On Saturday January 24th, 2026, Border Patrol agents executed Veterans Affairs (VA) Nurse and AFGE Local 3669 Member Alex Pretti as he filmed their actions. This is not an isolated incident. In the last 4 months, ICE/Border Patrol agents have fired on at least 8 people in their vehicles [1], including Renee Nicole Good. As of January 22, 53 people [2] have died in ICE custody in the last year - more than in any of the past 20 years. ICE and Border Patrol have invaded and continue to violently occupy Minneapolis and St. Paul, the latest cities on their hit list.

All signs point to more escalation in their tactics [3], in blatant disregard of public safety, existing laws, and basic morals and ethics. Evidence suggests ICE/Border Patrol have been attempting to surveil and target activists, organizers, and community members [4].

Perversely, AFGE represents both Alex Pretti and Border Patrol agents, Pretti’s killers. This arrangement is no longer tenable, and Alex Pretti’s murder is the breaking point. President Kelley, National Executive Committee (NEC) - you can no longer have it both ways.

AFGE and President Kelley, you must now decide: which side are you on? We demand that you side with workers, the vast majority of your membership, over the paramilitary forces invading our communities, kidnapping our friends and neighbors, and now killing your members.

---

OUR DEMANDS:

1. Expel National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) from AFGE
(A) Specifically, file a disclaimer of interest, from AFGE towards NBPC, with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA).
(B) This is necessary to remove a safety risk from our midst and show that we are tangibly putting our members’ safety ahead of Border Patrol blood money.
If this step is not taken, AFGE will continue to lose members and their dues who leave because of NBPC’s presence.

2. Demand a full independent investigation of Alex Pretti’s murder
(A) A DOJ civil rights investigation is NOT independent, and not sufficient.
(B) Acknowledge this incident as the latest in a long line of violent tragedies ICE and Border Patrol are responsible for, and not an isolated incident.

3. Oppose all funding increases to ICE, Border Patrol, and any immigration police. Support cuts to their recent funding levels
(A) These funds were siphoned away from critical public services, which must be restored.

4. Support bills/measures to rein in and abolish ICE, as well as candidates who will do the same.
(A) Support this bill [5][6] to strip ICE agents of qualified immunity, along with similar accountability legislation
(B) Support bills to allow people to sue officers for constitutional violations in civil court (i.e. Bivens Law [7])
(C) Support bills to strengthen due process and its enforcement mechanisms, for citizens and noncitizens alike
(D) Support bills that stop deportations, fix our broken immigration system, and allow our migrant neighbors to remain in our communities

5. Support a government shutdown to stop funding ICE and Border Patrol.
(A) If ICE/Border Patrol does not stop kidnapping and murdering our coworkers, friends and neighbors, and leave our communities, we demand that you stand with our allies in Congress to shut the government down.The only thing the Trump regime seems to understand is power–so, we must exercise our own and support a shutdown to protect ourselves and our communities.
(B) Make this a red-line issue, no matter when the shutdown were to occur.

---

Border Patrol is now a clear and present danger to member safety and to the safety of our loved ones. President Kelley and NEC must side with the over 100,000 VA workers who are AFGE members, and all of our working class members. There is only one course of action to take that can keep us all safe, and begin the healing process: expel the National Border Patrol Council from AFGE by disclaiming them as a bargaining unit.

There is precedent here. In 2022, AFGE filed a disclaimer of interest [8] with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) giving up their representation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers (formerly AFGE Council 118):

“Under the Federal Labor Relations Act, unions can volunteer to give up a unit of workers they previously represented by filing a disclaimer of interest in the bargaining unit. The disclaimer is subject to a routine investigation and approval by the FLRA”

After ICE’s Council disbanded, they chose to affiliate with the Fraternal Order of Police [9]. FOP made statements like this[10][11] in the wake of Renee Good’s murder.

ICE left AFGE [12] because AFGE rightfully opposed the anti-worker and anti-immigrant policies of the first Trump administration [13]. However, while Border Patrol agents have been used interchangeably with ICE officers during the Trump regime’s violent incursions into American cities, NBPC has sought to stay with AFGE - despite views that are diametrically opposed on immigration policy. Border Patrol assigns blame to people fleeing horrific conditions in search of a better life, for issues that are either entirely made up or that they have no responsibility for. AFGE claims to understand that our broken immigration system makes these people vulnerable to the predations of corporate executives and other bosses, who pay them less, treat them worse, and profit themselves more. This is perhaps the primary reason why our immigration system has remained broken for decades.

NBPC seems wary of leaving AFGE, because of the financial pain NBPC stands to suffer[14], if AFGE were to disclaim interest in them and their bargaining units were to be disbanded. AFGE would retain all the financial assets of NBPC, if this were to occur, and NBPC members would need to reorganize their bargaining units if they wanted to remain unionized. This is similar to their concerns about severing affiliation with the AFL-CIO, as NBPC on their website [15]:

--
“The National Border Patrol Council is part of AFGE, and AFGE is affiliated with AFL-CIO. If we were to attempt to sever the affiliation or even discuss it, the NBPC would lose its assets, third-party legal insurance, exclusive representative status, and be placed into trusteeship. AFGE national representatives (non-BP) would assume control of your union and your representation. The AFL-CIO per capita is paid for by AFGE and as of 2019, amounted to $0.65 per month per member.

