Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton issued pointed calls Sunday for America to stand up and defend their values after the second killing of a citizen in Minneapolis by immigration agents that Donald Trump blamed on Democratic “chaos.”The Trump administration has faced intensifying pressure over its mass immigration crackdown, particularly after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway. That incident came less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car in the same Midwestern city.Trump administration officials quickly claimed Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents — as they did after Good’s death — pointing to a pistol they said was discovered on him.However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground.Trump provocatively attributed the deaths to Minnesota’s Democratic elected officials, including Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, writing on his Truth Social platform: “Democrat run Sanctuary Cities and States are REFUSING to cooperate with ICE.” “Tragically, two American Citizens have lost their lives as a result of this Democrat ensued chaos,” he added.After top officials described Pretti as an “assassin” who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement Saturday condemning the administration’s “sickening lies” about their son.With tensions high, protesters gathered Sunday in Minneapolis, denouncing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One person held a cardboard sign that read: “Be Pretti, be Good.”The double tragedies have stirred outrage, including from two of Trump’s Democratic presidential predecessors. Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday said in a statement that Pretti’s shooting should be a “wake-up call” that core US values “are increasingly under assault.”Hours later Bill Clinton delivered a fierce indictment of the current administration, saying peaceful protesters “have been arrested, beaten, teargassed, and most searingly, in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot and killed.””All of this is unacceptable,” Clinton said in a statement as he urged Americans to “stand up, speak out.””If we give our freedoms away after 250 years, we might never get them back.”- ‘We’re reviewing everything’ -US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said an investigation was necessary.While administration officials have defended the officer who shot Pretti, Trump in a brief Sunday interview with the Wall Street Journal declined twice to say whether the officer had acted appropriately.”We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” the president told the paper.Multiple senators from Trump’s Republican Party have called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities.Trump’s administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good’s death.Walz posed a question directly to the president during a press briefing Sunday, asking: “What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?”On Sunday, business leaders from 60 corporations headquartered in Minnesota — including retailer Target, food giant General Mills and several professional sports franchises — signed an open letter “calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions” and for authorities to work together.- Voters upset -Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants, which Trump has repeatedly amplified.The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back against Trump’s claim, telling reporters “it’s not about fraud, because if he sent people who understand forensic accounting, we’d be having a different conversation. But he’s sending armed masked men.”Since “Operation Metro Surge” began, many residents have carried whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters.Recent polling has shown voters increasingly upset with Trump’s domestic immigration operations, as videos of masked agents seizing people off sidewalks — including children — proliferate.

The day after a second US citizen was shot dead by federal agents in the northern city of Minneapolis, local residents gathered Sunday at a makeshift memorial to honor their fallen neighbor.”I’m angry and I’m sad for this loss,” a resident named Lucy told AFP at the memorial site on Nicollet Avenue, in the southern part of the city.”But I’m not scared to stay and I’m not scared to continue to fight and stand for what’s right, even when it puts my physical safety at risk,” she continued.Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was fatally shot Saturday by agents who were in the city as part of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.”I heard about the shooting of Alex and came with some fellow nurse friends who wanted to come and pay our respects,” Anna Parthun, a nurse, told AFP.Pretti’s death at the hands of federal agents took place less than three weeks another Minneapolis resident, Renee Good, was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent — on a street about 1.25 miles (two kilometers) away.The area around Pretti’s killing was marked off Sunday by yellow caution tape with police cars parked across the road.Some knelt at the memorial despite the icy ground, where temperatures as low as -4F (-20C) were recorded.”If we were to leave and not stand as Alex did, as Renee did, just because things got scary, then that would not be right,” said Lucy, who only gave her first name, her voice shaking with sobs.- ‘Enough is enough’ -The makeshift memorial in the snow was decorated with bouquets of flowers and candles — along with a host of signs.”Stop killing us,” “Enough is enough. ICE out,” and “Alex should be here” were among the slogans written on signs posted around the site. “I’m here on behalf of the Jewish community of Minnesota, and we are absolutely standing in solidarity against these ICE actions,” a Minneapolis resident named Elizabeth told AFP.After conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants — which Trump has repeatedly amplified — thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed for weeks to Minneapolis, which has one of the highest concentrations of Somali immigrants in the United States.”It’s been an outrage what our president has said about them (Somalis) and the demonization of beautiful, civil, hardworking people,” said Elizabeth, who also declined to give her last name.Another mourner, a man named Andy, stressed the importance of solidarity in the face of oppression.”If they come for you, and they come for them, and you don’t show up, there’s nobody there to come for you,” he told AFP. “So we’ve got to band together as a community and society and oppose this all.”

