A wave of Democratic politicians reacted with outrage and horror to the fatal shooting of another civilian by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.
Ilhan Omar, the Democrat congresswoman whose district includes parts of Minneapolis, said on X that the killing of the 37-year-old man – identified as nurse Alex Pretti - “appears to be an execution by immigration enforcement”.
Omar said she was “absolutely heartbroken, horrified, and appalled that federal agents murdered another member of our community. It is beyond shameful these federal agents are targeting our residents instead of protecting them”.
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani, who opposes federal anti-immigration actions in the city, said “ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.”
Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren described the shooting as “horrific”.
“Trump’s federal agents shot and killed another person,” she wrote. “Republicans in control of Congress could put a stop to this chaos. Enough. Get ICE out of Minnesota, stop funding this violence, and end the assault on our communities”.
Other Democrats added their condemnations, with Maryland senator Chris van Hollen called the killing - which involved a veteran Customs and Border patrol agent, not a member of ICE – “another brutal killing”.
“Trump, Vance, Noem, Miller, & the whole morally depraved crew have blood on their hands. These killings are happening at their direction. They must be held accountable,” he said.
California senator Adam Schiff said the situation “is all spiraling out of control.
When Trump declared war on the enemy from within and said our cities were to be training grounds, he knew exactly what he was unleashing on us”.
Minnesota state senator Omar Fateh, whose district includes downtown Minneapolis where the shooting occurred, said it “was a flat out execution. Horrific and absolutely on the hands of these untrained, untamed agents. Every single one must be held accountable for their actions”.
But among Republicans the response was insistent that responsibility for the killing lay squarely with Democrats, both the Biden administration and Minnesota’s elected officials.
Donald Trump posted an image of the weapon that the department of homeland security said earlier Saturday that had been recovered from the victim, asking why Minneapolis’ local police did not act to protect federal immigration actions.
“What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves — Not an easy thing to do!”
The president accused the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, and the Minneapolis mayor, Jacob Frey, “of inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric”.
US homeland security adviser Stephen Miller said in response to a post that Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar made inviting X users to “watch the horrific video of the killing” that a “domestic terrorist” had tried to “assassinate federal law enforcement”.
Several videos of the incident that circulated online, however, provided no evidence to back up Miller’s claims. Instead they showed the man being wrestled to the ground before being shot multiple times.
The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, speaking on Fox News, said that by making Minneapolis a sanctuary city, Democrats had effectively said “bring your worst of the worst to Minneapolis. You’re invited here. We will protect you.”
Bondi read off a list of immigrants with serious criminal violations she said had been arrested by federal agents in Minneapolis.
“But Donald Trump is going to protect the citizens of our country… we will protect the good citizens of Minnesota if the governor and that mayor aren’t going to do it,” she said.
