Conservative immigration officers have condemned the White House over the killing of Alex Pretti and lashed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s lie that he ‘brandished’ a gun.
Pretti, 37, was shot dead in broad daylight by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis during a targeted immigration enforcement operation on Saturday.
The deadly shooting – the second civilian fatality this month – has ignited national outrage, including from federal agents who fear the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has ‘lost all trust’.
Twenty current and former federal officers who are staunch conservatives have now slammed the Trump administration’s handling of Pretti’s brutal killing.
Citing how Noem rushed to decide that Pretti was a ‘domestic terrorist’ who brandished a gun before an investigation even took place, one Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officer told the New York Times that he has grown distrustful of the government.
He shared how he has ‘always given the benefit of the doubt to the government in these situations’ but told the newspaper he does not believe ‘any of the statements they put out anymore.’
Noem, just hours after shots rang out, insisted that Pretti ‘brandished’ a legally-owned handgun at officers trying to detain an illegal migrant.
The DHS boss then dodged questions about the shooting on Sunday, noting it would be investigated, but still reiterated that her agents ‘clearly feared for their lives and took action to defend themselves and the people around them.’
But even President Donald Trump has remained skeptical to place blame on Pretti, telling the Wall Street Journal that his administration is ‘reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.’
Donald Trump has sidelined Kristi Noem and ordered her longtime rival to lead a rapidly deteriorating Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Minneapolis.
‘I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. ‘Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.’
Trump’s immigration crackdown plunged into yet another scandal on Saturday when ICE agents shot dead American citizen Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse.
It came amid weeks of riots in Minneapolis following the killing of anti-ICE protester Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three.
Republican lawmakers in Washington have raised concerns that Noem’s operation has spiraled out of control, and Democratic leaders at the national and state levels are demanding that federal agents leave Minnesota.
Trump himself has privately expressed that Noem’s department mishandled the public messaging in the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s shooting, according to multiple reports.
The President now wants Homan, a loyal ICE veteran, to lead the operation in Minnesota that was launched at the start of December.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15498349/ice-dhs-officers-turn-white-house-alex-pretti.html
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2015607036994584890
https://joehoft.com/its-time-to-invoke-the-insurrection-act-elon-musk/