Alex Pretti was lying face down on the ground and surrounded by federal officers. He had no access to the gun on the back of his waist, which was removed before US Customs and Border Protection agents opened fire at him.
One officer incapacitated Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, with three bullets; two other agents fired as many as seven more bullets at him seconds later as protesters nearby screamed with disbelief.
It was the second killing by federal immigration agents in January in Minneapolis after Renee Good was fatally shot earlier in the month. The violence has shaken the United States and deepened divisions and polarization to dangerous levels.
Days after the shooting, a man lunged at Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at a town hall meeting in Minneapolis and tried to spray her with an unknown substance.
With political violence on the rise and stability of the country at stake Trump has appeared to push to de-escalate after pouring fuel on the fire for weeks.
“We’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” Trump said on Tuesday.
The call came amid the intense crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota that led to protests and turmoil, which saw the killing of Pretti and Renee Good, and a standoff between state and federal officials.
Administration attacks victims
But Trump’s administration had rushed to call both Pretti and Good “terrorists” – employing dehumanizing language that further fuelled passions and anger.
“Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said after Pretti was killed.
Similarly, after Good was killed, the Department of Homeland Security accused her of engaging in “domestic terrorism.”
But video footage has shown that neither Pretti nor Good engaged in violence against officers.
Pretti’s family accused the Trump administration of spreading “sickening lies” against their son.
“Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs,” the family said in a statement.
“He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed.”
The immigration crackdown in Minnesota started with what some critics have described as Trump’s obsession with the state and its Somali community.
With the scandal of some Somali individuals defrauding a COVID-era welfare program fuelling right-wing anger, Trump had found a perfect target in Minnesota.
Late last year, Trump called Somalis “garbage.” The community checks many targets for his attacks: Black, Muslim and immigrant.
However, the ICE operations in the state appear to be going out of hand, threatening Trump’s own standing in the country.
Rallying against ICE
Opinion polls have shown that the American public is increasingly rejecting ICE’s aggressive tactics.
Only 39 percent of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll said they approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, the lowest since he returned to the White House.
And although Trump has maintained his hold on the Republican Party since his first presidential campaign in 2016, a fifth of Republican respondents said federal agents had gone “too far” in their crackdown.
And so, Trump is starting to pull back. He called Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Monday, and he has been trying to soften his language.
On Tuesday, he acknowledged that Pretti was not an assassin – contradicting earlier claims by his own aides.
“Bottom line, it was terrible. Both of them were terrible,” he said of the killing of Pretti and Good in a Fox News interview.
Still, he is trying to maintain a hard line on immigration. On Wednesday, he slammed Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
“Surprisingly, Mayor Jacob Frey just stated that, ‘Minneapolis does not, and will not, enforce Federal Immigration Laws.’ This is after having had a very good conversation with him,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!”
‘Occupation-like policing’
Trump has been using his anti-immigration rhetoric and policies as a rallying to rally his base and attack his political opponents, but it may be turning into his Achilles heel as ICE becomes synonymous with chaos and abuse.
In Minnesota and beyond, Democrats and rights groups are uniting around getting immigration agents out of their communities.
For example, The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) called for ending “the occupation-like policing in Minneapolis”.
“We join the growing chorus that’s demanding an end to ICE’s operations in Minneapolis,” the group said. “ICE has irrevocably destroyed its trust with the local community and can no longer serve the public’s well-being.”
Congresswoman Omar summed up how many people across the country are feeling about ICE and Trump after the killing of Pretti.
“The Trump administration is trying to beat us into submission rather than protect us. This administration cannot continue violating constitutional rights under the guise of immigration enforcement,” she said.
“ICE and CBP must leave Minnesota immediately. Their presence is terrorizing our communities, violating rights, and taking lives with zero accountability. Minnesota was once a place of refuge, and Trump has turned it into a war zone where unchecked federal forces murder our neighbors.”
