuse to allow this assault on our precious and fragile democracy,” said Mayer, a well-known Addison County physician.

At least one Addison County resident got to see the Minnesota-ICE tension up close. Elizabeth Gleich, associate pastor of the Congregational Church of Middlebury, visited the twin cities from Thursday, Jan. 22, to Saturday, Jan. 24 — the day Pretti was killed.

It was to be a homecoming of sorts — Gleich was born and raised in Minnesota — but also about spirituality and healing. She was one of around 600 clergy and faith healers from throughout the country who participated in “A Call to Minneapolis,” organized by a group called Multifaith Antiracism, Change & Healing (MARCH). Participants marched in protests and built “relationships, skills and commitments needed for sustained action across the country,” reads a description of the event on the MARCH website.

The attending clergy collectively called for ICE to leave Minnesota, for the officer involved in the shooting of Good to be

“held legally accountable,” for a halt to ICE funding and that unit to be investigated for potential “human and Constitutional violations,” and for Minnesota and national companies to cease economic relations with ICE.

Gleich’s parents and her two sisters still live in the Twin Cities area. Gleich attended the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Minnesota, then went to Yale Divinity School before settling in Vermont with her husband, Elliott Munn, who is pastor of the Congregational Church of Vergennes.

Last week Gleich felt a pull to her native state after hearing testimonials and seeing images of widespread protests of ICE activities in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. The DHS has specifically targeted Minnesota, which has a large Somali population that Trump in early December referred to as “garbage.” The population has come under increased scrutiny by federal authorities in wake of a largely debunked social media influencer’s late-2025 allegations of fraud against some of Minnesota’s Somali-run childcare centers.

“It’s so heartbreaking and scary for this population that was welcomed into Minnesota because their homeland was no longer safe,” Gleich said. “They are a big part of the community. Now their protected status is being threatened or taken away. They are being abducted from their homes, schools, cars and hospital beds.”

She wanted to participate, in some way, in her state’s healing and outreach, by participating in nonviolent protests, delivering food to the poor and showing solidarity.

MARCH PEACEFUL PROTEST

She fortuitously learned of the MARCH opportunity, organized with just four days’ notice. Gelich booked a Jan. 22 flight for Minneapolis, confident the trip would be productive. Minnesota, she recounted, had laid a solid social-action foundation following the murder of Goerge Floyd on May 25, 2020.

She was one of a dozen other Vermont clergy to make the trip.

Soon after her arrival on Thursday, Gleich and fellow clergy assembled at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis to become acquainted, be briefed on citizens’ experiences with ICE agents, to make a list of songs to sing, and then go into the neighborhoods to witness the situation for themselves.

Gleich, in lockstep with other pastors, rabbis, imams and other clergy, walked through areas of Minneapolis (including Lake Street) that are home to immigrants and immigrant-owned businesses.

“I walked with my sister and my dad with 50,000-75,000 Minnesotans in minus-20 to minus-30 degree weather. I had the kind of feeling you get with that many people, feeling so passionate about protecting their neighbors… There was safety in numbers,” she said.

She was ecstatic to see family members, glad to interact with fellow clergy, and thankful to have been able to share her faith, solidarity and kindness with folks going through tough times.

But the trip was also eerily dystopian.

The streets of her youth were teeming with a local populace outraged by the actions of an estimated 3,000 masked ICE agents they believe had been deployed for political reasons.

“It was like the two sides of a coin,” Gleich said. “There was the heartbreaking evil that’s happening at the hands of ICE, but also this really beautiful, resilient, convicted group of people — thousands of Minnesotans who are determined to keep each other safe.”

Gleich said she fortunately didn’t witness any acts of violence, but saw a variety of non-violent tactics that citizens employed to shine a light on ICE. She recalled folks blowing whistles and honking horns when an ICE vehicle was in their midst. She recounted stories of people forming perimeters around immigrant children as they waited for school buses.

MARCH organizers called off a planned demonstration at the Henry Whipple Federal Building, after being told it might be too dangerous, according to Gleich.

“They were in real time having to make decisions about what was happening, what we could do and how we could best use our collective witness,” she said of her colleagues. “They had to weigh safety and legal resources.”

Friday, Jan. 23, saw a large protest at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. Airport police arrested around 100 clergy for praying/standing within regulated areas of the property, according to an account by Religion News Service. Gleich was not among those arrested.

“Apparently, if you’re arrested from out of state, it’s a more complicated situation than if you’re a resident of (Minnesota),” said Gleich, who has two young children at home.

PREPARATIONS FOR VERMONT

She’s prepared for a more active role in Vermont, believing the time has come for the same civil disobedience that marked the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

“What I kept hearing (during the MARCH event) is that symbols and rituals are important, but they’re no longer enough to resist the violence that’s happening. Symbols now have to be connected to non-cooperation and non-violent direct action,” she said.

Gleich was on her homeward-bound plane on Saturday, Jan. 24, when she learned that Alex Pretti had been killed. It was a somber sendoff and a reminder that more public pressure must be brought to bear.

She’s hoping for a groundswell of public opinion against ICE activities. She’s confounded by a segment of the American population — including some within the religious community — who continue to back current ICE policies.

“The Bible is very clear on this issue, about ‘welcoming the stranger,’ ‘caring for the immigrant’ and ‘giving refuge to the refugee,’” Gleich said. “This is not ambiguous. It’s appalling to me to hear some of this is being justified by others who call themselves ‘Christians.’ I don’t know what kind of theological gymnastics they’re doing to justify this.”

Pastor Gleich made her trip to Minnesota the topic of her Sunday, Jan. 25 sermon at the Middlebury Congregational Church. It can be viewed here.

Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].