Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

AP [1/26/2026 12:11 AM, Steve Karnowski, 30493K] reports a federal judge will hear arguments Monday on whether she should at least temporarily halt the immigration crackdown in Minnesota that has led to the fatal shootings of two people by government officers. The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, five days after Renee Good was shot by an Immigration and Customs officer. Saturday’s shooting by a Border Patrol officer of Alex Pretti has only added urgency to the case. Since the original filing, the state and cities have substantially added to their original request. They’re trying to restore the state of affairs that existed before the Trump administration launched Operation Metro Surge on Dec. 1. The hearing is set for Monday morning in federal court in Minneapolis. Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he plans to personally attend. They’re asking that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Menendez order federal law enforcement agencies to reduce the numbers of officers and agents in Minnesota to levels before the surge, while allowing them to continue to enforce immigration laws within a long list of proposed limits. Justice Department attorneys have called the lawsuit “legally frivolous” and said “Minnesota wants a veto over federal law enforcement.” They asked the judge to reject the request or or at least stay her order pending an anticipated appeal. Ellison said at a news conference Sunday that he and the cities filed their lawsuit because of “the unprecedented nature of this of this surge. It is a novel abuse of the Constitution that we’re looking at right now. No one can remember a time when we’ve seen something like this.” It wasn’t clear ahead of the hearing when the judge might rule. The case also has implications for other states that have been or could be targets of intensive federal immigration enforcement operations. Attorneys general from 19 states plus the District of Columbia, led by California, filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Minnesota. “If left unchecked, the federal government will no doubt be emboldened to continue its unlawful conduct in Minnesota and to repeat it elsewhere,” the attorneys general wrote. Menendez is the same judge who ruled in a separate case on Jan. 16 that federal officers in Minnesota can’t detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who aren’t obstructing authorities, including people who are following and observing agents. An appeals court temporarily suspended that ruling three days before Saturday’s shooting. But the plaintiffs in that case, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, asked the appeals court late Saturday for an emergency order lifting the stay in light of Pretti’s killing. The Justice Department argued in a reply filed Sunday that the stay should remain in place, calling the injunction unworkable and overly broad.

Axios [1/25/2026 10:24 PM, Andrew Solender, 12972K] reports the Department of Homeland Security is coming under unprecedented scrutiny from Congress in the wake of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, with Democratic attacks more strident and Republican defenses more muted than ever before. The growing tension could result in a government shutdown, politically charged hearings and even an impeachment vote. More and more Democrats are signing onto Rep. Robin Kelly’s (D-Ill.) articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, with Kelly’s office telling Axios they expect a surge in co-sponsors in the coming day. Senate Democrats are threatening to allow a partial government shutdown next week unless a DHS funding bill is altered with language reining in the agency. And Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, has asked the heads of ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to testify to his panel. While many Republican leaders and loyal Trump allies leapt to DHS’ defense in the wake of the shooting, a noticeably large group of GOP lawmakers offered more equivocal statements than in the aftermath of the Renee Good shooting weeks earlier. Many centered their responses on calling for a full investigation, including Sens. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), Jon Husted (R-Ohio), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Reps. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.), Max Miller (R-Ohio) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas). The office of Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), a staunch conservative and Trump ally, said in a statement: "Leaders at every level must lower the temperature, enforce the law, and protect public safety. In the days ahead, we will work to ensure a full and transparent review of events." "Law enforcement should conduct an objective investigation and get the facts. We defend people’s free speech and right to protest," said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) in a statement to Axios, though he added that it is "not right to interfere or obstruct law enforcement in their official actions." The responses of Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) to two different shootings in her home state offer a revealing picture of how the GOP’s tone has shifted since the start of the year. After Renee Good was killed on Jan. 7, Fischbach called the incident a "targeted assault on ICE agents" in a post on X, writing, "I stand with the officer who acted in self-defense to save lives." On Sunday, she wrote after Pretti was killed: "I am deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life in Minneapolis and fully support the ongoing investigation into this incident." Some Republicans also broke with the administration for saying Pretti should not have had a gun on him. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) write on X that "ICE should not leave Minnesota" but that "carrying a gun & magazines is not an invitation for cops to shoot you." "Fighting cops (esp. w/ a gun) might be," he added. DHS still had a semblance of Democratic support on Capitol Hill before the shooting, but what little was left appears to have evaporated. Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.), one of the seven swing-district centrists who voted to pass a DHS funding bill last week, signed on as a co-sponsor to Kelly’s articles of impeachment. Even some support from senators began to trickle in on Sunday, with centrist Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) calling for Noem’s impeachment. The articles of impeachment stood at Democratic 120 co-sponsors as of Sunday evening — well over half of the 213 Democrats in the House. Kelly can force them to a vote, though it is not clear if and when she plans to do that. The most immediate impact of the shooting will be in the Senate, where a package of six spending bills is now in significant peril. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said this weekend that Democrats won’t vote for the DHS funding bill. The package would also fund a huge portion of the federal government beyond DHS, including the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Transportation and Labor. Several of the Senate Democrats who voted to end the last government shutdown — including Rosen and Sens. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-Nev.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) — have said they will oppose DHS funding.

CBS News [1/25/2026 2:24 PM, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Joe Walsh, 39474K] reports Attorney General Pam Bondi is pushing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to let the federal government access the state’s voter rolls and public assistance data, as tensions flare in Minneapolis after a second person was shot Saturday by federal immigration agents assigned to a weekslong crackdown in the city. In a three-page letter obtained by CBS News, Bondi also urged the state of Minnesota to scrap all "sanctuary" policies and "cooperate fully" with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including giving the agency access to all local jails and honoring federal agents’ requests to detain people. "I am confident that these simple steps will help bring back law and order to Minnesota and improve the lives of Americans," Bondi wrote in her letter to the governor Saturday, which accused state officials of "anti-law enforcement rhetoric" and "putting federal agents in danger.” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon responded with a statement Sunday saying: "The answer to Attorney General Bondi’s request is no.” Simon called Bondi’s letter "an outrageous attempt to coerce Minnesota into giving the federal government private data on millions of U.S. Citizens in violation of state and federal law," and said it followed "repeated and failed attempts by the DOJ to pressure my office into providing the same data.” The Trump administration has pressed for greater access to Minnesota jails and prisons for weeks, suggesting it may roll back immigration operations in the state if it had more power to go into detention facilities to pursue people accused of being in the U.S. illegally. State corrections officials say they already cooperate with ICE, but cooperation varies at the county level. Bondi said the federal government needs access to state voter roll data to "confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law." The Justice Department has pushed Minnesota and other states to provide voter registration data for months, suing Minnesota for access to the data last year — but the department typically hasn’t tied that push to immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota in the past. And Bondi demanded that the state share records on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, so the federal government can "efficiently investigate fraud," as the Trump administration focuses on alleged fraud schemes in Minnesota public assistance programs. In his response, Simon noted: "Attorney General Bondi knows full well that the Governor has no formal role in managing our elections or maintaining our voter registration system. She is also well aware that this specific request is the subject of active litigation with our office.” "It is deeply disturbing that the U.S. Attorney General would make this unlawful request a part of an apparent ransom to pay for our state’s peace and security," Simon added. "More broadly, the federal government must end the unprecedented and deadly occupation of our state immediately.”

