Avelino Maestas
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avelino.bsky.social
Avelino Maestas
@avelino.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1.2K following 630 posts
Welder, blogger, baker, gardener, gamer, bookbinder, photographer. He/him.
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Reposted by Avelino Maestas
parkermolloy.com
I find this language really gross. First off, it's weak as hell. But second, if your demand is simply that ICE leaves Minnesota, that's just telling them to go to another state to terrorize people.

These centrist squishes need to push for full abolition of ICE.
klobuchar.senate.gov Senator Amy Klobuchar @klobuchar.senate.gov · 1d
Our message is clear: ICE needs to get out of Minnesota.
January 25, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
johnpicacio.bsky.social
Remember the other day when I was saluting my friend Greg Ketter, owner of Minneapolis’ DreamHaven Books? This is him the following day. Greg will never say this, so I will — now is a great time to buy books from DreamHaven. Support Americans who stand up vs. 🧊. dreamhavenbooks.com
DreamHaven Books owner Greg Ketter emerging from a cloud of tear gas that ICE agents fired into the streets of Minneapolis.
January 25, 2026 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
emptywheel.bsky.social
By Lying about Alex Pretti's Murder, Kristi Noem Makes Herself a Co-Conspirator In It

www.emptywheel.net/2026/01/25/b...
By Lying about Alex Pretti's Murder, Kristi Noem Makes Herself a Co-Conspirator In It - emptywheel
By lying about how her goons came to murder Alex Pretti, Kristi Noem makes it clear she's part of a conspiracy in his killing.
www.emptywheel.net
January 25, 2026 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
astrokatie.com
A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.
January 25, 2026 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
mwriston.bsky.social
Baltimorioles protesting in force outside the ICE field office. #Baltimore
January 25, 2026 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.
1. I am a resident of the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am over 18 years of age. I am a children's entertainer who specializes in face painting. 2. On Saturday, January 24, 2026, at about 8:50 am, I was getting ready to go to work when I heard whistles outside. I knew the whistles meant that ICE agents were in the area, so I decided to check it out on my way to work. I've been involved in observing in my community because it is so important to document what ICE is doing to my neighbors. Connecting to your local community and knowing who your neighbors are is something I profoundly value. 3. I drove to Nicollet Ave. and 26th where I could hear the whistles coming from. I turned south onto Nicollet. There were already several ICE agents there and they'd set up a sort of vehicle convoy on Nicollet and 28th. There were also about 15 observers there, recording and observing ICE. 4. I saw ICE agents surrounding cars and punching car windows. I also saw them stopping vehicles further down Nicollet, so I backed up because I didn't feel safe continuing on. 5. I noticed a man sort of acting to help traffic move more smoothly. He helped me find a place to park. I got out with my whistle and my camera. I went over to him and said something like, "I'm going to film and use my whistle." 6. It seemed like most ICE activity was happening a little farther down the street from us, near 27th. Someone was being thrown to the ground. 7. I started recording. There was an agent by a car across the street. Two observers were a few feet away from the agent, blowing their whistles. One was wearing a backpack. 8. I and the man who was observing and helping direct traffic were standing in the street. There was a phone in the man's hand recording a video. 9. An agent approached and asked us to back up, so I moved slowly back onto the sidewalk. 10. The man stayed in the street, filming as the other observers I mentioned earlier were being forced backward by another ICE agent threatening them with pepper spray. The man went closer to support them as they got threatened, just with his camera out. I didn't see him reach for or hold a gun. 11. Then the ICE agent shoved one of the other observers to the ground. Then he started pepper spraying all three of them directly in the face and all over. The man with the phone put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him. 12. Then the man tried to help up the woman the ICE agent had shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying. More agents came over and grabbed the man who was still trying to help the woman get up. All three of the observers looked to have been badly affected by the pepper spray. I could feel the pepper spray in my eyes. 13. The agents pulled the man on the ground. I didn't see him touch any of them-he wasn't even turned toward them. It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun. They threw him to the ground. Four or five agents had him on the ground and they just started shooting him. They shot him so many times. 14.1 don't know why they shot him. He was only helping. I was five feet from him and they just shot him. 15. The video I recorded of what happened accurately depicts the events leading up to the agents shooting him and several minutes afterwards. The video is attached as Exhibit 1. 16. I have read the statement from DHS about what happened and it is wrong. The man did not approach the agents with a gun. He approached them with a camera. He was just trying to help a woman get up and they took him to the ground. 17. I feel afraid. Only hours have passed since they shot a man right in front me and I don't feel like I can go home because I heard agents were looking for me. I don't know what the agents will do when they find me. I do know that they're not telling the truth about what happened. I've heard that other witnesses might have been arrested and taken to the Whipple Building. 18. I am disgusted and gutted at how they are treating my neighbors and my state. I keep alternating between crying and feeling determined it is important to remember the value of documenting injustice. We show up for the people who need us to bear witness, because it can't just be one group of people bearing the brunt of their tyranny. This is a struggle to protect our freedom and democracy, those things are on the line. He lost his life for those values. I declare under penalty of perjury that everything I have stated in this document is true and correct. Dated and signed on Jan 24, 2026 in Hennepin County, State of Minnesota.
January 25, 2026 at 1:15 AM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
gelliottmorris.com
YouGov is out with a new poll after ICE killed another person in Minnesota today. Abolishing ICE is now +5 among all adults, and **+12 among independents**

