Last week, many Americans watched in horror as video footage chronicled the killing of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse who was executed by an ICE agent during a Minneapolis protest. Pretti’s death was the second in a single month at the hands of ICE. Weeks earlier, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed during a demonstration in that same city.

Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Good were among the millions of ordinary citizens all over the US who have taken to the streets in recent months to express their understandable anger at President Donald Trump’s brutal attacks on immigrants. By so doing, they were expressing their rights to free speech and assembly, a protection guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. 

Many elected officials have spoken out against escalating ICE aggression that culminated in the deaths of two Americans. Mayor Daniel Lurie, who has been reluctant to speak out against Trump policies, issued a statement a day after Pretti’s untimely demise. “In San Francisco, especially in communities that are already enduring the painful impact of aggressive federal immigration enforcement, many of us are feeling fear and anger as we witness the horrific events unfolding in Minneapolis.”

Lurie’s statement leaned into milquetoast euphemisms such as 'painful impact’ rather than words like “brutal”, “unlawful” or “thuggish” which would have been more accurate. His words must also be considered alongside his relative silence about ICE actions in San Francisco. 

San Francisco has been hardly immune to ICE’s actions. Federal agents have been harassing and kidnapping residents for about a year. Over time, the level of violence has increased. Last July, an ICE agent pointed a gun at a protester. At the same demonstration, they shot pepper spray at protestors, forcing some to the ground. Another agent drove a sports utility vehicle into a crowd, striking a half-dozen of those who had assembled. One woman was sent hurtling from the roof of the accelerating vehicle and onto the pavement. She narrowly avoided being run over.

Neither Lurie, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins nor a representative of the Police Department have condemned — or even acknowledged — those incidents, regardless that Lurie has promoted himself as the Public Safety Mayor.

In an October 2025 statement, Lurie said, “As your mayor, my top priority every single day is keeping San Franciscans safe. With the support of local law enforcement, community leaders and appropriate federal law enforcement officers, we’re achieving that goal without compromising our values or our laws.”

At his recent state of the city speech, the Mayor proclaimed that “public safety will always be my North Star.” Again, he remained quiet regarding the ongoing threats to the city’s immigrant community, and those brave enough to try and protect them. 

At his state of the city address, Lurie attempted to pivot from his usual comments about public safety to those of affordability. He seems to be fashioning himself after Zohran Mamdani, the recently elected mayor of New York, who won, in large part, by promising to take on his city’s high cost of living. 

But Mamdani has distinguished himself at this crucial moment while Lurie has not. In a statement issued after Pretti’s murder, the New York Mayor stated: “As tens of thousands across Americans protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today. ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.” By comparison, Lurie’s promise to prevent the San Francisco Police Department from aiding ICE seems woefully inadequate.

In his first year in office, San Francisco’s mayor has engaged in a strategy of appeasement with Trump. To prevent Trump from sending federal troops to San Francisco, he promised the President that the city is moving in the “right direction,” a signal that they share a sensibility. (Lurie has failed to release a transcript of his phone call with Trump.)

In fact, Lurie appears to have much in common with the President. Both have surrounded themselves with tech billionaires with a single-minded agenda to further enrich themselves. In fact, two tech billionaires, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff and NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang are credited with interceding with Trump on Lurie’s behalf to prevent local deployment of the National Guard. Quid pro quo, perhaps, for Lurie’s opposition to any measures that would tax the wealthy — or his relatively mild condemnation of ICE. Lurie’s vow to protect all San Franciscans must extend from the wallets of his billionaire friends to the lives of immigrants and peaceful protestors.