NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Community members honored and remembered the life of Alex Pretti, the nurse who was shot and killed by ICE this past weekend in Minneapolis. Thursday night’s event comes after Governor Maura Healey announced that she’s proposed legislation designed to keep ICE agents out of courthouses, schools, hospitals, and other facilities here in Massachusetts.

Over a hundred people attended the vigil outside the Veteran Affairs hospital in Leeds. Those in attendance told us it was important that they come out despite the frigid weather to show their support for all that’s been occurring in Minneapolis.

Residents showed up outside the Veteran Affairs hospital Thursday night for a vigil in honor of Alex Pretti, a nurse who was shot and killed by Immigration Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis.

Event attendees included local healthcare workers and residents from all over western Mass.

“This one really hits home as a nurse, nurses are unionized, we’re organized, so it feels really important to do something about this to hold a vigil to mourn his death and honor his life. But really, it’s about more than just Alex Pretti. It’s about all the people who have been executed by ice and it’s also about all the people who are being unjustly held in detention centers and people who are afraid to leave their homes in Minneapolis,” said Mariel Boyarsky, a nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

Mother and Daughter, Heather and Eliza Montminy, tell us they felt compelled to standout in honor of Pretti, said people need to support any state dealing with ICE operations, “it’s just scary that he was just trying to bare witness, that’s all he was trying to do was bare witness and that’s our right,” said Heather.

“it’s so bad that people are being murdered out on the streets for no reason at all,” Eliza said.

Thursday’s vigil came after Governor Maura Healey announced proposed legislation to shield residents from ICE operations and signed an executive order limiting where ICE agents can operate in Massachusetts. The proposed legislation would keep ice agents completely out of courthouses, schools, hospitals, childcare facilities and places of worship.

“Hospitals, healthcare centers, doctors’ offices, are seeing people skip medical appointments, skip needed care, pregnant woman not going to the doctors, not taking their kids for pediatrician visits, going to the doctors when they are in need. Why? Because they are afraid of ICE. We have people who are afraid to visit their parents in the nursing home because of ICE. That’s just wrong, and we are going to stop that here in Massachusetts,” Governor Healey said.

The governor’s executive order also prohibits Massachusetts from making any new deals with ice unless there’s a real public safety reason to do it and prevents the state from allowing ice to use state property as a staging ground for immigration enforcement operations.

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