"ICE Cold Killers": Paris Protesters Rally Against US Immigration Crackdown

Dozens of protesters rallied in Paris on Wednesday against US President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, voicing horror and fear after a second fatal shooting by immigration agents capped months of escalating violence.

"F@$k ICE, shut it down, in every city, every town," demonstrators chanted as they bundled up against the cold at a protest in central Paris organised by pro-democracy groups Indivisibles and La Digue.

Placards reading "The only good ICE is crushed ICE" and "ICE Cold Killers" singled out US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has drawn fury over its tactics to root out suspected undocumented migrants.

That anger mounted this month after immigration agents shot dead two Minneapolis protesters at point-blank range, including intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti, who was hit multiple times after being forced to the ground by camouflaged officers.

"We're at a critical turning point, we're seeing citizens being executed in the streets and if we don't do something we're going to end up with a fascist dictatorship," Isobel Coen, a 29-year-old food tour company manager, told AFP.

She said she was considering finding a way to bring her mother to France because she is worried about the future of the United States.

Michelle Rooney, an American cartoonist living in Paris who has family in Minnesota, said she was attending her first-ever protest. 

"I'm here because we can protest without being worried about getting shot," she said.

"I'm doing it for my family in Minnesota who feel like they can't."

The White House insists it is targeting hardened criminals but the deployment of masked, heavily armed men to snatch people from streets, homes and workplaces has prompted widespread shock.

Many in the crowd said their concerns extended beyond immigration policy to the future of democracy in the United States.

"Everything is at stake... they are breaking the bill of rights," said Eddie Colla, a 56-year-old artist from New Jersey.

But for Katrina Walker, a writer from Illinois, seeing Americans back home "risk their lives" to protest during what she described as a "red alert" situation inspired her to join the Paris rally.

"It gives me hope," she said.

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