GOP Sen. Ron Johnson Says Democratic Leaders Encouraged ICE Protests to Create 'Martyrs'

Amid recent violent encounters involving federal immigration agents and U.S. citizens, a Republican lawmaker said Democrats have politicized the deaths of those involved, going as far as claiming they wanted ICE to kill them so they could be elevated as "martyrs" for their cause.

As reported by The Hill, Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin first elected to the Senate in 2010, said the recent deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good — two U.S. citizens fatally shot by federal immigration authorities in separate incidents during operations in Minnesota last month — were the result of Democratic rhetoric.

"So, what ended up happening is they, the people who organized this, the elected officials who are encouraging this, encouraged Alex Pretti to put himself into harm's way," Johnson said during an appearance on CNBC. "So they knew that those people were in danger, and they got their martyrs, didn't they? They got their martyrs."

During the interview, Johnson described as "sick" what he said was the willingness of elected officials to "encourage their trained activists to put themselves into harm's way" in order to impede and obstruct law enforcement operations.

"That is exactly what's happening. You have to face that reality. It's a sick reality," Johnson said, adding that ICE has not been trained to deal with what he described as "trained activists."

RON JOHNSON: In Central America, if you become a police chief, the drug cartels send you a DVD with a video of your family going to church or school ... that's what ICE agents are facingSORKIN: But these people are allowed to protest JOHNSON: They want their activists to dox… pic.twitter.com/4NFq5FU317

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 10, 2026

Since the deaths of Pretti and Good, Democrats have called for reforms to immigration operations nationwide, including requiring warrants for searches and seizures, banning immigration agents from wearing face masks and mandating the use of body cameras.

As a result of that push, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last week that all federal immigration officers in Minneapolis would begin wearing body cameras while in the field.

"As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide," Noem said, as reported by The Hill. "We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country."

As thousands of people continue to take to the streets to protest the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, Johnson said individuals showing up with semi-automatic weapons are being encouraged by Democrats to do so in order to "neuter ICE's ability to enforce our immigration laws."

"That is the Democrat position here. They wanted open borders. They threw the borders wide open. We've got millions of people flooding in here, including 650,000 immigrants convicted of crimes including murder and homicide, and I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody trying to clean up that mess," Johnson added.

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