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 Democratic 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.”
Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, who opposes federal anti-immigration actions in the city, said “ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.”
Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator, 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.”
Kamala Harris, the former vice-president, said that Pretti’s work as an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital showed his dedication “to serving his community and our country”.
“As so many have now seen on video, his final act before he was killed by federal agents was doing everything in his power to protect his community. Alex and tens of thousands of Minnesotans have boldly defended their neighbors against the murderous occupation of an American city by the federal government. I am enraged and heartbroken for Alex, his family, Minneapolis, and America,” Harris said in a statement.
Other Democrats added their condemnations, with Chris van Hollen, a Maryland senator, called the killing – which involved a veteran Customs and Border Protection 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.
Adam Schiff, a California senator, 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.”
Omar Fateh, a Minnesota state senator, 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”.
Stephen Miller, US homeland security adviser, said in response to a post that Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota senator, 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.
While Democratic lawmakers called for the impeachment of the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, for creating the circumstances that led to the shooting of Pretti, Noem painted at picture of Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota who, she claimed, had created a lawless environment that includes barring local police from working with federal immigration agents.
“This did not have to happen,” Noem said. “Our law enforcement are doing everything that they can to protect the public. We’re praying for those deceased, loved ones, family and friends. But we also recognize that the Minnesota governor and the Minneapolis mayor need to take a long, hard look in the mirror. They need to evaluate their rhetoric, their conversations, and their encouragement of such violence against our citizens and our law enforcement officers.”
Noem said that local authorities in other cities and states across the country were cooperative with federal law enforcement. Walz and Frey, Noem alleged, “choose violence” and “encourage the destruction of their city and the crime against their people”.
Noem added: “It appears that they want this lawlessness to continue. It appears that they want chaos to distract from the theft and the fraud and the corruption in their city.”