substack.com/@gelliottmor...
January 25, 2026 at 2:10 AM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
pedalingprof.bsky.social
This is Minneapolis.

Literally every corner along Lake St. packed with people holding candles, many singing, honoring a person who by all accounts was an absolute gem of a human, whose life was tragically stolen by a fascist, paramilitary occupation force.
A group, one of many, holding candles in honor of a community member executed by an unaccountable paramilitary invasion force
January 25, 2026 at 2:46 AM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
rincewind.run
so I went to r/climbing to check the reaction to Honnold free soloing Taipei 101 and the top post on the subreddit is a picture of Alex Pretti outdoors next to a rock face with the title “ICU nurse Alex Pretti, killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis today”

it has 56000 upvotes
esqueer.net Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 1d
My god, Alex Honnold actually climbed Taipei 101 free solo. He did it.
January 25, 2026 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
kyledcheney.bsky.social
JUST IN: In a new lawsuit, Minnesota officials say DHS mishandled evidence from today's crime scene and made "astonishing" law enforcement decisions. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
January 25, 2026 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
dell.bsky.social
Minnesota's state FBI-like bureau is suing Noem. It says before pre-emptively declaring the killing righteous and abandoning the crime scene, feds took exclusive custody of evidence, including "apparently seized cellphones."

MN asserts a sovereign right to investigate crimes within its borders.
#1 in Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension v. Noem (D. Minnesota, 0:26-cv-00628) – CourtListener.com
COMPLAINT against All Defendants (filing fee $ 405, receipt number AMNDC-12575332) filed by Hennepin County Attorney's Office, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Filer requests summons issued....
storage.courtlistener.com
January 25, 2026 at 4:11 AM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
milesgrant.bsky.social
This is about immigration enforcement like Montgomery was about transit policy
nikkimcr.bsky.social Nikki McCann Ramírez @nikkimcr.bsky.social · 1d
Federal agents once again fire flash bangs and tear gas into the crowd of protesters to push them back
January 24, 2026 at 6:29 PM
avelino.bsky.social
Conservatives spent decades constructing a mythos of individual freedom in opposition to government tyranny, and like 18 days in Minnesota have shattered it and shown it to be hollow. But the media carried water for them that entire time and will continue to “Both sides!” everything until we break.
January 25, 2026 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
lukeoneil47.bsky.social
"We are out there in every place they are, showing them that every person in this city is one of our own, that there is no such thing as other people’s children, that collectively we are not afraid of staring them in the eye," @erikhane.bsky.social writes from Minneapolis.
There is no such thing as other people’s children
It is intolerable
www.welcometohellworld.com
January 24, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
whstancil.bsky.social
Do you honestly think people in the civil rights movement and other nonviolent movements faced no violence themselves? They practiced nonviolence because it works, because the oppressor wants a shooting war, which is the war it will win
arno-aman.bsky.social Arno_Xen (ANTIFA) @arno-aman.bsky.social · 1d
How's your non-violent working Mr Gandhi stancil? They will kill each and everyone of you right if they had the chance and you will still be writing Kumbaya.
whstancil.bsky.social Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 1d
Observers have been working day and night to protect these neighborhoods from ICE, make the streets safe so kids can go to school and people can go to their jobs. Burning down the street undoes all our work. The people setting fires haven’t been putting in long hours watching plates or doors.
January 24, 2026 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
socialistdogmom.bsky.social
they’re abducting our neighbors and putting them in concentration camps and they’ll empty a whole goddamn magazine into you while you’re lying on the ground if you don’t cheer them on while they’re fucking doing it.
socialistdogmom.bsky.social molly conger @socialistdogmom.bsky.social · 18d
they’re abducting our neighbors and putting them in concentration camps and they’ll shoot you in the fucking face if you don’t cheer them on while they’re doing it.
January 24, 2026 at 3:52 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
joxley.jmoxley.co.uk
Appears this is also true for fascism.
January 24, 2026 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
whstancil.bsky.social
There’s video now. Worst thing I’ve ever seen. The entire ICE contingent needs to be arrested
January 24, 2026 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
jacobtlevy.bsky.social
Remember when these guys lied that they were preserving Confederate monuments because you had to leave up the whole messy contested historical record rather than erasing history?
inquirer.com Philadelphia Inquirer @inquirer.com · 2d
More than 400 years of history and a decade of advocacy were torn down Thursday afternoon when National Park Service employees removed every single display at the President’s House.

