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Images of Renee Macklin Good (left) and Alex Pretti, who were both shot and killed by federal immigration officers, are seen at a makeshift memorial at the site where Pretti was killed in Minneapolis.
Adam Gray/AP
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Adam Gray/AP
DENTON, Md. — The killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis last Saturday has enraged many people across the country. But some Trump supporters have sided with the agents and say they still back the president’s sweeping enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws.
Earlier this week, NPR traveled to Denton, a town of about 5,000 on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It is the county seat of Caroline County, wich voted for President Trump by a margin of more than 2 to 1 in the 2024 election. In interviews with more than two dozen people, some Trump voters blamed the violence in Minneapolis on protesters, not federal agents.
Federal immigration officers are seen near the scene where Renee Macklin Good was fatally shot on Jan. 7 by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.
John Locher/AP
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John Locher/AP
Pretti is the second U.S. citizen killed in Minneapolis this month, following the death of Renee Macklin Good.
Lawrence, 39, said everyone should have to abide by U.S. immigration law – even his own family. His mother is from England, and he says that after Sept. 11, 2001, she failed to keep her immigration paperwork up to date and was deported back across the Atlantic.
“paperwork’s crucial,” Lawrence said. “That’s why we have it.”
Jennifer Barrow, 43, is a hairdresser who lives about a half-hour away in the town of Easton. She also backs the president’s immigration crackdown and says she’s less focused on the safety of activists and more concerned about immigrants committing violent crime.
“I have a 12-year-old daughter, and if I were to happen to witness my daughter being raped by an illegal immigrant that has committed crimes over and over and again and not being deported … that’s not OK,” Barrow said.
She said she doesn’t know the number of violent crimes undocumented immigrants commit in the U.S., but said she often hears stories about them raping and murdering women and children.
There have been heavily publicized cases of immigrants committing violent crime. In 2024, for example, an undocumented Venezuelan man killed Laken Riley, a georgia nursing student. However, research shows undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens.
While a lot of people in denton had seen many videos of federal agents shooting Pretti,many said they hadn’t and didn’t know much about it. Destiny O’Neal, 25, who works as a manager at a restaurant in town, said she’d heard about Good’s killing but didn’t know about Pretti’s.
She said she gets a lot of her information from social media and the resulting algorithms don’t deliver much news.
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Table of Contents
The Supreme Court agreed on February 26, 2024, to hear arguments in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. NetChoice, LLC, consolidated cases concerning laws in Texas and Florida that aim to prevent social media platforms from censoring users based on their viewpoints. The cases pose a significant challenge to the legal protections afforded to social media companies under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
Background: Section 230 and Content Moderation
Section 230 generally shields internet platforms from liability for content posted by their users. It also allows platforms to moderate content without losing that protection. The Texas law,HB 20,prohibits large social media platforms from “censoring” users,defining censorship as any action taken to remove or suppress content based on viewpoint. A similar Florida law, SB 7072, targets platforms with over 200 million monthly active users and aims to prevent “deplatforming” of political candidates. Both laws were signed into law in 2021.
Legal Challenges and Lower Court Rulings
NetChoice, LLC, and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) filed lawsuits challenging both the texas and florida laws, arguing they violate the First Amendment rights of social media platforms. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals initially blocked Texas’s HB 20 in May 2022, but then partially reversed its decision in September 2023, allowing most of the law to go into effect. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld Florida’s SB 7072 in May 2023, finding it did not violate the First amendment. These conflicting rulings set the stage for Supreme Court review.
Key Questions Before the Court
The Supreme court’s decision will address several critical questions:
- Does Section 230 preempt state laws that regulate social media platforms’ content moderation decisions?
- Do the Texas and Florida laws violate the First Amendment rights of social media platforms to curate content on their sites?
- Are social media platforms more like traditional publishers or common carriers, and how does that affect their First Amendment rights?
Potential Impact
The outcome of these cases could fundamentally reshape the landscape of online speech. If the Court upholds the Texas and Florida laws, it could force social media platforms to host all legal content, irrespective of its offensiveness or accuracy. Conversely, if the Court sides with NetChoice and CCIA, it would reinforce the existing legal framework and allow platforms to continue moderating content as they see fit. Oral arguments are scheduled for February 26, 2024, with a decision expected by late June 2024.
Sources:
Moody v. netchoice, LLC, Docket No. 23-194
O’Connor-Ratcliff v. NetChoice, LLC, docket No. 23-203
NPR: Supreme Court to hear arguments in landmark social media content moderation cases
Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments over Texas, Florida social media laws
