Donald Trump faces a mounting backlash against his immigration crackdown after federal agents killed a second person in Minneapolis, causing some Republicans to break ranks and Democrats to threaten a government shutdown.
Protesters took to the streets across the US in freezing conditions over the weekend after Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, was shot dead by immigration agents on Saturday.
“I think the death of Americans, what we’re seeing on TV, it’s causing deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability,” Oklahoma’s Republican governor Kevin Stitt told CNN’s Face the Nation. “Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now.”
Asked whether federal immigration agents should be pulled out of Minnesota, Stitt, who chairs the Republican Governors Association, said: “I think that the president has to answer that question . . . And he’s getting bad advice right now.”
Other senior Republicans also expressed alarm over the killing as video footage contradicted authorities’ claims that Pretti had violently resisted attempts by Border Patrol agents to disarm him.
“The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing,” said Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, adding that the credibility of the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency at the front line of the raids, was now at stake.
North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis called for a “thorough and impartial investigation” into the shooting.
“Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are (sic) doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy,” Tillis said.
There have been mounting protests across the US against the White House’s hard line approach to immigration, in which it has flooded several Democratic-led cities with federal agents to detain undocumented migrants.
In a rare intervention, former Democratic president Barack Obama on Sunday said the shooting was “a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault”.
Senate Democrats on Sunday threatened to block a key government financing package if it contained funds for the DHS, raising the prospect of a fresh federal shutdown as soon as next week, just months after Washington emerged from its longest ever official closure.
“As all Americans can see with their own eyes, ICE and those under their command are not acting as responsible law enforcement agencies,” said Elissa Slotkin, a moderate Democratic senator from Michigan.
“They are recklessly inciting violence at the whims of the President. And they must be reined in before there is more killing.”
Trump administration officials continued to maintain on Sunday that Pretti had threatened agents with a firearm, despite video footage which contradicted those claims.
Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino told CNN that “the victims are the Border Patrol agents there”. On Saturday he said his officers had prevented a “massacre”.
Footage of the incident showed Pretti holding a mobile phone but not brandishing a weapon. In clips from various angles, Pretti is seen attempting to help another protester who had been pepper sprayed before being wrestled to the ground by agents who then fired several shots from close range.
In one clip, a federal agent is seen apparently disarming Pretti before he is shot multiple times. Local officials say Pretti was licensed to carry a firearm.
DHS secretary Kristi Noem on Saturday described the incident as an act of domestic terrorism, while Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff who has set tough daily quotas for the arrest of undocumented immigrants, called Pretti a “would-be assassin”.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday accused local Democratic officials of “fomenting chaos”.
“I think that there are a lot of paid agitators who are ginning things up and the governor has not done a good job of tamping this down,” he said.
Minnesota governor Tim Walz described the DHS account of the shooting as nonsense.
“What I see with my eyes and what you’re going to see with your eyes makes that pretty hard to believe,” he said.
Pretti’s family released a statement saying they were “heartbroken but also very angry” and condemned the comments.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the Pretti family said. “Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.”
Despite freezing conditions due to Winter Storm Fern, protests erupted across the country on Saturday in response to Pretti’s death.
In New York, thousands of people took to the streets of Manhattan calling for the abolition of ICE. In Washington, footage showed hundreds of protesters gathering outside the DHS headquarters.
Similar events took place in Los Angeles and San Francisco, while demonstrators clashed with authorities in Minneapolis at the scene of the shooting throughout Saturday afternoon. Authorities deployed tear gas, batons and flash-bang devices to push back crowds.
The shooting has also escalated a bitter clash between state and federal officials.
Democratic local officials and Minnesota law enforcement officials said on Saturday that they had been denied access to the scene of the shooting, underlining the tensions between the Trump administration and authorities in the state.
On Saturday night, the Minnesota attorney-general’s office filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the destruction of evidence related to Pretti’s killing.
“Today’s lawsuit aims to bar the federal government from destroying or tampering with any of the evidence they have collected. Justice will be done,” said attorney-general Keith Ellison.
A judge later granted a temporary order preventing federal officials from destroying evidence, ahead of a hearing on Monday.
Additional reporting by Peter Andringa
