Rep. Sylvia Garcia joined Rep. Al Green and a coalition of faith leaders to condemn recent killings by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and to push for federal reforms to end local cooperation with the agency.
The press conference followed the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, two U.S. citizens shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis earlier this month. Garcia called the incidents “a moral and constitutional crisis” and demanded accountability at the highest levels of government.
“Renee Good was a 37-year-old mother of three, murdered as she tried to go to work. Her children will now grow up without their mother,” Garcia said. “Alex Pretti was a nurse and veterans caregiver. The federal government killed Americans, and then tried to smear them. This is not immigration enforcement. This is state-sanctioned brutality, and it must stop.”
Garcia introduced the Restoring Community Trust Act of 2026, legislation aimed at ending federal mandates that compel local authorities to act as extensions of ICE. The bill would repeal 8 U.S.C. §1373, a law critics say has pressured cities and police departments into sharing immigration status information.
“Local governments, whether sheriff’s departments or city police, need to decide their own public safety priorities,” Garcia said. “We cannot build trust in our communities if federal agencies dictate who we protect and how. Police officers are not ICE agents, and traffic stops should never be deportation traps.”
Rep. Al Green echoed Garcia’s call for accountability.
“Justice will entail a thorough, complete and impartial investigation,” he said. “Not one of these investigations can be handled internally by ICE or DHS. There must be litigation, there must be consequences. Secretary Anne Christy Noem should resign or be removed, and the White House must be held responsible. This cannot be swept under the rug.”
Faith leaders at the event highlighted the human cost of ICE operations. Rabbi Josh Fixler reflected on his family’s history as refugees.
“Every person has infinite value. Taking a life is like destroying an entire world,” he said. “We are horrified by the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. We stand in solidarity with their families and demand dignity for all our neighbors, citizens and immigrants alike.”
Reverend Laura Mayo, a Christian minister, called ICE practices “abhorrent to the way of love” and urged the federal government to “stop the violence, fear and brutality. We must do better, and we can do better.”
Lutheran Pastor Adriana Johnson, an immigrant from Colombia, drew from the Beatitudes in condemning persecution and systemic abuse. “When love is the way, poverty ends, justice flows like a mighty stream, and every person is treated as family,” Johnson said.
The coalition also criticized ICE training and oversight, noting that the agency was not originally designed to function as an armed police force.
“ICE was created after 9/11 to secure the border, not to terrorize civilians far from the border,” Garcia said. “Their operations must be reined in, and officers held to a uniform code of conduct similar to local police.”