WASHINGTON

Thousands of demonstrators took to downtown Minneapolis on Friday to demand that the Trump administration end its deployment of thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the Twin Cities.

For many, there was a palpable sense of betrayal, with several protesters denying that the deployment is centered on immigration enforcement, and is instead motivated by the desire to exert power at any cost.

"My neighbors are being terrorized. People are being kidnapped from their houses, dragged out in their (expletive) underwear. This police state, just, they think they can do whatever they want to our neighbors, and nobody (expletive) wants them here," Brendan, a resident of the neighboring city of St. Paul, who declined to provide his surname, told Anadolu.

"All they do is try to abuse us and intimidate us. This is just a terror tactic. They're not even good at what they do. They consistently arrest the wrong people and then throw them out of a car six blocks away. This is just to intimidate our communities and our neighborhood," he added.

The Trump administration has sought to frame the crackdown as a public safety imperative, arguing the effort is designed to ensure that US’ immigration laws are properly enforced.

But the killings of demonstrators Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, and Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, by federal officers have exacerbated communal tensions that have been on the rise since ICE began its deployment to the Twin Cities in December.

"The fact that they're kidnapping people, children, my neighbors, killing them in the streets -- I don't know what to say, it's like we're under attack, like we're at war from our own country, our own government," said Jodi Irwin, a resident of South Minneapolis.

Protests against ICE operations and shootings by federal immigration agents have taken place for more than a month across the state, but Friday's demonstration was one of the largest displays of public opposition to date.

Good and Pretti were fatally shot in separate incidents in Minneapolis this month. Good was killed Jan. 7 while near a protest site. Less than three weeks later, Pretti was shot during another demonstration, with video footage appearing to show him being shot 10 times by federal agents.

Senior Trump administration officials quickly framed Pretti’s killing as a justified response to an armed and violent attacker.

Bystander videos, sworn witness statements and accounts from medical professionals, however, tell a sharply different story, suggesting Pretti was disarmed, restrained and shot while pinned to the ground.

"I'm here because I don't want anybody else to get killed. I'm here because Minnesota doesn't want ICE here anymore," said Crystal Hagen, a resident of Minneapolis.

Asked about the Trump administration's framing of the killing, Hagen said, "It's all lies."

"We don't deserve lies. We need somebody who's going to stand up for Minnesota and somebody who's going to tell the truth,” she added.