Trump Says Immigration Operations in Minneapolis Will “De-Escalate” After Fatal Shooting
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that federal immigration enforcement efforts in Minneapolis will “de-escalate a little bit” amid growing outrage over the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during a targeted US Border Patrol operation. Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Trump pointed to a shake-up of personnel overseeing the operation, now led by White House border czar Tom Homan.
“We’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” Trump said, adding that Homan, whom he described as “a tough guy,” is capable of working cooperatively with governors and mayors. Trump also called the killing of Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, “terrible,” while raising concerns about the fact that Pretti was carrying a fully loaded gun with two magazines, calling it “pretty unusual.”
Trump said the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear, stressing that “nobody knows when they saw the gun, how they saw the gun, everything else.” He also referenced another fatal incident earlier this month in Minneapolis, in which Renee Good was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer, saying, “Bottom line, it was terrible. Both of them were terrible.” The president further alleged that the unrest in Minnesota has been fueled by “paid insurrectionists” and “paid agitators.”
Pretti’s family strongly rejected official accounts of the incident, saying they were “heartbroken but also very angry.” In a statement, they described him as a dedicated nurse and disputed claims that he posed a threat, citing video footage circulating on social media. “Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs,” the family said, adding that he was holding his phone and had his other hand raised while trying to protect a woman during the encounter.
