75 Countries, Millions of Families: The Visa Freeze That Punishes the Innocent for the Actions of the Few
January 15, 2026
The EB-1A extraordinary ability visa is under attack and the battle is now in the courts. How will this affect future petitions?
February 3, 2026
Two U.S. Citizens Dead. Legal Immigrants Jailed. This Is Not Immigration Enforcement—This Is Chaos.
The killing of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has finally shaken the foundations of our country, bringing to light how far to the extreme the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement has gone. Two U.S. citizens—a 37-year-old poet and mother of three, and a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital—shot and killed by ICE and Border Patrol agents in the span of 17 days.
Renée Good was killed on January 7 while sitting in her car. Video shows an ICE agent walking around her vehicle, then firing three shots as she attempted to drive away, killing her as she turned away from him. The administration immediately labeled her a threat who “weaponized her SUV.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, after watching the video, called that narrative “bullshit” and told ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”
Alex Pretti was killed on January 24 while documenting a protest with his phone. Video shows him helping a woman who had been pushed by agents, his phone in one hand and his other hand raised. He was pepper-sprayed, tackled by six agents, pinned face-down, and shot multiple times in the back. The administration called him a “domestic terrorist” trying to “massacre” federal officers. His father called him “a kind-hearted soul whose last thought and act was to protect a woman.”
These were American citizens. Lawful gun owners. People with no criminal records. A mother. A nurse. Dead.
And in the midst of this chaos in Minnesota, my client from Argentina was detained by ICE.
When Doing Everything Right Still Isn’t Enough
This hit home for me like never before when, in the midst of the Minnesota chaos, my client’s business partner informed me that she had been detained by ICE and had a removal hearing the following week.
Let me be clear about who we’re talking about:
My client entered the United States legally on a B-1/B-2 visa. She met a business partner here, invested her life savings into an American business, and applied for a change of status to E-2 investor visa status. The application was submitted before her authorized stay expired—everything done by the book, exactly as the law requires.
According to current U.S. immigration law, a person with a pending change of status petition that was timely filed maintains legal status throughout the process. This is not ambiguous. This is not a gray area. This is settled law.
Her business proceeded to create a dozen new jobs for American citizens—exactly the kind of investment and job creation that immigration policy should encourage.
And then, suddenly, she was dragged away from her family.
They had rented a car to go to Disneyland. ICE agents pulled them over and detained her, leaving her visiting family members on the side of the road in a country where they had no license to drive and didn’t speak the language.
Her family watched as she was taken away by armed federal agents.
The Bond Hearing: When Courts Ignore the Law
My client was just denied bond in her removal hearing.
The ICE attorney claimed that her I-94 had expired—which it had. But here’s what the court did not take into account: the timely filed change of status petition that has kept her in legal status under federal law.
There is no legal basis for the government’s position. She is not out of status. She has not violated any immigration laws. She has committed no crimes. She has done nothing that makes her deportable.
Yet she remains in what is essentially a jail.
This is a woman who:
- Entered the United States legally
- Always maintained legal status
- Invested her life savings in an American business
- Created a dozen jobs for American workers
- Filed all required applications on time and properly
- Has committed no crimes whatsoever
And she is sitting in detention awaiting deportation.
Why This Case Matters to Me
This case hits home for me in ways I can’t fully express.
I have always helped her maintain status. I have guided her through every step of the legal process. She has done everything right—not just technically, but morally. She came here with a dream, invested everything she had, created jobs, contributed to her community.
And most of all, because we come from the same place: Argentina.
My grandparents came to the United States from Hungary in 1933—on separate boats, not knowing what awaited them, with nothing but hope and determination. They found each other here. They built a family here. They created opportunities for the generations that followed.
My mother, the artist Joan Maggi, was able to create her art because America welcomed two Hungarian immigrants in 1933.
She then moved to Argentina, where she met my father, and I was born there. When my parents split, she brought me to the U.S. to start a new chapter, for both of us, and this is when my immigrant story started.
My career exists because I understand, on a deeply personal level, what immigration means: not just paperwork and visas, but families, dreams, legacies.
And now I watch as a fellow Argentine—someone who followed every rule, invested everything, created jobs for Americans—is detained and denied bond despite being in legal status.
This is not the America my grandparents found in 1933. This is not the America my mother brought me to for a new beginning.
Where We Are as a Country
When ICE agents are shooting U.S. citizens in the streets of Minneapolis—a poet, a nurse, people with no criminal records—something has broken.