Reported similarly:
Washington Examiner [1/25/2026 1:31 PM, Brady Knox, 1394K]

CBS News [1/25/2026 3:11 PM, Lilia Luciano and Nicole Sganga, 39474K] reports Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino continued to defend the actions of federal agents during a news conference on Sunday in the deadly shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in south Minneapolis on Saturday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [1/25/2026 1:41 PM, AWR Hawkins, 2416K] reports during an appearance on FOX News’s The Sunday Briefing this week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stressed that concealed carry in Minnesota is illegal "without an ID on you." Her statement came after host Peter Doocy pointed out that the armed man who was shot and killed by a federal agent Saturday in Minneapolis "was legally a concealed carry permit holder." Doocy then asked, "Is your message to people who [have] concealed carry permits, that if they’re going to go to a protest, they should leave their gun in the car?" Noem responded, "No, my message to individuals is don’t go impede law enforcement operations. That’s not legal, you’re breaking the law when you do that." She added, "It’s also breaking the law in Minnesota when you conceal carry without an ID on you." On Saturday, DHS noted that the man who was shot by a federal agent was carrying a 9mm handgun with "2 magazines and no ID." After highlighting the ID requirement for concealed carry license holders, Noem added, "You shouldn’t be laying hands on law enforcement, and getting in their faces, and trying to stop them from conducting their work. All of that is part of protocol, but it also is the law, and when people are in violation of the law there [are] consequences for that."

FOX News [1/25/2026 12:37 PM, Taylor Penley, 40621K] reports that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed Sunday to conduct a thorough investigation into the Border Patrol-related death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, expressing sympathy for his family while questioning his actions at the scene. "I’m grieved for them. I truly am. I can’t even imagine losing a child," Noem said during an exclusive interview on "The Sunday Briefing." "We can’t have individuals that are impeding law enforcement operations and then showing up with guns and weapons and no ID and confronting law enforcement like that is one of the reasons that we see situations like this unfold," she continued. "I think everybody can learn from this situation. I’m grateful for law enforcement that put their lives on the line every day to go out there on the streets and try to bring criminals to justice and protect the public, and we’ll continue to make sure the right thing is done, this investigation is completed, and that we continue to go forward, and we enforce the law and apply it equally to everybody in the country." Noem previously defended the agent’s actions as self-defense. Pretti’s parents, Michael and Susan Pretti, responded after the incident Saturday, saying they are "heartbroken but also very angry," and condemned the version of events presented by law enforcement as "sickening lies."

New York Post [1/25/2026 12:45 PM, Staff, 42219K] reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the federal agent who shot dead an armed Minneapolis protester who she said violently brandished a gun while attempting to interfere in the “targeted” arrest of a criminal migrant — and blamed the state’s Democratic leaders for the shooting. Noem said a Border Patrol agent, in fear of his life, rattled off “defensive” shots at 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti after he approached federal immigration officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun as tensions flared in South Minneapolis Saturday morning. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/25/2026 12:07 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joins ‘The Sunday Briefing’ to discuss the latest on the nationwide winter storm and the escalating unrest in Minneapolis following a deadly CBP-involved shooting. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [1/25/2026 12:53 PM, AWR Hawkins, 2416K] reports during an appearance on FOX News’s The Sunday Briefing this week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stressed that Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) have not "expressed any concern" over the injuries suffered by federal officers. She continued by stressing that the violence against federal officers "has been going on for weeks. These are not just agitators anymore, they are violent protests." On Saturday, Breitbart News reported that a federal agent’s finger was bitten off by an alleged Minneapolis rioter. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin noted that the agent "will lose his finger."

FOX News [1/25/2026 11:09 AM, Amanda Macias, 40621K] reports Vice President JD Vance called the unrest in Minnesota "engineered chaos" in the wake of another fatal, federal agent-involved shooting over the weekend. On Saturday, 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who was carrying a licensed handgun while protesting a federal immigration enforcement operation, was fatally shot by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Authorities say Pretti resisted arrest after trying to intervene in the operation. In response to the shooting, Vance accused "far-left agitators working with local authorities" of creating the conditions that led to the confrontation between Pretti and the border patrol agents. "This level of engineered chaos is unique to Minneapolis," Vance said in a post on X. "It is the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities." His remarks come as a familiar network of far-left groups mobilize nationwide, often coalescing around disparate causes. In Minneapolis, the unrest intensified after the shooting, leading several local officials, including Gov. Tim Walz, to call on the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump administration to pull Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from the city. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said Pretti approached agents while armed with a 9 mm pistol and two magazines and "violently resisted" when officers tried to disarm him, prompting one agent to fire. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that she grieves for Pretti’s family and vowed a thorough investigation. "We can’t have individuals that are impeding law enforcement operations and then showing up with guns and weapons and no ID and confronting law enforcement like that," Noem said. "It is one of the reasons that we see situations like this unfold."

NewsMax [1/25/2026 8:06 PM, Brian Freeman, 4109K] reports Vice President JD Vance on Sunday publicly criticized local authorities in Minneapolis for their failure to support federal immigration officers and law enforcement during heightened enforcement operations in the city, saying the situation has led to disorder and danger for officers. In a post on X, Vance recounted an incident in which off-duty Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers dining in Minneapolis were reportedly "doxed" and surrounded at a restaurant. Vance wrote, "The officers were locked in the restaurant, and local police refused to respond to their pleas for help (as they’ve been directed by local authorities). Eventually, their fellow federal agents came to their aid. This is just a taste of what’s happening in Minneapolis because state and local officials refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement.” Vance said the episode reflected broader problems stemming from what he called a lack of cooperation between federal immigration authorities and local officials. He blamed local leadership for creating "chaos" and suggested that political opposition to immigration enforcement has hampered law enforcement efforts. "They have created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border," Vance wrote. "The solution is staring everyone in the face. I hope authorities in Minneapolis stop this madness.” The comments from Vance come amid a sharply polarized response to a surge of federal immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis, part of a nationwide effort led by the Department of Homeland Security.

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [1/25/2026 2:40 PM, Amy Furr, 2416K] r

Washington Examiner [1/25/2026 6:49 PM, Zach LaChance, 1394K] reports the federal agents who were involved in the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti have been reassigned, Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino announced. Bovino spoke at a news conference in Minneapolis on Sunday, one day after Pretti was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent during an immigration operation in the city. Bovino revealed that the agents at the scene of the shooting have since been moved to “other locations.” “All agents that were involved in that scene are working not in Minneapolis, but in other locations. That’s for their safety,” he told reporters. Bovino added that the relocation was done to prevent “doxxing” of the agents, pledging to look out for their safety as the shooting has inflamed tensions nationwide. It is unclear how many agents were reassigned, though bystander footage of the shooting shows at least five attempting to subdue Pretti before he was shot. Bovino also said earlier Sunday that the agents involved would “likely” be doing administrative tasks for Border Patrol going forward as opposed to being a part of the sweeping immigration raids in cities across the country.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [1/25/2026 4:16 PM, Staff, 4109K]

Washington Times [1/25/2026 10:47 AM, Seth McLaughlin, 852K] reports the Border Patrol official leading President Trump’s immigration‑enforcement surge in Minnesota is framing Saturday’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old ICU nurse as a tragic but unavoidable consequence of a man who was “actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement.” Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol commander‑at‑large, said Alex Pretti’s decisions sealed his fate on the streets of Minneapolis. He argued that the true victims in the fatal encounter were Border Patrol agents, saying they deserve credit for preventing a potential shooting of law enforcement personnel. “Border patrol agents and law enforcement were conducting a targeted law enforcement effort against a violent illegal alien that was nearby, and that suspect injected himself into that law enforcement situation with a weapon,” Mr. Bovino said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “What happened between when that situation first came about and the shooting — that’s going to be investigated.” Critics say videos of the encounter — recorded from multiple angles by bystanders — tell a different story. They say the footage shows Mr. Pretti peacefully filming the scene, then moving to help a woman who had been pepper‑sprayed and shoved to the ground, moments before he was tackled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and fatally shot. Outrage over the death of Mr. Pretti, an intensive‑care nurse and lawful gun owner, has merged with anger over ICE’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good earlier this month in Minneapolis, heightening tensions between federal and state officials and triggering a wave of protests. Mr. Pretti’s family has accused the Trump administration of spreading “sickening lies about our son” and urged officials to “please get the truth out about our son.” The on‑camera killing of Mr. Pretti — who officials say had no criminal record — and the administration’s defense of the shooting have poured fuel on an already explosive situation, sharpening scrutiny of the government’s immigration enforcement mission. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Saturday that Mr. Pretti was there to “impede law enforcement operation and assaulted our officers.” “I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition, rather than a sign,” Ms. Noem said.