The emergence of BlackRock’s Rick Rieder as a Federal Reserve frontrunner means the US central bank could be led by a financial markets master less academically credentialed than other recent chairs.Rieder vaulted to the top of betting markets this week after President Donald Trump spoke effusively of the bond market expert, who makes frequent appearances as a commentator on CNBC and other business news broadcasts.Rieder, whom Trump described as “very impressive,” manages some $2.4 trillion as BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income. The post demands deep understanding of myriad securities and digitalized investment platforms.Rieder studied business as an undergraduate at Emory University and earned a Master of Business Administration at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.But unlike past Fed chairs Alan Greenspan, Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke — who won a Nobel prize after his Fed service — Rieder has no PhD. He has served on government panels, but never worked for the US central bank. That lack of government experience was viewed as a “big positive,” according to a Fox Business report on Rieder’s January 15 interview at the Oval Office.Besides Trump, the interview included Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who in July likened the Fed’s personnel management to “universal basic income for academic economists.” In a 2023 interview with the Goldman Sachs podcast “Exchanges,” Rieder described trading as a thrilling challenge of navigating constantly changing dynamics and discovering when you need to pivot.”I always say this in managing money, we’re not in the business of being right,” said Rieder, who famously begins his daily research ritual at 3:30 am. “We’re in the business of generating return for our clients.”Trading is about “risk management and your perception of where the world is and how people think the world is,” he said. Rieder worked at Lehman Brothers from 1987 to 2008 before starting R3 Capital Partners in 2008, months before the Lehman bankruptcy. In 2009, BlackRock acquired R3. BlackRock declined to comment. – Independent streak -Ironically, the Fed chair from recent years whose profile most closely resembles Rieder’s is probably Jerome Powell, the current central bank head, whom Trump has criticized relentlessly.Trump in 2017 named as chairman Powell, an attorney who had worked in private equity in between stints at the US Treasury Department and the Fed. Trump’s interest in Rieder reflects “MAGA’s critique of the Fed as being excessively technocratic,” said Mark Blyth, a professor in international economics professor at Brown University.Blyth also called Rieder a bit of a “dark horse” on whether his decisions would shift from Powell’s.”It’s not automatically clear that Rieder is a very low-interest rates guy,” Blyth said.Rieder’s political donations suggest an independent streak. In the 2024 cycle, he backed Trump’s Republican primary challenger Nikki Haley over Trump and some DemocratsIn a January 2 BlackRock column, Rieder said the inflation “storm has passed,” characterizing labor market weakness as the bigger priority.That position is in line with pronouncements by Powell at recent meetings. The Fed is expected to leave rates unchanged this week at between 3.50 percent and 3.75 percent after three straight cuts.Rieder told CNBC on January 12 that the “Fed’s got to get the rate down” to about three percent.His appearance on CNBC came the day after Powell hit out at a criminal probe of the Fed launched by Trump’s Justice Department as a “pretext” for the president’s opposition to the Fed’s cautious approach to cutting rates.Rieder declined to comment directly on Powell’s remarks, but backed Fed independence, insisting that whomever leads the Fed is “going to make the right decisions… for maximum employment and price stability,” he told CNBC.Besides Rieder, the other leading candidates are White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett; former Fed official Kevin Warsh; and Fed governor Christopher Waller.