🔗 What's next? We explain: www.inquirer.com/politics/nat...
January 24, 2026 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
adamjst.bsky.social
If the admin's strategic goal was to break public resistance to immigration enforcement activities, it was a tactical mistake to go to the Twin Cities.
It is the misfortune of Minnesota’s ICE contingent to have invaded the state with the second-highest levels of social trust, trailing only Utah. Many activist networks were formed in 2020; we are seeing, Petrus says, Minnesotans call upon the “muscle memory” of the George Floyd protests. In mid-January, a neighborhood organization for a part of town called Whittier put out a call for a meeting to organize a “Neighborhood ICE response”; more than 800 people showed up at the local elementary school and formed a tidy line extending well beyond the door. (“Why a line?” I ask someone later. “Because we are in Minnesota,” he says.) In the cafeteria, in their big coats, adults struggled to get their legs through benches attached to long lunch tables. Because there were too many Minnesotans to fit in a single room, officials and parents and teachers went room to room giving the same speeches about how to help neighbors in hiding. They then gridded out the rooms, dividing the neighborhood into smaller subdivisions. Close neighbors met one another (“Oh, you live on the other side of the museum”) and formed hyperlocal Signal groups. At the first sighting of an agent, someone could ping the group and draw them outside. Their favored tactic was noise. They would make it impossible for ICE to conduct raids in secret.
January 23, 2026 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
titonka.bsky.social
The 2-year-old saw K-Pop Demon Hunters and is obsessed.

REPORT FROM DAYCARE: "He had a good day. He's been rapping a lot though. He needs to work on stopping rapping and listening to the teachers."
January 23, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
qasimrashid.com
Jonathan Ross—the ICE fascist who killed Renee Good—is an 18-year ICE veteran, firearms instructor, & active shooter trainer.

The people claiming "ICE needs more training" are missing the point. Ross's 2 DECADES of training IS what led him to execute Good. ICE Training IS the problem.

Abolish ICE.
January 23, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
anamariecox.bsky.social
I will just keep repeating. I have never never never seen anything like this. 30 years of reporting.
jackjenkins.me Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 2d
Have a larger story on this coming, but I’ve been embedded with this group, and this story from yesterday is part of what they’ve been doing in the city: religionnews.com/2026/01/22/h...
January 23, 2026 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
mclem.org
“If the person is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, that individual will be free to go after the brief encounter.”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh

www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...
January 23, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Avelino Maestas
chrpngbrd.bsky.social
Luigi’s cousin doing the nazi shit.
STORM nders Killed Bv Illegals Who Murdered & Raped Marylanders 三日 1.7K 322 Nino Mangione • Paid for by Friends of Nino Mangione Thursday January 22 will be identified... more 785
January 23, 2026 at 2:23 AM