CBS New York [1/25/2026 4:59 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis on Saturday morning, less than three weeks after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good and amid an ongoing surge in immigration enforcement action across the city. U.S. District Court Judge Eric Tostrud granted a temporary restraining order against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Saturday, barring the department from altering or destroying evidence connected to Pretti’s killing. Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an ICU nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA hospital, was identified as the man killed by a Border Patrol agent. The Department of Homeland Security said the agent acted in self-defense after attempting to disarm Pretti, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said that account was "nonsense" after reviewing videos of the shooting. Videos from the scene show that Pretti was holding a cellphone, not a gun, when he was shot. An agent can be seen emerging from the scuffle with a gun and turning away from the man when the first shot is fired. Minnesota officials said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. He had no criminal record. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said DHS representatives blocked them from accessing the scene of the shooting, even though the bureau had obtained a judge’s signed search warrant. On Sunday morning, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said that the state investigative agency had returned to the scene at his request, "canvassing for additional witnesses and evidence." Videos from the scene verified by CBS News show that Pretti was holding a phone in his right hand, and nothing in his left, before he was shot. Multiple videos also show a federal agent in a gray jacket reaching into the scuffle empty-handed and emerging with a gun in his right hand, turning away from the man when the first shot is fired, then running across the street as more shots are fired. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/25/2026 2:34 PM, Taylor Penley, 40621K] Video: HERE reports Minnesota ICE official Sam Olson urged demonstrators in the Twin Cities on Sunday to keep protests peaceful following recent fatal federal agent-involved shootings in Minneapolis — unrest he described as "like nothing I’ve ever seen before." "When we’re out there, we have no problem with the public watching what we do, filming what we do, talking to us while we do it, but there is that line, though, when they start to impede and get in situations where, frankly, we don’t want them to be, we can’t have them to be, kind of in our workspace," he told "Fox & Friends Weekend.". "That’s when we have issues," he added. Olson, the ICE field office director in St. Paul, made the remarks on the heels of a second deadly shooting involving a federal agent on Saturday. This time, Border Patrol opened fire and killed 37-year-old Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti, prompting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to defend the federal agent’s move as an act of self-defense. The incident marks the second deadly shooting involving federal agents in Minnesota this month. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [1/25/2026 1:23 PM, Staff, 34509K] reports demonstrations remain calm at the site where a U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen. NBC News’ Camilia Bernal reports from the site of the memorial about how locals are reacting to the second fatal shooting of a Minneapolis resident by federal agents. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [1/25/2026 6:50 PM, Stephen Swanson, 39474K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke to the press Sunday afternoon, one day after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents in south Minneapolis — the third shooting this month amid Operation Metro Surge, and the second fatality carried out by federal immigration enforcement forces. "What’s the plan, Donald Trump? What is the plan?" Walz said. "What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state? If fear, violence and chaos is what you wanted from us, then you clearly underestimated the people of this state and nation. We are tired, but we’re resolved. We’re peaceful, but we’ll never forget. We’re angry, but we won’t give up hope. And above all else, we are clearly unified." Walz said if President Trump’s intention was to "make an example of Minnesota," it backfired. "We believe in law and order in this state. We believe in peace, and we believe that Donald Trump needs to pull these 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person, and we’re up here telling another story of a Minnesotan just trying to live their life without the interference," Walz said. "To Americans who are watching this right now, and I don’t know, maybe you’re watching it with curiosity, bewilderment, horror, scorn or sympathy. I’ve got a question for all of you. What side do you wanna be on?" I had the privilege of talking with Michael and Susan, Alex’s parents, yesterday and the heartache in the hours after your son’s murdered in front of the world is one thing, but what stood out to me was a parent’s desire and their passion to make sure that the story of Alex was told. Someone who went to work to care for veterans, someone who was a valued co-worker, someone who relished and lived in this state in a big way whether it was outdoor activities or being down there on the street as a First Amendment witness to what ICE is doing to this, to this state. So, once again to Michael and Susan, when I talk to these parents, it’s always in deep confidential conversation. In this one, though, Michael was very clear to me. He said, "Don’t let them forget Alex’s story." The world knows how he died. He died at the hands of ICE agents on the streets of Minneapolis. They want us to make sure we said how he lived. So to Michael and Susan, our deepest sympathies, but you have my commitment to continue to tell that story. So now we’ve got two Minnesotans dead, we didn’t have time to start telling [Renee Good’s] story of a poet and a mother and a bright spirit, and now we’re telling Alex’s story. So my question is, what’s the plan, Donald Trump? What is the plan? What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state? If fear, violence and chaos is what you wanted from us, then you clearly underestimated the people of this state and nation. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [1/25/2026 5:54 PM, Ryan King, 42219K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) likened President Trump’s immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities to the barbaric Nazi occupation chronicled by Anne Frank. "We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside," Walz declared during a fiery press conference on Sunday. "Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank.” "Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.” Frank famously chronicled her harrowing time in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands for over two years before her capture. Ultimately, she died in a concentration camp. Taking a somber tone, Walz vowed to be defiant in the face of Operation Metro Surge and re-upped his well-worn demands for the Trump administration to end the surge of federal law enforcement personnel to the state. "If it was the intention of Donald Trump to make an example of Minnesota, then I’m damn proud of the example that the world is seeing," the governor added. Tensions in Minneapolis have soared in the wake of a Border Patrol agent’s shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse, on Saturday. Footage showed multiple officers pinning Pretti to the ground and removing his 9mm handgun, the gun slide of which appeared to move. Officers then opened fire on Pretti. Attorney General Pam Bondi penned a letter to Walz on how to end the chaos in Minnesota but the governor shrugged that off. "There’s 2 million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on. Go ahead and work on those," Walz snapped back on Sunday. "We cooperate. We don’t do their job," Walz later contended when pressed about the Trump administration’s demands that it can get more access to the state’s jails. "It’s their job to do immigration.” The shooting of Pretti came some two weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot Renee Good, also 37, after she accelerated her SUV in his direction. An investigation into Pretti’s death is ongoing, according to top officials, including Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. "I don’t care if you are conservative, are flying a Donald Trump flag, a libertarian ‘Don’t Tread on Me,’ a Democratic Socialist — this is an inflection point, America," Walz stressed. "If we cannot all agree that the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching everything they stood for and asking us not to believe what we saw, someone has to be accountable.”

