‘Empathy Destroys Facism’: Scenes From the Dallas ‘ICE Out Now’ Protest

Hundreds gathered near City Hall in Dallas after dark on Thursday as the temperature again dropped to near freezing to protest against ICE and President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies. Last night’s rally was the first large local gathering since federal agents killed 37-year-old Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti during a protest on Jan. 24. 

The ICE Out Now rally was the third such gathering in Dallas over the past three weeks, following the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota. Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot three times by an ICE agent while attempting to steer her vehicle away from the officer during a Minneapolis ICE operation. 

Earlier this week, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino was removed from his Minnesota post and replaced by Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, who has promised to de-escalate tensions, although recent remarks and social media posts from the president suggest that uncertainty and unrest caused by Operation Metro Surge could persist.

The Dallas protest originally scheduled for Tuesday was moved to Thursday night due to icy conditions from Winter Storm Fern. Additional efforts to protest ICE and Alex Pretti’s killing are set to take place on Friday and Saturday. 

The “National Shutdown,” organized by a group of Minnesota student organizations, aims to have people skip work, school and shopping on Friday as a show of solidarity. On Saturday, a memorial bike ride for Alex Pretti, an avid mountain biker, is scheduled to depart from Harwood Park in downtown Dallas at 1 p.m. to coincide with hundreds of other similar rides in other cities across the globe. 

The Observer was on the scene in Dallas Thursday night. Check out our photos from the protest at City Hall.