Donald Trump’s administration is trying and failing to sell the public on its justifications for the killing of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents.
Pretti, a Veterans Affairs nurse and American citizen, was shot and killed by a gaggle of immigration agents on Saturday outside of a donut shop in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis. The killing was captured on video by multiple bystanders. In the footage, Pretti can be seen filming officers with his cell phone, and is pepper sprayed after attempting to assist a woman who was shoved to the ground by immigration agents. About half a dozen agents are seen wrestling Pretti to the ground, striking him in the head. Two agents then shoot at him a total of 10 times in the span of a few seconds, appearing to continue to fire even after he collapses.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirmed at a Saturday press conference that Pretti suffered “multiple gunshot wounds,” and was pronounced dead at Hannapin County Medical Center.
The Department of Homeland Security and administration officials moved quickly to present Pretti — even before he had been positively identified — as a would-be domestic terrorist. DHS released a statement claiming that Pretti had “approached” officers with a handgun, violently resisted attempts to be disarmed, and that an officer, “fearing for his life,” shot him. DHS claimed the incident “looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Pretti was a licensed gun owner in a state where concealed carry is legal, and according to O’Hara had no existing criminal record. Forensic analysis of bystander videos of Pretti’s killings do not show him brandishing or displaying a weapon in the moments leading up to the shooting. Videos appear to show one of the officers subduing Pretti, removing a holstered gun matching the description of his licensed weapon from his waist, and running away from the scrum moments before another officer fires the first shot. In a video of the immediate aftermath of the shooting, officers can be heard asking each other, “Where is the gun?”
The killing took place as the state continues to reel from the killing of Renee Good, another U.S. citizen, who was shot and killed by ICE agents earlier this month. In the aftermath of that shooting, Trump administration officials claimed that Good was a “domestic terrorist” who had attempted to harm agents with her vehicle. DHS and federal officials are having a harder time implementing a similar strategy in their defense of Pretti’s killing — even to Republicans.
Sen. Bill Cassity (R-La.), called for “a full joint federal and state investigation” into the shooting, following reports that ICE agents had attempted to order local law enforcement away from the shooting, and statements from O’Hara indicating a lack of investigative cooperation by federal agencies. In the aftermath of Good’s killing, the DOJ refused to open a civil rights investigation into the shooting, instead launching a fishing investigation into Good’s widow.
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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, called for acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow to testify before Congress.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, also called for acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow to testify. “I take my oversight duties for the department seriously, and Congress has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect,” Garabino wrote in his letter.
MAGA Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, suggested on Sunday that if the Trump administration did not pull its federal immigration force out of Minneapolis, “there’s a chance of losing more innocent lives.”
“Maybe go to another city and let the people of Minneapolis decide,” Comer added.
Republican Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt told CNN on Sunday that “Americans don’t like what they’re seeing” from ICE and DHS right now. “The president was getting bad advice right now,” he added. “We have to enforce federal laws, but we need to know, what is the endgame? And I don’t think it’s to deport every single non-U.S. citizen.” MAGA Texas Gov. Greg Abbott even spoke critically, saying ICE needed to “recalibrate” their mission.
Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, are looking to hold up appropriations bills that would further augment ICE’s already bloated budget — and could potentially force a government shutdown over the issue.
“Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the D.H.S. funding bill is included,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wrote in a statement. “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling and unacceptable in any American city. Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.”
There also seemed to be discontent within Trump’s administration. Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin wrote Sunday in a lengthy post on X that “half a dozen federal sources involved immigration enforcement, including several in senior positions” had become “increasingly uneasy & frustrated,” with the administration’s response to the shooting.
“I’m told there is extreme frustration with DHS officials going on TV and putting out statements claiming that Alex Pretti was intending to conduct a ‘massacre’ of federal agents or wanted to carry out ‘maximum damage’, even after numerous videos appeared to show those claims were inaccurate,” Melugin wrote. “These sources say this messaging from DHS officials has been catastrophic from a PR and morale perspective.”
For his part, President Donald Trump, who initially moved to defend the shooting, is sending reinforcements to try and clean up the mess caused by his lackeys. The president wrote in a Monday Truth Social post that he would be sending Border Czar Tom Homan “to Minnesota tonight.”
“Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” the president wrote.
In a sudden reversal from weeks of attacks and threats of prosecution against Minnesota lawmakers — including Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats — the president added on Truth Social that he had spoken to Walz and that they “actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”
Walz “was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have ‘touched,’” Trump added. The move may have been, at least in part, influenced by collapsing public approval polling regarding ICE’s operations and conduct in their enforcement actions.
Walz’s office told NBC News that his call with the president had been “productive” and that Trump had “also agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.”
The administration’s softening came into sharper focus later on Monday, when it was reported that Border Patrol enforcer Gregory Bovino, who called ICE agents “victims” after the shooting on Saturday, would be leaving Minneapolis.
From Rolling Stone US