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [1/25/2026 7:28 PM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K]
FOX News [1/25/2026 6:35 PM, Bonny Chu, 40621K]

FOX News [1/25/2026 11:39 AM, Staff, 40621K] reports a ‘Fox News Sunday’ panel debates the escalating violence in Minneapolis and whether the state’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement is fueling the unrest. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/25/2026 2:07 PM, Stephen Sorace, 40621K] reports the Trump administration is sharply criticizing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, accusing him of undermining law enforcement and blocking cooperation with federal immigration authorities. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took aim at Walz in a social media post, writing that the governor has failed to cooperate with federal agencies, especially Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), during large-scale enforcement operations. "Tim Walz does NOT believe in law and order," Leavitt’s post read. "No amount of propaganda from his allies in the liberal media will convince the American people otherwise." Walz has sharply rebuked the federal presence following several controversial shootings involving immigration agents, including the death of Minneapolis resident Renée Good in early January and again on Sunday a day after another fatal shooting that resulted in the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti. "Minnesota believes in law and order," Walz wrote in a post on X earlier Sunday. "We believe in peace. And we believe that Trump needs to pull his 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another American in the street.". Leavitt claimed the governor has refused to allow law enforcement to work with ICE to arrest and remove what she described as "dangerous criminal illegal aliens."

New York Post [1/25/2026 2:21 PM, Ryan King, 42219K] reports President Trump’s top lieutenants Sunday joined him in blaming Minnesota Dems for “inciting” the anti-ICE chaos that has led to two protesters’ deaths at the hands of federal agents — claiming immigration authorities have battled unprecedented obstacles since arriving in the state to address widespread fraud accusations. “We saw a resistance in Minneapolis like we haven’t seen anywhere else in this country,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News — as the feds and local law enforcement began squabbling about the investigative jurisdiction of the latest shooting scene involving Saturday’s killing of protester Alex Pretti’s. Noem said the Minnesota immigration crackdown was sparked by an alleged multibillion-dollar benefits scam largely carried out by local immigrant communities – but that Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey encouraged” radicals to “take to the streets and to resist law enforcement” during the feds’ effort. “It really is [an] irresponsibility that we haven’t seen out of someone in any other state,” she said, repeating a sentiment Trump first levied Saturday after the 37-year-old Pretti was killed by Border Patrol agents who found a gun on him at a Minneapolis protest.

Breitbart [1/26/2025 4:45 AM, Elizabeth Weibel, 2416K] reports White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) for claiming he “believes in law and order,” and accused him of spreading “malicious lies about federal law enforcement officers.” Leavitt Torches Walz: Has ‘Spread Malicious Lies About Federal Law Enforcement Officers’ In a post on X, Leavitt responded to a post from Walz in which he stated that President Donald Trump “needs to pull his 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota” before another person is killed. Leavitt continued to point out that Walz had “allowed rioters to burn Minneapolis in the summer of 2020.” “Tim Walz does NOT believe in law and order,” Leavitt wrote. “No amount of propaganda from his allies in the liberal media will convince the American people otherwise. Under the incompetent leadership of Tim Walz, Minnesota oversaw massive fraud schemes that resulted in tens of billions of dollars in stolen American taxpayer funds.” “President Trump will never back down on his core promise to deport violent illegal criminals from American communities — a promise that nearly 80 million Americans voted for, over the Open Borders Agenda of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Leavitt added. Leavitt pointed out how in “states like Florida and Texas,” and even in the nation’s capital, “when there is cooperation among law enforcement, there is peace and safety.”

CBS News [1/25/2026 12:41 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 39474K] reports Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said on Sunday that "people have had enough" after this weekend’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man by federal agents. Federal agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, on Saturday morning. The shooting came as protests have continued in Minnesota’s largest city over a federal immigration enforcement surge. Earlier this month, Renee Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and a Venezuelan migrant was shot in the leg by ICE while allegedly trying to flee. The Department of Homeland Security said agents were acting in self-defense while trying to disarm Pretti, while local officials have pushed back on the account. O’Hara said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that it’s "deeply concerning the things that are being said.” "This is an individual that was a city resident. It appears that he was present exercising his First Amendment rights to record law enforcement activity and also exercising his Second Amendment rights to lawfully be armed in a public space in the city," O’Hara said. "So I think very obviously, there are serious questions that are being raised.” O’Hara added that "the greater issue is, even if there is an investigation that ultimately proves that at the time of the shooting it was legally justified, I don’t think that even matters at this point, because there is so much outrage and concern around what is happening in the city.” "This is the third shooting now in less than three weeks. The Minneapolis Police Department went the entire year last year, recovering about 900 guns from the street, arresting hundreds and hundreds of violent offenders, and we didn’t shoot anyone. And now this is the second American citizen that’s been killed, it’s the third shooting within three weeks," O’Hara said. O’Hara added, "People have been speaking out, saying that this was going to happen again, and I think everyone is kind of waiting for folks on both sides to come together and just figure this thing out.” "This is not sustainable," he said. "This police department has only 600 police officers. We are stretched incredibly thin. This is taking an enormous toll trying to manage all of this chaos on top of having to be the police department for a major city. It’s too much.” Asked whether he is calling on ICE to leave Minneapolis, O’Hara said the problem isn’t that "enforcement is happening, it’s clearly the manner in which these things are happening.” "These tactics are very obviously not safe, and it is generating a lot of outrage and fear in the community," O’Hara said. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said at a news conference Saturday that Pretti was in possession of a gun and ammunition and alleged he assaulted officers. Asked whether he knows if the weapon was concealed or was brandished, O’Hara said, "I don’t have any evidence that I’ve seen that suggests that the weapon was brandished.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

NBC News [1/25/2026 3:31 PM, Staff, 34509K] reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called on ICE to leave the state after Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis man, was shot and killed by a border patrol agent. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino defended the actions of federal officials on the scene. NBC News’ Camila Bernal reports outside a Pretti memorial as protests in the area continue. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/25/2026 10:32 AM, Anders Hagstrom, 40621K] reports narratives over the Minneapolis shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti clashed over the weekend as President Donald Trump’s administration accused him of violently resisting arrest, while his family remembered him as a "kind-hearted soul.". Pretti, a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse, is the second person to be shot and killed in Minneapolis this month. Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem said the victim, who was armed, "violently resisted" arrest and that the federal agent fired his weapon "fearing for his life." Footage of the incident shows an agent disarmed Pretti shortly before he was killed. He entered into the initial scuffle with agents as he tried to assist another protester who had been pushed by law enforcement. A federal judge soon blocked the Trump administration from "destroying or altering evidence" related to the shooting on Sunday. The ruling came after the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension filed a lawsuit Saturday to prevent the destruction of evidence in the case. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, names DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and U.S. Border Control, as well as Attorney General Pam Bondi, as defendants.

CBS News [1/25/2026 9:24 AM, Lana Zak, 39474K] reports that, on Saturday Minneapolis tried to come to terms with another fatal shooting by federal agents. Multiple videos by bystanders show Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital, being wrestled to the ground by officers, before he is shot multiple times. While Minnesota officials called Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s claims that Pretti was engaged in domestic terrorism "nonsense" and "lies," Pretti’s parents called the administration’s claims "reprehensible and disgusting."

