GOP Congressional Candidate Calls US Citizens Shot Dead by ICE 'Collateral Damage'

Republican candidate Greg Cunningham, running for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District, told Migrant Insider on August 7, 2026 that Renee Good, 37, and Alex Pretti, 37 — two U.S. citizens shot dead by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January 2026 during Operation Metro Surge — were acceptable losses: “They got to go, so they are collateral damage to a system that put ICE in the position where they have to go locate this person.” Cunningham, citing a claimed background in surveillance operations, blamed anti-ICE protesters for the shootings and called for “public training” to accept enforcement casualties.

The killings of Good and Pretti are documented at 2026-01-07–ice-agent-kills-legal-observer-minneapolis-operation-metro-surge, part of the Operation Metro Surge deployment announced at 2025-12-04–operation-metro-surge-announced-minneapolis that produced over 1,300 documented “collateral” arrests. Cunningham’s statement is notable as the most explicit normalization by a major-party candidate to date of civilian deaths during ICE operations as an acceptable operational cost — using the same “collateral” framing ICE itself applies to bystander arrests, now extended by a candidate to justify bystander deaths.