Although NBPC is opposed to the shameless promotion of illegal aliens by AFGE and AFL-CIO, the NBPC must work through internal measures to change the position of AFGE and AFL-CIO or risk jeopardizing our status (as explained above). In order for change to occur, the NBPC must convince the various Councils within AFGE and other Unions affiliated with AFL-CIO to oppose efforts that promote illegal immigration.”
--

National Border Patrol Council clearly only wants to remain in AFGE because it fears the repercussions of leaving. When Border Patrol Agents represent a clear danger to our safety and to public safety, their dues payments are not worthwhile. How much blood money was Alex Pretti’s life worth? And how many more members will need to be put in danger or killed by Border Patrol officers, before they are expelled from our union?

To paraphrase a sign-on letter [16] written by VA social workers and AFGE members:
“We have repeatedly raised the issue of CBP’s unlawful and unconstitutional behavior, and what we’ve heard from AFGE leadership and some of our Democrat representatives in Congress is that this is a ‘training issue’. It is not. The agent who shot and killed Alex Pretti reportedly had 8 years of experience. Not long after the shooting, CBP director Gregory Bovino made a statement that the agent who killed Pretti was ‘highly trained’, and that Alex Pretti was armed and wanted to do ‘maximum damage to agents’.

All signs point to incidents like this continuing if we do not take action. A leaked memo [3] directs ICE and CBP to enter private homes without a judicial warrant, in violation of existing laws. We’re seeing video of heavily armed agents [17] lined up outside modest homes. We’ve supported friends and family as they’ve organized community patrols [18] outside of elementary schools, and food delivery to families too scared to leave their homes [19]. We’ve heard stories of ICE and CBP dragging people out of their homes in their pajamas in sub-zero temperatures [20], leaving children unattended after detaining their parents [21], dragging teachers out of daycare centers [22], and even detaining children as young as 5 years old [23] who are lawfully in this country…

We ask you to show some courage. We ask you to uphold the most fundamental principle of unionism - that an injury to one is an injury to all. We ask you to stand by your members who provide critical care to our nation's Veterans. We ask you to abide by the responsibility you have to protect your members and ensure that our government does not do harm to union members, its citizens and its residents. AFGE is already losing membership due to the non-recognition of contracts across several federal agencies. Despite our lack of real protections, we continued to support AFGE because we believed they would defend our rights. The time to make good on that commitment is now.”

---

** Link to an electronic copy of this petition. Includes links to references in the text of this petition: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13a9ZCMy9EiHVNONLUDHu-KyCi9mySoIK5AUTmi_cSBQ/

---

REFERENCES:
[1] https://www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/26/ice-minneapolis-shooting-alex-pretti

[2] https://walkinshaw.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=273

[3] https://apnews.com/article/ice-arrests-warrants-minneapolis-trump-00d0ab0338e82341fd91b160758aeb2d

[4] https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/27/us/alex-pretti-protesters-minneapolis-invs

[5] https://www.levernews.com/how-dems-can-end-ice-agents-lawsuit-shield/

[6] https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr4944/BILLS-119hr4944ih.pdf

[7] https://law.illinois.edu/bivens-act-a-good-start-but-imperfect-argue-mazzone-and-amar/

[8] https://www.afge.org/publication/largest-federal-workers-union-begins-process-to-legally-separate-ice-officers-unit-from-parent-union/

[9] https://www.nioa.us/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_page.cfm&page=FOP20ICE20Lodge20120Member20Benefits

[10] https://www.facebook.com/limitlessproductiongroupLLC/posts/mn-fraternal-order-of-police-put-out-statement-saying-that-they-stand-with-ice/1310332711132285/

[11] https://fop.net/2026/01/national-fraternal-order-of-police-calls-on-americans-to-support-the-work-of-law-enforcement/

[12] https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/07/afge-will-split-its-ice-union-over-ideological-divide/374238/

[13] https://inthesetimes.com/article/donald-trump-family-separation-border-patrol-ice-unions-afl-cio

[14] https://resources.aferm.org/erm_feed/long-term-implications-of-afges-difficult-decision-to-disclaim-ice-officers-union-chapter/

[15] https://bpunion.org/about-nbpc/union-faq/

[16] https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/justice-for-alex-pretti

[17] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/us/ice-agent-weapons-minneapolis.html

[18] https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/08/chicago-neighbors-are-forming-watches-near-schools-to-protect-students-guardians-from-ice/

[19] https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/nonprofits-say-federal-agents-are-targeting-food-shelfs-harassing-minnesota-volunteers

[20] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/a-u-s-citizen-says-ice-forced-open-the-door-to-his-minnesota-home-and-removed-him-in-his-underwear-after-a-warrantless-search

[21] https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/ice-agents-shatter-window-leave-1-month-old-baby-mother-in-car-after-portland-arrest/

[22] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McdhGNSWDGE

[23] https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/23/witnesses-say-they-begged-ice-agents-not-to-detain-minnesota-5yearold-after-fathers-arrest