New York Times [1/25/2026 3:05 PM, Talya Minsberg, 135475K] reports the family of a man killed by federal agents in Minnesota on Saturday said they were heartbroken, but also “very angry.” The man, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was shot several times during a confrontation with immigration officers on a Minneapolis street near his home. Mr. Pretti’s parents, Susan and Michael Pretti, in a statement reported by CNN and The Associated Press, called their son “a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital.” “Alex wanted to make a difference in this world,” the statement said. “Unfortunately he will not be with us to see his impact.” Mr. Pretti’s family joined a chorus of criticism of the federal government over its response to the shooting. Federal officials, including the Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, said Mr. Pretti confronted agents with the intent “to perpetuate violence.” Ms. Noem also accused him of “domestic terrorism.” Videos show that Mr. Pretti was holding a phone, rather than his gun, and that an agent took the weapon from his body just before he was shot. “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting,” the Pretti family statement said. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”

USA Today [1/25/2026 2:18 PM, Kate Perez, 67103K] reports over $500,000 has been raised through an online fundraiser for the loved ones of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. The funds, which totaled over $530,000 early in the afternoon on Jan. 25, are intended to support the "immediate and ongoing needs" of family Pretti leaves behind, according to the fundraiser’s description. Organizer Keith Edwards said Pretti’s father has been added as the beneficiary, so their family now has direct access to the money raised. "Thank you to everyone who has been so generous either donating or sharing the fundraiser — you are what America can look like at our best," Edwards wrote. USA TODAY has reached out to GoFundMe and Edwards to determine whether the fundraiser has been verified. Pretti, a U.S. citizen and registered nurse who treated veterans, was shot and killed by a federal agent after confronting immigration authorities in the Midwestern city. Federal officials alleged Pretti was carrying a gun he intended to use to "kill law enforcement." Videos from bystanders − and a witness account in court filings − do not show Pretti brandishing a weapon when he approached agents. The fatal shooting comes just weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. The incident immediately sparked protests across the country, and the backlash swelled after the deadly Jan. 24 shooting. Federal agents from multiple law enforcement agencies arrived in Minneapolis in early January to ramp up the Trump administration’s immigration and deportation efforts in the city. The influx of agents into Minnesota comes after federal authorities were sent to other major cities, including Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Charlotte, North Carolina, and Chicago. Both Portland and Chicago have also seen instances of shootings at the hands of ICE, including the death of immigrant Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez.

New York Times [1/25/2026 3:58 PM, Adam Sella, 135475K] reports Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, sounded a note of caution on Sunday morning about the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration agents in Minnesota, as other senior officials in the Trump administration continue to claim that the man, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and U.S. citizen, was at fault for his own death. In an interview on Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Blanche defended the immigration agents who restrained and shot Mr. Pretti. But he also emphasized: “You cannot look at a 10-second video and judge what happened.” Other senior officials in the Trump administration appeared to disagree. “The suspect put himself in that situation,” Gregory Bovino, a top official overseeing President Trump’s Border Patrol operations, said on Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of the Union” as videos of the shooting played on split screen. “The victims are the Border Patrol agents there,” Mr. Bovino said. Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures”: “You do not get to attack law enforcement officials in this country without any repercussions.” Videos verified by The New York Times showed that Mr. Pretti was restrained on the ground in the seconds before he was shot. In social media posts on Sunday, President Trump cheered on two allies who spoke on TV about the shooting, but otherwise avoided commenting directly. Instead, he repeated the claim that Minnesota was conducting “a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!” The killing was the second time this month that federal agents fatally shot a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis during an immigration crackdown.

Washington Post [1/25/2026 7:19 PM, Karen Tumulty, 24149K] reports Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Sunday accused President Donald Trump and top officials of his administration of putting out a “flat-out insane” narrative regarding the shooting death of a Minneapolis man during an encounter with federal immigration agents. In an interview Sunday with Washington Post, Ellison (D) was particularly critical of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino for immediately laying blame for the incident not on the behavior of federal agents but on inflammatory rhetoric by local officials and on the victim himself, 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse. “Unlike other folks who are not in the chain of prosecution or defense, they are. This is their employee who they trained — apparently, allegedly,” Ellison said. “So for them to jump out there and say, ‘He’s done nothing wrong, the victim is a bad person,’ is flat-out insane and is a complete break with what we consider to be reasonable law enforcement behavior. It fails every test of professionalism.” The Department of Homeland Security has claimed its agents were on Nicollet Avenue early Saturday conducting a “targeted operation” against another person when a man, later identified as Pretti, “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun” with an intent to “massacre law enforcement.” Subsequently, according to its account, “the officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted.” However, a Post analysis of video of the event, shot from several angles, suggests that an agent retrieved a holstered handgun Pretti was carrying before he was shot multiple times. The first of what appear to have been as many as 10 shots was fired less than a second later, the video shows. Ellison — who says he may be called upon at some point to prosecute a case arising from the incident — declined to discuss what state and local investigators have learned. But he added: “I think that reasonable people watching the video could conclude that [Pretti] had a gun and a holster, that it was taken off of him in plain view on the video, and that after that, he was shot. I think that a person who saw those things would not be hallucinating.” Pretti’s death came barely two weeks after the killing of Renée Good, who was shot in her vehicle by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, prompting massive protests and escalating clashes between demonstrators and federal officers. As Minnesota’s attorney general mounts a legal challenge to the administration and its deployment of thousands of federal agents to Minneapolis and St. Paul, Ellison finds himself in a situation that is both uncharted and familiar in some respects. At this point, his office has sued the Trump administration more than 50 times, on actions that range from the president’s executive order to end birthright citizenship to an Agriculture Department requirement for further verification of recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

Axios [1/25/2026 12:53 PM, Brittany Gibson, 12972K] reports for the second time in less than a month, President Trump’s top officials rushed to declare that a U.S. citizen killed by U.S. immigration agents was a "domestic terrorist." The Trump administration isn’t waiting for an investigation before sharing conclusions about the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Nicole Good and the Jan. 24 killing of Alex Pretti. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller both accused Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital, of being a domestic terrorist. "Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism," Noem said at a Saturday press conference at FEMA’s National Response Coordination Center. Noem did not say what evidence there was to back up their claims on Pretti’s ideology: "He was there to perpetuate violence, and he was asked to show up and to continue to resist by a governor who’s irresponsible and has a long history of corruption and lying, and we won’t stand for it anymore," she said. "The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," Pretti’s parents said in a statement to CNN. Local law enforcement has been denied access to the crime scene to carry out an investigation, even after obtaining a judicial warrant, according to the state’s top investigations agency. "We are continuing to follow the exact same protocols that we always have, and so this investigation is ongoing," Noem said. Noem characterized the event as a "violent riot" and said that the border patrol agent who fired the fatal shots was afraid for his life and the lives of his fellow officers — a benchmark for justifiable use of deadly force from a law enforcement officer. "I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign. This is a violent riot when you have someone showing up with weapons," Noem said. The characterizations of the victim’s actions and the restricted access to investigate the crime scene mirror the aftermath of the killing of Renee Good. Noem said that it was Minnesota’s elected officials who deserved more scrutiny, and top Minneapolis and Minnesota officials have recently been subpoenaed.

