Over the weekend, the nation witnessed federal officers wrestle a man to the ground and shoot him roughly 10 times on a busy street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The shocking killing, which came just weeks after President Trump threatened the state with a “day of reckoning and retribution,” has sparked a growing backlash against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE, including from the voice of PlayStation’s Spider-Man.
“We must speak out against injustice,” actor Yuri Lowenthal said in a recent Instagram video. “I know that this is not new for large swathes of the American people but every day that we stay silent, it makes it easier for them to shoot us in the streets and round us up and genocide entire people. We must speak out and we have to take care of each other. I implore you, if you are an American citizen, call your senators every day next week and tell them ‘no more money for ICE.’ We will not stand for it.”
Lowenthal has played Peter Parker in each of Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man releases, and is seemingly set to return for an eventual, unannounced Spider-Man 3, plans for which leaked back in 2023. His plea to fans and fellow Americans comes as the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti at the hands of masked agents has put pressure on lawmakers to block an increase in funding for ICE. Judicial scrutiny of ICE’s actions in the state has culminated in the acting head being summoned to appear in court this week or risk being held in contempt.
“The more we stay silent to try and shore up a failing illusion of normalcy, the more we trade pieces of our soul and the easier we make it for them to shoot us in the street,” Lowenthal wrote on Instagram. “Call your reps every day this week. Tell them how furious you are, how scared you are, and that they must speak out against what’s happening. The simple message they need to hear is ‘no more money for ICE’.”
ICE, which didn’t exist until 2002, was recently awarded a $75 billion funding increase on top of its existing annual budget of $10 billion. Top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino wrote over the weekend that the real victims in Pretti’s killing were the agents.