How a killing on ‘Eat Street’ forced Donald Trump to change course

Before it became the backdrop to last week’s horrific shooting, Minneapolis’ Nicollet Street was famous for its impressive diversity of ethnic restaurants.

German cuisine has been served at the Black Forest Inn since 1965, and in the years since, diners have flocked to waves of new immigrant-owned restaurants serving Vietnamese banh mi, Chinese mapo tofu, Greek roast lamb and many other dishes.

But recently, Nicollet Street — known as Eight Street — has attracted a different crowd: armed agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who raided the area this month. In Nicollet, across from the Black Forest Inn, Alex Pretty was shot from behind by ICE agents on January 24.

Gina Christ, whose German immigrant father opened the restaurant, kept the doors open this week not to sell meals but to provide a warm place for people who come to lay flowers, light candles or leave notes in Pretty’s memory at a shrine across the street.

“This is emotionally devastating,” Crist said of Pretty’s killing and of the immigration campaign he was fighting when he died. “This is a country that the people on this street believe in. You go from feeling like we’re your model citizen, your model story of the American dream, to us being…insignificant.”

Pretty’s killing came just three weeks after an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot Renee Nicole Judd, a 37-year-old mother and poet. The deadly violence at the hands of masked ICE agents — coupled with Trump administration officials’ accounts of Pretty’s killing, which conflicted with widely shared video evidence — has led to a fierce backlash among Democrats and recent criticism from some Republicans.

Now, with pressure mounting in the wake of Pretty’s killing, Trump appears to be trying to correct course on his immigration crackdown, a signature domestic policy. He has been attacked by members of his own party, and his approval ratings for his handling of immigration have declined. Even the National Rifle Association sided with Pretty against the administration.

Trump said Monday he would send border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, a move seen as undermining Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He is also expected to summon from Minneapolis the top Border Patrol official, Gregory Bovino.

Some Republicans cheered the potential appearance of Bovino, who has drawn attention for his double-breasted coat and for personally throwing tear gas at protesters in Minneapolis. He drew criticism for claiming that Pretty intended to “massacre” federal agents, without providing evidence.

Among Bovino’s Republican critics was Zach Duckworth, a Republican state senator from Minnesota and a member of the state National Guard, who spoke out against the Border Patrol’s use of violence and heavy-handed tactics.

“It became clear to me and to the majority of others in our state that the tactics and approach were not giving us the results that people were comfortable with,” Duckworth said. “I called for a pause, re-evaluation and adjustment of tactics.”

On Monday, as US media reported that Trump was preparing to move Bovino, the president found time to speak with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — Kamala Harris’ running mate and a frequent target of the president’s insults — and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey. Trump said he and Waltz are “on the same wavelength.”

After that, Frey said some ICE agents would begin leaving Minneapolis on Tuesday after the conversation with Trump, who agreed that the current situation could not continue.

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After several agonizing weeks, Minneapolis seemed to be calming down. Immigrant rights activists monitoring their activity said Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in dark vehicles were still patrolling the streets. But there have been few, if any, signs of the violent confrontations seen in recent weeks.

However, immigrant rights advocates say they have not let their guard down. They don’t trust Trump and have vowed to keep fighting until the ICE raids end.

“We don’t want to [the administration] “We have to lose some propaganda pressure and then continue the campaign of terror against our immigrant neighborhoods,” said Andrew Baumgartner, pastor at Grace Lutheran Church in northeast Minneapolis.

“We need the violence in the streets to stop, we need the raids to stop, the kidnappings to stop, the kidnappings to stop,” Baumgartner said. “Anything less than that is not enough.”

Will Stancill, an attorney and civil rights observer, said he was glad to see the firing of Bovino, who he said was “clearly behind the armored convoys circling entire blocks firing tear gas” in Minneapolis.

But he is not sure that will constitute a meaningful change.

“There are still thousands of ICE agents, so if you’re still snatching people off the streets, it’s hard to see how it’s going to be much better here,” Stancill said.

On Nicollet Street, normally a lively place, a sense of sadness permeates the area surrounding the site of Pretty’s death. Some restaurants and shops, such as the Black Forest Inn, were not open for business after Preeti was killed. But people braved sub-zero temperatures to leave a message, stand in silence or take a photo.

“It’s heartbreaking from beginning to end of the story,” Christ says. “Everyone’s worst nightmare is to end up murdered.”