New York Times [1/25/2026 8:00 PM, Tyler Pager and Hamed Aleaziz, 135475K] reports that, not long after federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident on Saturday, senior members of the Trump administration were ready with their conclusions about what had happened and who was to blame. Stephen Miller, President Trump’s homeland security adviser, called the victim, Alex Pretti, who was filming Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, a “domestic terrorist.” Gregory Bovino, the official in charge of Border Patrol operations, said Mr. Pretti was out to “massacre law enforcement.” The Department of Homeland Security said an agent had fired “defensive shots” because he was “fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers.” Even as videos emerged that contradicted the government’s account, the Trump administration was in a race to control the narrative around the killing of Mr. Pretti, a registered nurse with no criminal record who was pinned down when immigration agents opened fire and killed him. The rush to blame Mr. Pretti and exonerate the immigration agents — even while officials were still gathering the facts — deviates entirely from the way law enforcement investigations are normally carried out. But it also underscores what has become a pattern by Mr. Trump and top administration officials to justify an increasingly violent crackdown: immediately going on the offensive and demonizing the victim, often distorting the facts in the process. On Sunday, Mr. Trump said Democrats were to blame for the killings, not federal agents. His reasoning, which he laid out on social media, was that Democrats were not cooperating with the ICE operation in Minneapolis, which has created “dangerous circumstances for EVERYONE involved.” Daniel Altman, a former Customs and Border Protection official who served in the Trump and Biden administrations, said presidents often tried to find political advantage in moments of crisis. But he said it undermined public confidence in the investigation process to make snap judgments about motive and blame. Mr. Altman, who oversaw internal investigations into use of force, said there were well-established procedures for such cases, including timelines for notifying Congress and the public. “Those measures are designed to promote transparency and accountability,” he said. Shortly after Mr. Pretti was shot, officials at D.H.S. and the White House were in contact about how to respond to the incident, according to a person familiar with the communications who asked for anonymity to describe internal procedures. The officials sought information from the ground in Minneapolis and worked with lawyers to prepare the statement issued by D.H.S. Some details were removed before the statement was published because they were still working to get a more complete picture of what happened, the person familiar with the process said.

NBC News [1/25/2026 3:00 PM, Staff, 34509K] reports Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino held a press conference the day after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis, pushing back on reporters’ questions over the Trump administration’s description of the shooting. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [1/25/2026 12:59 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports the Trump administration faced intensifying pressure Sunday over its mass immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, after federal agents shot dead a second US citizen and graphic cell phone footage again contradicted officials’ immediate description of the incident. Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car. President Donald Trump’s administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents — as it did after Good’s death — pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him. However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing around 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground. The video further inflamed ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal agents, with around 1,000 people participating in a demonstration Sunday. After top officials described Pretti as an "assassin" who had assaulted the agents, Pretti’s parents issued a statement Saturday condemning the administration’s "sickening lies" about their son. Asked Sunday what she would say to Pretti’s parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: "Just that I’m grieved for them.” "I truly am. I can’t even imagine losing a child," she told Fox News show "The Sunday Briefing.” She said more clarity would come as an investigation progresses. US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC’s "Meet the Press," also said an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing. Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said: "I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That’s why we’re doing an investigation.” Their comments came after multiple senators from Trump’s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities. "There must be a full joint federal and state investigation," Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said. The Trump administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good’s killing. Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz posed a question directly to the president during a press briefing Sunday, asking: "What’s the plan, Donald Trump?". "What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?".

New York Post [1/25/2026 6:57 PM, Anthony Blair, 42219K] reports a doctor detailed the harrowing moment he tried to save Alex Pretti’s life after Border Patrol agents shot him — as the pistol-carrying ICU nurse’s family described him as “kind-hearted” and slammed the Trump administration for telling “lies” about him. The pediatrician is one of two witnesses who have said in sworn testimony that Pretti, 37, was not brandishing his weapon when he was approached by federal agents, contradicting assertions made by administration officials. The lawsuit, brought by the ACLU on behalf of Minneapolis protests against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, was filed in federal court in Minnesota on Saturday. Both witnesses, whose names were redacted in publicly available filings, claimed they were prevented at first by federal officers from rendering medical aid to Pretti. “At first, the ICE agents wouldn’t let me through. But none of the ICE agents who were near the victim were performing CPR, and I could tell that the victim was in critical condition. I insisted that the ICE agents let me assess him,” the doctor said. The physician, 29, said they saw the shooting from their apartment window, in their testimony. They said Pretti was yelling at federal agents, but added that they “did not see him attack the agents or brandish a weapon of any kind.” When the doctor finally got through, they said the federal officers “appeared to be counting [Pretti’s] bullet wounds,” rather than performing CPR. Pretti had “at least three bullet wounds in his back,” along with one in his upper left chest and another possible wound in his neck,” the doctor stated in their affidavit. “I checked for a pulse, but I did not feel one,” they added. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Wall Street Journal [1/25/2026 6:20 PM, Josh Dawsey, 646K] reports in a five-minute telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, Trump didn’t directly answer when asked twice whether the officer who shot Alex Pretti had done the right thing. Pressed further, the president said, “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.” Administration officials have publicly defended the officer. The president criticized Pretti—the 37-year-old who was killed by a federal Border Patrol agent Saturday morning on a Minneapolis street—for carrying a gun during protest activity. “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump added. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.” Trump also signaled a willingness to eventually withdraw immigration enforcement officials from the Minneapolis area. “At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job,” he said. Trump didn’t offer a time frame for when agents might depart. Asked if agents would leave soon, he praised what the administration had done already in Minnesota and said, “We’ll leave a different group of people there for the financial fraud.” Trump has pointed to a sprawling welfare-fraud scandal in the state as a rationale for ramping up immigration enforcement. “It’s the biggest fraud anyone has seen,” Trump said in the interview. “We actually think California is going to be much bigger.” Trump asserted that Pretti was carrying a “very dangerous gun, a dangerous and unpredictable gun,” adding, “It’s a gun that goes off when people don’t know it.” The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was carrying a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [1/25/2026 9:26 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K]

Reuters [1/25/2026 8:39 PM, Brad Brooks and Tim Reid, 19051K] reports officials in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration defended on Sunday the fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis, even as video evidence contradicted their version of events and as tensions grew between local law enforcement and federal officers. As residents visited a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles in frigid temperatures and snow to mark Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, Trump administration officials stated that Pretti assaulted officers, compelling them to fire in self-defense. That account was at odds with videos recorded by bystanders. Pretti is the second American to be fatally shot by federal immigration officers this month in Minneapolis, where Trump, a Republican, has deployed thousands of armed and masked agents in a deportation effort with little precedent. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, again called on Trump to pull federal agents out of the state, which has asked a federal judge to restrain what it says are unconstitutional excesses in Trump’s surge. "The victims are Border Patrol agents," Gregory Bovino, a senior Border Patrol official, told CNN’s "State of the Union" program. That official line, echoed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other members of the administration, drew outrage from local Democratic leaders and law enforcement and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, who pointed to the bystander videos that show all Pretti had in his hands was a cellphone before agents grappled him to the ground and ultimately shot him at close range. Federal agents over the past few weeks have been met by countless angry residents protesting in the city’s icy streets, some of them blowing whistles. Thousands of people again filled the streets of Minneapolis on Sunday to protest against the surge in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, chanting and waving signs saying: "ICE OUT!" Videos of Saturday’s killing verified by Reuters show Pretti, 37, holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who had been pushed to the ground by agents. Minnesota officials say Pretti had a valid state permit to carry a concealed gun in public, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was a constitutional right in 2022. Brian O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, told the CBS "Face the Nation" program that "the videos speak for themselves," calling the Trump administration’s version of events deeply disturbing. He said he had seen no evidence that Pretti brandished a gun.

