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your homegrown newspaper February 4, 2026
Vol. 22, No. 22
Montanans protest ICE, Trump’s immigration policies Senior project pg. 6
Members of Montana’s all-GOP federal delegation have called for an investigation into Alex Pretti’s death. by Amanda Eggert and Tom Lutey, Montana Free Press
FLIC pg. 8
Sports pg. 16
BOZEMAN — Thousands of Montanans around the state held protests Sunday and Monday, Jan. 25 and 26, in the wake of Alex Pretti’s killing by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis on Jan. 24 and in response to the Trump administration’s immigration policies writ large. Hundreds gathered in front of the Gallatin County Courthouse on Sunday afternoon. In Missoula, a crowd of more than 1,000 people, enough to span the 325yard Beartracks Bridge, rallied according to some reports. There were also two events in Billings on Sunday, and another set for Helena Monday night. As Montanans took to the streets, Montana’s
SUMMER GODDARD / VALLEY JOURNAL PHOTO
Mission Valley residents gathered at the Hwy. 93 and 35 junction on Saturday, Jan. 31 to protest the killing of U.S. citizens by ICE agents and the current administration.
congressional delegation indicated support for an investigation into Pretti’s killing, but sidestepped questions on Monday, Jan. 26, about the Second Amendment right of Pretti, who had a permitted, holstered handgun. All four politicians have campaigned as defenders of gun rights. Pretti, a 37-year-old
ICU nurse who worked for Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed by federal officers Saturday morning in an act that has roiled the country. While Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended DHS agents’ actions, describing the DHS officer who shot Pretti as “fearing for his life and the lives of his w w w.va l le yj our na l.net
fellow officers around him,” that account — and the federal government’s denial of state investigators’ access to the crime scene — has come under sharp criticism as a proliferation of videos taken by onlookers indicate that federal officers had already sprayed chemical irritant into Pretti’s eyes, pinned him to the ground
and seized the firearm he was authorized to carry before shooting him up to 10 times. Bozeman residents who participated in the “emergency protest” carried cardboard signs painted with phrases such as “abolish ICE,” “ICE murders” and “Democracy see page 2