Voters in Minneapolis and Houston placed ‘I Voted’ stickers at memorials this Election Day for people killed by federal immigration agents earlier this year. The gestures linked civic participation with mourning, as communities marked the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas.
In Minneapolis, dozens of stickers were left at memorials for Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, and Good, a writer and mother of three. Both were fatally shot by federal immigration officials during a January enforcement operation in the Minneapolis region. The memorials featured portraits of the victims, surrounded by flowers and messages criticizing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and President Donald Trump.
In Houston, more than 1,000 stickers had been placed by late October at a memorial for Salgado Araujo, a Mexican construction contractor killed by an ICE officer in July. The site included handwritten notes in English and Spanish, such as ‘Por usted’ (For you) and ‘You didn’t deserve this’, alongside U.S. and Mexican flags. Salgado Araujo’s oldest son, Ronaldo Salgado, initiated the gesture after voting early in Texas, placing his own sticker at the memorial. He later said the tribute grew beyond his expectation, with stickers and letters mailed from across the country.
Operation Metro Surge and the victims
Pretti and Good were killed during ‘Operation Metro Surge’, a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis area at the end of 2024 and early 2025. The operation drew rapid response teams from community groups aiming to prevent arrests, and tensions escalated following the deaths of the two U.S. citizens. Pretti, described by a colleague as a ‘really liked guy’ and a ‘competent nurse’, was fatally shot during the operation. Good, a mother of three, was also killed in the same incident.
In Houston, Salgado Araujo’s death occurred in July 2025 when an ICE officer fatally shot him during an encounter. The incident sparked local outrage, with community members organizing vigils and memorials. Ronaldo Salgado, who initially placed his sticker at the site, later received support from voters across multiple states, including California and New Mexico, who mailed additional stickers and letters to be displayed at the memorial.
Voter motivations and community response
Voters who left stickers at the memorials cited personal connections to the victims and a desire to honor their memory through civic participation. In Minneapolis, one voter, Mike F, who withheld his last name for privacy, said he left his sticker at Good’s memorial because ‘it felt like my vote felt a little bit more in touch with some of the things that happened earlier this year in the city.’ Another voter, a retired physician who worked with Pretti and asked to be identified only by his first name, Arne, left his sticker at Pretti’s memorial and said, ‘I just knew that he was a competent nurse – a really, really liked guy. And he was assassinated.’
In Houston, Ronaldo Salgado described voting as an emotional act, saying he ‘cried as I was casting my vote because I was doing it in honor of my dad.’ He noted that the gesture began with four stickers but expanded significantly as others joined the tribute. The memorial in Houston became a focal point for community grief, with messages in both English and Spanish expressing solidarity and condemnation of the fatal encounter.
Broader context of immigration enforcement
The deaths of Pretti, Good, and Salgado Araujo occurred amid heightened immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, which has prioritized large-scale operations targeting undocumented immigrants. The ‘Operation Metro Surge’ in Minneapolis was one of several high-profile enforcement actions in early 2025, drawing criticism from advocacy groups and local officials. Community organizations in Minneapolis organized rapid response teams to monitor and intervene in enforcement actions, while Houston saw widespread community mobilization following Salgado Araujo’s death.
The placement of ‘I Voted’ stickers at memorials reflects a growing trend of voters using civic symbols to connect political participation with social issues. The gesture has been noted in multiple cities this election cycle, with voters in other states also leaving stickers at sites honoring victims of violence or injustice. The act underscores the intersection of voting, public mourning, and political accountability in the context of immigration policy.