NEW YORK, United States (CMC) – Caribbean-American New York State Assembly member Brian Cunningham on Saturday denounced the latest fatal shooting by agents from the United States (US) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

ICE agents fatally shot Intensive Care Unit nurse Alex Pretti, an American citizen, as hundreds braved the cold weather to protest ICE’s immigration clampdown tactics.

“This week, the country watched news out of Minneapolis that should stop every person in their tracks,” Cunningham, the son of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 43rd Assembly District in Brooklyn, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

“This tragic death follows yet another fatal shooting tied to immigration enforcement in the same city, involving Renee Good, amid rising tension around increasingly aggressive federal operations. Two ICE agents, two fatal shootings, in less than two weeks, it’s unacceptable,” he added.

According to Cunningham, “No matter where you stand politically federal force cannot become the default language of immigration policy.

“When civilians are dying and communities feel occupied rather than protected, democracy is being tested in real time.”

The Assemblyman said the Caribbean community and New Yorkers are not treating this as distant.

“When federal immigration enforcement becomes increasingly unregulated and insulated from oversight, immigrant communities are hit first, but the consequences affect us all,” he said.

He noted that “Fear changes daily life. It discourages parents from sending kids to school, makes people avoid hospitals, and stops witnesses from reporting crime”.

Cunningham is a co-sponsor of the New York for All Act which would restrict and regulate how state and local entities discover or disclose immigration status, including limits on questioning and information-sharing that can funnel families into civil immigration enforcement.

“That makes every neighbourhood less safe, and it leaves room for abuse to grow in silence,” Cunningham continued. He said the Minneapolis shootings are not just Minnesota news.