Minneapolis voters leave 'I Voted' stickers at memorials for Pretti and Good

On midterm election day in Minneapolis, voters left their 'I Voted' stickers at the memorial sites for Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, the two US citizens killed by federal immigration officials. The memorial sites have been covered by flowers.

Pretti was a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Minneapolis. Good was a writer and a mother of three. Both were killed in January this year during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis region.

Donald Trump's aggressive mass deportation campaign has been a key issue for voters across the country during this midterm cycle, and has played a large part in Minnesota's election.

Arne, a retired physician who worked with Pretti and asked to use only his first name, left his sticker at the memorial site. He said he knew Pretti, that Pretti was a competent nurse and a really liked person, and he choked up when speaking about his vote, about Pretti, and about when federal immigration officials killed him.

Another voter, Mike F, who withheld his last name for privacy reasons, left his sticker at Good's memorial site. He said his vote felt a little more in touch with some of the things that happened earlier this year in the city, and that coming to pay his respects and attach his vote to what happened there felt like the right thing to do.

At the end of 2025 and early this year, Minnesota became a central target for the Trump administration. Federal immigration officials descended on the area during 'Operation Metro Surge', community groups organized rapid response teams throughout the city to prevent officials from arresting immigrants, and the situation escalated after Good and Pretti were killed.

Many groups involved in the immigration rapid response work have since shifted their attention on to the elections. In Minnesota, voters are choosing a Senate candidate and a governor, as well as House candidates.

Speaking of the president, Arne said: 'Today is a chance for America to say whether they support this kind of thing.'

In a primarily Somali neighborhood elsewhere in Minneapolis, Reverend Shandon Klein, a progressive pastor from the Park Avenue United Methodist church, said she was keeping a watchful eye over the polling place to make sure she was a non-anxious presence available there and to ensure that everybody had access to voting. She said there was a general feeling of empowerment, and that people were really excited to get out and vote.

So far, no federal law enforcement officials have been spotted, despite threats by the Trump administration of deploying them to voting sites.