ICE Agent’s Fatal Shot Fuels Calls for Joint Investigation

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, has become a stress test for U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, exposing tensions between federal enforcement tactics and state authority while drawing rare bipartisan calls for a deeper investigation.

Pretti was killed on Saturday during a scuffle on a Minneapolis roadway by an ICE officer, less than three weeks after another immigration agent shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three. The two deaths have sharpened scrutiny of the deployment of thousands of federal agents into a heavily Democratic city and of the administration’s effort to frame both incidents as acts of self-defense.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz demanded that Trump pull what he called “3,000 untrained agents” out of the state, confronting the president directly at a Sunday briefing: “What’s the plan, Donald Trump? What is the plan?” Walz accused federal authorities of importing “fear, violence and chaos,” insisting that Minnesota “believe[s] in law and order” and warning that the continued presence of agents risked further loss of life.

Federal officials said Pretti intended to harm officers and pointed to a handgun discovered on his person. Videos circulating on social media, however, show Pretti holding a phone and never drawing a weapon before agents fired roughly 10 shots after deploying chemical spray and forcing him to the ground. About 1,000 people demonstrated in Minneapolis on Sunday, amplifying protests that have followed weeks of federal immigration operations in the city.

“Seal the Border,” Escalate the Stakes

Trump has defended the crackdown while blaming Democratic leaders for the violence. In a Truth Social post, he wrote that during the Biden years “Tens of Millions of Illegal Alien Criminals poured into our Country,” adding that he won “in a Historic Landslide” on a pledge to “SEAL THE BORDER” and launch “the largest Mass Deportation of Illegal Alien Criminals in American History.” He cited 150,245 arrests in Texas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Louisiana over the past year, contrasting those states with “Democrat run Sanctuary Cities and States,” which he said had produced “Democrat ensued chaos.”

Pressed by The Wall Street Journal, Trump said his administration was “reviewing everything” about Pretti’s killing but declined to say whether the officer acted appropriately. He criticized Pretti for carrying a gun at a protest and suggested federal agents would eventually leave Minneapolis, without offering a timeline.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent Walz a letter on Saturday urging him to “restore the rule of law,” calling for an end to sanctuary policies, the sharing of welfare fraud data, and federal review of voter rolls.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison rejected the fraud narrative, saying the federal response relied on “armed masked men” rather than forensic accounting while former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton joined the condemnation. Obama described the killing of Alex Pretti as a heartbreaking tragedy, adding that it should be a wake up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of the “core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”

Credibility Gap and Bipartisan Pressure

The episode has unsettled Republicans as well as Democrats. U.S. Senate and House leaders including Bill Cassidy, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Andrew Garbarino called for a joint federal-state investigation, warning that the credibility of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is at stake. Murkowski said ICE agents “do not have carte blanche,” (complete freedom to act as they wish) while Collins argued a probe is needed to determine whether force could have been avoided.

Former DHS official Thomas Warrick noted that while ICE has authority to conduct detention operations, its tactics must meet standards “the American people will accept.”

“Gun Rights” Debate

The killing has also reopened debates over gun rights and due process. Authorities say Pretti was licensed to carry, and advocacy groups emphasized that lawful firearm possession does not negate First Amendment protections. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged uncertainty about the sequence of events, telling NBC, “I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.”

Local officials have framed the moment in stark terms. Rachel Sayre, Minneapolis’s emergency management director, said on January 24 that her experience in Yemen, Haiti, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine informed her view of events at home: “What I've seen here is what I've seen there. A powerful entity violently and intentionally terrorizing people...”

Will There be Federal Legal Retaliation?

Concerns are growing in Minnesota that the Trump administration could use prosecutions to pressure critics of its immigration crackdown, following Trump’s repeated public intimidation of political opponents and local officials. Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Attorney General Keith Ellison have sued over the federal surge in immigration agents, while reports of scrutiny targeting Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey have fueled fears that resistance to Washington could invite legal retaliation, deepening already strained federal-local ties.

With approval of Trump’s immigration handling slipping to 38% in January from 49% in March, according to an AP-NORC poll, Minneapolis now stands as a focal point for a broader national reckoning over enforcement, federalism, and the political costs of escalation.