Reported similarly:
CBS News [1/25/2026 8:33 PM, Staff, 39474K]

CNN [1/25/2026 6:41 PM, Betsy Klein, Alayna Treene, Priscilla Alvarez, and Kristen Holmes, 18595K] reports President Donald Trump and his top lieutenants are doubling down on their hardline immigration policies and rhetoric following the shooting of a US citizen by a federal officer in Minneapolis — even as the incident has revealed cracks in the president’s coalition. A phalanx of top Trump administration officials fanned out across Sunday morning news shows and social media to publicly defend the officer’s actions and the administration’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement tactics, all shifting blame to Democratic state and local officials. They say Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are not doing enough to support federal law enforcement and are ratcheting up tensions. “Democrat run Sanctuary Cities and States are REFUSING to cooperate with ICE, and they are actually encouraging Leftwing Agitators to unlawfully obstruct their operations to arrest the Worst of the Worst People!” Trump wrote Sunday in a pair of lengthy social media posts, calling out Walz and Frey by name. While Trump has both publicly and privately defended the Border Patrol agent who fatally shot 37-year-old Alex Pretti, there has also been concern at the White House that his immigration messaging is getting lost amid the chaotic scenes in Minnesota, sources familiar with the conversations this weekend said.

NewsMax [1/25/2026 7:12 PM, Brian Freeman, 4109K] reports President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Democrat governors and mayors nationwide to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, warning on Truth Social that refusal to do so has created "dangerous circumstances" and led to the deaths of two American citizens. Trump outlined four specific actions he said Democrat officials must take to assist his administration’s immigration enforcement efforts: Turn over all criminal illegal migrants currently held in state prisons and local jails — as well as those with active warrants or known criminal histories — to federal authorities for immediate deportation. Transfer custody of all illegal migrants arrested by local police to federal immigration officials. Require local law enforcement to assist federal authorities in apprehending and detaining illegal migrants wanted for crimes. Partner with the federal government to rapidly remove criminal illegal migrants, citing Democrat-led jurisdictions such as Memphis and Washington, D.C., that he said have cooperated and seen improved public safety. In his criticism of Democrats, Trump specifically named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing them of refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and encouraging opposition to federal enforcement operations. The president argued that Republican-led states have demonstrated that cooperation between local and federal authorities leads to orderly enforcement without unrest. He said that in Texas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Louisiana, ICE arrested more than 150,000 criminal illegal migrants over the past year without protests or riots, attributing the outcome to coordination between federal and local law enforcement. Trump also urged Congress to pass legislation ending sanctuary city policies nationwide, calling them "the root cause" of the problem. He said American cities should be "safe sanctuaries for law-abiding American citizens only."

Politico [1/25/2026 9:12 PM, Jacob Wendler, 13586K] reports President Donald Trump on Sunday called on Congress to pass legislation to end sanctuary jurisdiction policies as tensions run high over the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis, the latest violent confrontation between ICE officers and demonstrators across the country. In a Sunday evening Truth Social post, Trump wrote that he was “calling on the United States Congress to immediately pass Legislation to END Sanctuary Cities” and asking for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and all Democratic mayors and governors “to formally cooperate with the Trump Administration to enforce our Nation’s Laws, rather than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos, and Violence.” The call comes just a day after federal agents fatally shot Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti during a tense confrontation. The incident prompted Walz and Frey to once again urge the Trump administration to walk back its deployment of several thousand immigration enforcement officers to the state. The requests from Minnesota’s elected officials for federal agents to leave the state reached a fever pitch after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good in her car in Minneapolis earlier this month. Since then, Minnesota Democrats have maintained that federal officials have created chaos by surging immigration enforcement in the state.

The AP [1/25/2026 8:02 PM, Kevin Freking and Mary Clare Jalonick, 852K] reports Democratic senators are vowing to oppose a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security following the shooting death of a 37-year-old Minnesota man, a stand that increases the prospect of a partial government shutdown by the end of the week. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, in a social media post hours after the Saturday shooting, said that what is happening in Minnesota is “appalling” and that Democrats “will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.” Six of the 12 annual spending bills for the current budget year have been signed into law by President Donald Trump. Six more are awaiting action in the Senate, despite a revolt from House Democrats and mounting calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s impeachment. If senators fail to act by midnight Friday, funding for Homeland Security and the other agencies covered under the six bills will lapse. “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE,” said Schumer, D-N.Y. “I will vote no.” The White House reached out to Senate Democrats late Sunday, as have Republicans, according to a Senate Democratic leadership aide who insisted on anonymity to discuss the private talks. But they have not yet raised any realistic solutions, the aide said. Republicans will need some Democratic support to pass the remaining spending bills in time to avoid a partial shutdown. That support was already in question after Renee Good, a mother of three, was fatally shot and killed earlier this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. But the fatal shooting Saturday of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, quickly prompted Democrats to take a more forceful stand. On Sunday, House and Senate Democrats convened separate conference calls as they privately assess next steps and press to restrain the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and key negotiator on the funding package, had been pushing her colleagues to vote for the homeland security bill, arguing that Democrats had successfully fought off major increases to the ICE budget. But in the wake of the shooting, Murray said Sunday on X that “I will NOT support the DHS bill as it stands.” “Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences,” Murray wrote. The Wall Street Journal [1/25/2026 5:48 PM, Siobhan Hughes and Lindsay Wise, 646K] reports Republicans control the Senate 53-47, but 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R., Maine) is exploring all options for the legislation, a spokeswoman said. The Homeland Security funding is wrapped into a broader package covering about $1.3 trillion in annual spending. The Democrats’ call for changes raised the prospect of Congress running out of time before funding for much of the federal government expires at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 31, which would trigger a partial government shutdown. The House has already passed all six measures but it would need to approve any changes the Senate makes before it goes to President Trump’s desk—and the House is on recess this coming week. With the new government funding deadline looming, many Senate Democrats had wanted to avoid another shutdown after a record-setting funding lapse last year. But the deadly shooting of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis by a U.S. Border Patrol officer changed the dynamic, aides and lawmakers said, uniting the party in taking a hard line. The Trump administration has surged border-control officers into the city as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration, sparking protests and physical confrontations. Many Senate Democrats—including some who broke with the majority of their party in November and voted to reopen the government—issued fiery statements Saturday saying they wouldn’t back any funds for DHS, the agency that includes the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Reported similarly:
NewsMax [1/25/2026 3:23 PM, Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, 4109K]

NBC News [1/25/2026 11:58 PM, Sahil Kapur, Frank Thorp V, 34509K] reports Senate Democrats held a conference call Sunday to discuss their strategy after they made it clear they will block a Department of Homeland Security funding bill if it does not include changes to impose conditions on immigration enforcement operations. The Senate is heading into a critical week with a Friday deadline to fund the government or face a partial shutdown. The package doesn’t have the 60 votes it needs. Without them, much of the federal government could shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Two sources on the call told NBC News that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told the caucus the message had to be to "restrain, reform and restrict ICE.” According to one of the sources, Schumer told them that the vote won’t come until Thursday and that he discussed the Democratic caucus’ unity in opposition to funding DHS without reforms. He said the five other funding bills apart from the DHS measure are acceptable. "Basically DHS is the problem and needs to be stripped out," the source summed up Schumer as saying. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., pushed the caucus to come up with a demand for DHS reforms, two sources with knowledge of his comments said. Republicans could limit the scope of a shutdown by voting on the non-DHS measures separately and passing them. Despite that, a Senate Republican leadership aide told NBC News they’re still planning to vote on the package as one. "Government funding expires at the end of the week, and Republicans are determined to not have another government shutdown," the aide said. "We will move forward as planned and hope Democrats can find a path forward to join us.” According to a Senate Democratic leadership aide, Republicans and the White House have reached out to them but "have not yet raised any realistic solutions.” Further complicating matters, the House is on recess all week, so anything that revises that package and requires it to vote again is also questionable by the deadline. There’s also the snowstorm, which has postponed the Senate’s return from Monday to Tuesday. Schumer said in a statement issued earlier Sunday: "Senate Democrats will not allow the current DHS funding bill to move forward. ... The appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and CBP to protect the public.” Schumer added: "Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill."

