Analysis of: First Thing: Obamas call Alex Pretti’s killing a ‘tragedy’ as pressure mounts for full investigation
The Guardian | January 26, 2026
TL;DR
Federal agents kill two US citizens in Minnesota immigration raids while FBI investigators resign and gold hits $5,000 amid fears of authoritarianism. The state's repressive apparatus is being deployed against workers while capital flees to safe havens.
Analytical Focus:Class Analysis Contradictions Historical Context
This news roundup reveals a deepening crisis of legitimacy for the American state, where the repressive apparatus is being deployed against the working class with increasing brutality while mechanisms of accountability collapse. The killing of two US citizens by federal immigration officers in Minnesota—with video evidence contradicting official narratives and FBI investigators resigning rather than participate in cover-ups—exposes the naked class function of state violence. Meanwhile, the flight of capital to gold ($5,000/ounce) signals that even bourgeois investors recognize the instability created when the state abandons its legitimating functions. The contradiction at the heart of this moment is structural: the capitalist state must appear to serve universal interests while actually protecting capital accumulation. When immigration enforcement kills licensed nurses carrying legally permitted firearms, when investigators resign rather than whitewash state murder, the ideological veil slips. The Obamas' intervention—calling this a 'wake-up call' about 'core values under assault'—represents the liberal bourgeoisie's alarm at this legitimacy crisis, not solidarity with working-class victims. The global picture reinforces this analysis: Israel's conditional 'reopening' of Rafah (only after military objectives are met), China's military purges, Iran's warnings to the US, and ongoing Ukraine negotiations all demonstrate that inter-imperialist competition is intensifying. The domestic repression cannot be separated from this international context—as economic contradictions sharpen globally, states increasingly turn to coercion over consent to maintain order.
Class Dynamics
Actors: Federal immigration enforcement agents (state repressive apparatus), Working-class US citizens (victims Alex Pretti, Renee Nicole Good), FBI investigators (state legitimation apparatus), Liberal bourgeoisie (Obamas), Trump administration (executive state), Medical professionals (ACOG), Investors/capital holders, Humanitarian aid workers in Gaza
Beneficiaries: Gold investors seeking safe haven, State officials evading accountability, Immigration enforcement bureaucracy (expanded powers), Defense contractors and military apparatus globally
Harmed Parties: Working-class communities under immigration enforcement terror, US citizens killed by federal agents, Palestinian civilians denied humanitarian aid, Workers affected by power outages and storm damage, Medical patients whose providers face government pressure
The state's repressive apparatus operates with near-total impunity, as evidenced by FBI investigators resigning rather than facing consequences for investigating state killings. The Trump administration's ability to 'continue to lie' about documented events demonstrates the breakdown of accountability mechanisms. Medical professionals organized through ACOG represent one of few institutional counterweights, while liberal establishment figures like the Obamas can only offer symbolic appeals to 'values' rather than material opposition.
Material Conditions
Economic Factors: Gold price surge indicating capital flight from dollar-denominated assets, Storm damage affecting over 1 million households' access to electricity, Humanitarian aid blockade affecting Gaza's survival economy, Federal emergency declarations mobilizing state resources
The victims of state violence—a nurse, working-class citizens—represent reproductive labor essential to capitalism but expendable when immigration enforcement serves political ends. The contradiction between their social value (healthcare workers) and their treatment by the state (killed while legally armed) reveals how class position determines whose lives are protected. Meanwhile, capital's flight to gold demonstrates that even owners recognize the system's instability.
Resources at Stake: Human life and bodily security of working-class communities, State legitimacy as a resource for maintaining social order, Gold as store of value ($5,000+/ounce), Humanitarian aid to Gaza, Energy infrastructure during winter storms
Historical Context
Precedents: COINTELPRO targeting of domestic populations, ICE enforcement escalations under Obama and Trump I, Historical patterns of state violence during economic instability (1930s, 1970s), Gold price spikes during legitimacy crises (1970s, 2008-2011), Fascist movements emerging during capitalist crisis (1920s-30s)
This moment represents the intensification of contradictions inherent to neoliberal capitalism in crisis. Since the 2008 financial collapse and subsequent austerity, the state has increasingly relied on coercion rather than consent to maintain order. The pattern of militarized immigration enforcement, the criminalization of dissent, and the abandonment of even procedural accountability echoes historical transitions toward authoritarian capitalism. Francine Prose's characterization of 'authoritarian takeover' reflects growing recognition that liberal democratic forms are being hollowed out while capitalist property relations remain protected.
Contradictions
Primary: The capitalist state must maintain legitimacy through the appearance of universal law and rights while simultaneously deploying violence to discipline labor and maintain accumulation—but video evidence, resignations, and gold prices all reveal this contradiction to broader publics.
Secondary: Immigration enforcement targeting US citizens exposes the fiction that such violence only affects 'illegals', FBI investigators resigning rather than participate in cover-ups shows contradictions within the state apparatus itself, Liberal appeals to 'values' contradict material inability to constrain state violence, Capital flight to gold undermines the dollar system that US hegemony depends upon, Israel's conditional humanitarianism reveals the contradiction between claiming moral authority and conducting military operations
These contradictions cannot be resolved within the current framework. Either the state must restore legitimacy through accountability and constraint of violence (unlikely given political trajectory), or it will continue toward open authoritarianism, which will intensify resistance and deepen economic instability. The gold price suggests capital itself anticipates continued crisis. The federal court hearing on halting immigration enforcement represents a potential pressure point, but judicial independence is itself under assault.
Global Interconnections
The domestic repression in Minnesota cannot be separated from the global context visible throughout this news roundup. US warships moving toward Iran, the capture of Venezuela's Maduro, calls to 'take control' of Greenland, and the conditional opening of Rafah all demonstrate an imperial power in aggressive posture abroad while turning the same violent apparatus inward. This is not coincidental—as inter-imperialist competition intensifies (China's military purges suggest similar internal tensions), each state tightens control over its domestic population while projecting force externally. The gold price surge to $5,000 connects these dynamics materially: it signals that global capital recognizes the instability created by these contradictions and seeks refuge outside any particular state's currency. This flight from the dollar has implications for US hegemony that will likely intensify the very aggressive postures driving the instability—a feedback loop characteristic of declining imperial powers.
Conclusion
The concatenation of state murder, collapsed accountability, capital flight, and imperial aggression visible in this single news digest marks an inflection point requiring clear-eyed analysis. The liberal appeal to 'values' and 'wake-up calls' misses the material basis of this crisis: a system that can no longer generate consent and so turns to coercion. For working-class movements, this moment demands both defensive organizing (legal support, community protection from enforcement) and offensive analysis that names the class character of state violence. The medical professionals of ACOG offer one model—organized professional bodies using institutional power to resist. The FBI investigators who resigned rather than participate offer another lesson: contradictions within the state apparatus create openings when individuals refuse complicity. The path forward runs through building the material power to make such refusals collective rather than individual.
Suggested Reading
- The State and Revolution by V.I. Lenin (1917) Lenin's analysis of the state as an instrument of class rule illuminates why 'accountability' mechanisms fail when the state's repressive function is exposed—the state cannot neutrally adjudicate violence it commits in service of capital.
- Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti (1997) Parenti's examination of how fascism emerges from capitalist crisis, and liberal complicity in that emergence, provides essential context for understanding the current trajectory and why appeals to 'values' prove insufficient.
- The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (1961) Fanon's analysis of colonial violence and the psychology of oppression helps connect the domestic deployment of immigration enforcement terror to the imperial violence visible in Gaza and Venezuela.