This is an opinion piece by Emma Edwards, councillor for Bishopston and Ashley Down and Leader of the Green Group on Bristol City Council. It was originally published on Bristol 24/7 in January 2026.
I’m sure I am not alone in my feelings in watching the events that have been unfolding in America.
I’m not just talking about President Trump’s alarming and questionable foreign policies, including threatening NATO allies and insulting British Troops who died in Afghanistan, but the horror of what is unfolding on the streets of American cities.
We have seen two people in the last month killed in Minneapolis by ICE agents and the Trump administration’s defence, and sometimes praise, of those who killed them.
– photo: Rob Browne
Not a single word of regret or sympathy for the man and women who lost their lives or the families who have been left grieving.
A young mother, who was loved by her community, and a young man who was an ICU nurse, were killed simply trying to help up a woman who had been pushed over.
We’ve seen furious city and state leaders fill in this gap of empathy while also begging people to respond with peaceful protest, despite their rage, lest they invoke more violence from government-hired ‘agents’.
The same leaders who are now deploying their National Guard to protect their residents from the government.
Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana famously said, over 120 years ago: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
And what we see happening in America is not only a repetition of the worst aspects of 20th century history, it is also a warning about how quickly situations can escalate from anti-immigrant ideology and rhetoric into the suppression, oppression and extermination of people.
The murder of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti did not happen in a vacuum.
Those who killed them were in Minneapolis as part of an operation aimed at arresting Somali residents.
Somali heritage residents, whom only recently President Trump referred to as ‘garbage’ when he launched into an anti-Somali, racist tirade.
These victims were standing up for their immigrant neighbours who are facing the brunt of this brutality, with families being ripped apart and mothers, fathers and children being disappeared into detention centres, with no due process to retrieve them.
Minneapolis is a city with ‘sanctuary jurisdiction’, meaning it has, and continues to, resisted the influence of ICE to protect its diverse citizens.
As a councillor in Bristol, another city that is proudly a city of sanctuary with a large and valued Somali community, as well as being home to many diaspora and residents of diverse heritage, I have grave worries about how divisive rhetoric here in the UK is impacting, and could ultimately harm, those who call Bristol home.
In October, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch stated that her party would introduce an ICE-style ‘removals force’ to deport 150,000 immigrants from the UK.
Reform too has talked about creating a new ‘department of immigration’ to deport immigrants, while also wanting to build new detention centres and leave the European Courts of Human Rights, so that they can impose stricter sanctions and deportations on migrants.
Not only are their plans aimed at undocumented migrants, but they have even threatened working migrants with the right to remain.
The current Labour government, far from condemning this harmful rhetoric, instead boasts on its website that “our nationwide crackdown on illegal working has led to record-level raids”, a 63 per cent increase in arrests and that they have deported 50,000 immigrants with ‘no right to be here’ since they came to power.
Trump’s America is demonstrating clearly that what starts with an ‘immigration crackdown’ swiftly moves onto suppressing anyone who speaks, thinks or acts ‘differently’ from the government.
This is the reality of the consequences of divisive, far-right rhetoric and policy, one that Starmer’s ‘Island of strangers’ rhetoric endorses.
As political leaders, it is imperative we call the US actions out for what they are.
If citizens can be killed in broad daylight by a federal immigration task force in a city of sanctuary, in a country we are supposedly allies with, what does that tell the far-right they can get away with?
Bristol is not immune to this rhetoric; we are seeing more frequent protests by the far-right.
While these marches seem innocuous in comparison with America, there is no question that they are a direct response to political rhetoric aimed at stirring up division with an anti-immigrant message.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I would add that those in power who cannot recognise what is happening in the present are also condemning people to fear and uncertainty and putting people at risk.
The Green Party will always stand up for a compassionate and common-sense approach to immigration.
While Bristol is proud to be a city of sanctuary, what we have sadly learned from Minneapolis is that calling yourself a city of sanctuary is not enough, and does not provide protection in itself.
We all have to be alert and active in standing up for our diverse communities, standing beside them in the face of harmful rhetoric, racism and xenophobia.
Bristol’s rich history and culture come from being a multicultural, welcoming and diverse city and those values must be protected.
So we stand with the people of Minneapolis and our heartfelt sympathies go to Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti’s families, friends and community at this awful time. From one proud city of sanctuary to another.