When federal agents are detaining legal immigrants who have pending applications, proper status, and no criminal history—something has gone terribly wrong.
When courts are denying bond to people who are not deportable under the law—we are no longer operating under the rule of law. We are operating under chaos masquerading as enforcement.
President Trump sent over 2,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minneapolis—five times larger than the entire Minneapolis police force—ostensibly to target “violent criminals.”
Instead, they’ve killed two U.S. citizens.
Instead, they’ve detained legal immigrants like my client.
Instead, they’ve created a climate of fear so pervasive that Minnesota’s governor has created a website to combat federal misinformation, the state attorney general is fighting in court to preserve evidence that federal agents are trying to destroy, and Bruce Springsteen wrote a protest song called “Streets of Minneapolis” to memorialize the dead.
This is not immigration enforcement. This is an occupation.
What Happens Next
My client remains in detention. We are fighting her case with every legal tool available. We will argue that her pending change of status application maintains her legal status. We will argue that she is not deportable. We will argue that she deserves bond.
But I know the reality: in the current environment, the law doesn’t always matter.
When ICE can detain someone in legal status and a court will deny bond despite clear legal grounds for release, we are no longer operating in a system governed by statutes and precedent. We are operating in a system governed by fear, politics, and the arbitrary exercise of power.
For every client like mine—someone I can fight for, someone with legal representation, someone whose case will be heard—there are dozens more who have no attorney, no voice, no advocate.
For every Renée Good and Alex Pretti whose deaths make national headlines, there are families being separated, lives being destroyed, and communities being torn apart in the name of an “immigration crackdown” that has lost all connection to its stated purpose.
The Minnesota Crisis Is America’s Crisis
What’s happening in Minnesota is not an isolated incident. It’s a preview of what’s coming to communities across America.
The same federal force that killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis has detained my client—a legal immigrant with pending status, a business owner who created American jobs, someone who did everything the law required.
If they can kill a poet and a nurse in the streets and face no consequences, they will continue.
If they can detain legal immigrants and have courts ignore settled law, they will expand.
If Minnesota can be occupied by federal forces five times the size of its own police department, your city is next.
The through-line is clear: immigration enforcement has become lawless. It doesn’t matter if you’re a U.S. citizen exercising your First Amendment rights. It doesn’t matter if you have legal status and pending applications. It doesn’t matter if you’ve created jobs and invested in America.
If you’re in their path, you’re a target.
My grandparents came to America in 1933 seeking safety and opportunity. They found a country governed by law, where hard work and following the rules led to belonging and citizenship.
My client came from Argentina seeking the same thing. She invested her life savings, created American jobs, followed every rule—and now sits in detention while her children ask when mommy is coming home.
Renée Good and Alex Pretti were living their lives in Minneapolis—a mother, a nurse, both trying to make their community better—and they were killed by federal agents who face no accountability.
This is the America we have become. And Minnesota is ground zero.
The question now is simple: Will we accept this as the new normal? Will we allow immigration enforcement to operate above the law, killing citizens and detaining legal immigrants with impunity? Will we let Minnesota’s tragedy spread to every city in America?
Or will we demand accountability, demand adherence to the rule of law, and demand that immigration enforcement return to its actual purpose: removing dangerous criminals, not killing poets and nurses, not jailing legal business owners, not terrorizing communities?
My client sits in detention today. Tomorrow, it could be yours.
Renée Good and Alex Pretti are dead. How many more American lives will be lost before we say enough?
Minnesota was supposed to be about targeting violent criminals. Instead, it became a cautionary tale about what happens when enforcement becomes occupation, when authority becomes tyranny, and when doing everything right is still not enough to protect you.
If you are an immigrant—legal or otherwise—in America today, understand this: the rules have changed, the law no longer protects you the way it should, and you need expert legal representation immediately.
If you are an American citizen watching this unfold, understand this: when they can kill U.S. citizens and detain legal immigrants with no consequences, none of us are safe.
Minnesota showed us who we’ve become. The question is whether we have the courage to change it.
About Steve Maggi
Steve Maggi is a nationally recognized immigration attorney based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the grandson of Hungarian immigrants who came to America in 1933. With over two decades of experience, he has represented individuals, families, and businesses in complex immigration matters across U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. When immigration enforcement abandons the rule of law—when U.S. citizens are killed and legal immigrants are jailed—Steve Maggi fights for those caught in the chaos, because he understands that every case is a family, a dream, and a legacy hanging in the balance.