FOX News [1/25/2026 1:57 PM, Alex Miller, 40621K] reports one of the key negotiators who helped end the last government shutdown won’t support a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, further adding to the likelihood of another closure. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that he could not support the current, six-bill funding package as is because it included the DHS funding bill. King was a pivotal figure in ending the last shutdown, and was one of only eight Senate Democratic caucus members to join Republicans to end it. King, like other members of the Senate Democratic caucus, is infuriated by the death of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse who was shot dead by a border patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday. Congressional Democrats have railed against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entering Minnesota and elsewhere, but begrudgingly agreed to support the DHS bill until the chaos over the weekend unfolded. "I hate shutdowns," King said. "I’m one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to the last — the end of the last shutdown, but I can’t vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under the circumstances."

Politico [1/25/2026 4:14 PM, Meredith Lee Hill, 13586K] reports a small but growing number of Republicans are raising public concerns about the killing Saturday of a 37-year-old Minnesota man by federal agents. Hours after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street, one House GOP chair called for the top ICE leader and other Trump administration officials to publicly answer lawmakers’ questions. GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina called for independent probes into the shooting, with Cassidy arguing the integrity of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are “at stake.” Another House GOP chair appeared to suggest President Donald Trump should withdraw from Minneapolis and send the agents there to another city. “If I were President Trump, I would almost think about, OK, if the mayor and governor are going put our ICE officials in harm’s way and there’s a chance of losing more innocent lives, or whatever, then maybe go to another city and let the people of Minneapolis decide: Do we want to continue to have all of these illegals?” Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Sunday on Fox News, adding that he expected Minnesotans to “rebel against their leadership.” However gentle and equivocal the pushback might be, it is growing increasingly conspicuous as congressional Republicans privately discuss how to respond to Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign ahead of the midterm elections. Some Republicans have been privately warning administration officials and GOP leaders for months that the operation is not going over well in some pockets of the country. “Many of us wonder if the administration has any clue as to how much this will hurt us legislatively and electorally this year,” said one House Republican granted anonymity to candidly discuss private reactions. Murkowski said Sunday “ICE agents do not have carte blanche in carrying out their duties.” “Lawfully carrying a firearm does not justify federal agents killing an American — especially, as video footage appears to show, after the victim had been disarmed,” she said. After House Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) called Saturday for ICE, Border Patrol and other DHS officials to testify before his panel, Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.) praised the move, saying it was important “the American people and Congress be given a better understanding of how immigration enforcement is being handled.” Still, most Hill Republicans have not weighed in publicly or are backing the Trump administration, which was quick to argue Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” intent on massacring federal agents. Eyewitness video shows no evidence he drew his weapon or otherwise threatened agents with deadly force before he was shot.

Washington Examiner [1/25/2026 7:36 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1394K] reports Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reiterated his promise to oppose funding the Department of Homeland Security and suggested to "rewrite" the appropriations bill instead, as another possible government shutdown looms large this week. Schumer voiced his opposition to the DHS funding bill after 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent during an immigration operation on Saturday in Minneapolis. The fatal shooting is the second officer-involved incident in the city this month after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good on Jan. 7. "Senate Republicans have seen the same horrific footage that all Americans have watched of the blatant abuses of Americans by ICE in Minnesota. The appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and CBP to protect the public," Schumer said in a statement on Sunday. "Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill. This is [the] best course of action, and the American people are on our side.” Schumer echoed the proposals from Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Jack Reed (D-RI), who suggested dropping the bill and instead pass the other five. Other Democratic senators have suggested reworking the current DHS bill that narrowly passed the House last week, though time is running out. The deadline to fund the government is Jan. 30, and the Senate is out of session on Monday due to the winter storm affecting the Northeast. Should the upper chamber not reach a consensus on the bill by the end of this week, there will be at least a partial government shutdown — and the second one in recent months. Late last year, debate over expiring COVID-era Obamacare subsidies led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, lasting 43 days. That shutdown fight ended with a bipartisan agreement to negotiate the subsidies, and the Senate will need another given Democrats’ stated opposition to DHS funding, the Senate GOP’s narrow majority, and the 60-vote threshold needed to pass appropriations bills. The Washington Examiner has reached out to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) for comment.

Washington Examiner [1/25/2026 2:44 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1394K] reports Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) predicted that "Democrats are not going to fund" the Department of Homeland Security as an appropriations bill looms. Schiff appeared on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday to answer questions about how he will vote on the DHS funding bill. It is one of six appropriations bills to fund the government and narrowly passed the House of Representatives last week. "Well, I’m not giving ICE or Border Patrol another dime, given how these agencies are operating. Democrats are not going to fund that," Schiff said. Schiff was referencing the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday, coupled with Renee Good’s shooting death by an ICE officer on Jan. 7. Schiff called for "an investigation of both of these killings" since Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem "has called these victims domestic terrorists without knowing anything.". This interview comes as the deadline to fund the government, Jan. 30, is fast approaching. Should the Senate not reach a consensus on the bill, it will result in at least a partial government shutdown, which Schiff blamed on Republican senators. "The government will shut down if Republicans insist that that be joined with other government funding. It will be a Republican decision," Schiff said. "They’re in the majority if they want to shut down the government so they can perpetuate this violence.".

CBS News [1/25/2026 4:30 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 39474K] reports Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine said Sunday that he won’t vote for a package to fund the government if it includes funding for ICE, as lawmakers scramble to pass a slate of funding bills to stave off a partial government shutdown by Friday — but he argued that "we don’t have to have a shutdown.” "I hate shutdowns," King said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” "But I can’t vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under these circumstances — what they’re doing in my state, what we saw yesterday in Minneapolis," the senator continued, referring to an immigration enforcement operation launched in Maine last week. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Saturday, after the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old Minneapolis man by federal agents, that Democrats will not put up the necessary votes to advance a funding package to prevent a partial government shutdown if it includes funds for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE. So far, six of the 12 appropriations bills have been passed by Congress and signed into law. The Senate has until Friday, Jan. 30 to approve the final six bills, which have been packaged together, after they passed the House in recent weeks. That package includes a bill that would fund DHS until the end of the fiscal year. If those final six bills aren’t passed by the Senate and signed by President Trump by Friday, the agencies that they cover will begin to shut down. Schumer in a statement Sunday said, "Senate Democrats will not allow the current DHS funding bill to move forward.” "Senate Republicans have seen the same horrific footage that all Americans have watched of the blatant abuses of Americans by ICE in Minnesota," Schumer said. "The appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and CBP to protect the public. People should be safe from abuse by their own government.” Schumer urged Republicans to "work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill.” King, who caucuses with Democrats, was among a trio of senators who negotiated a deal with Republicans to reopen the government during the longest shutdown in history last year. He argued that "there’s an easy way out" of the funding fight, saying Senate Majority Leader John Thune should separate the DHS bill from the other five funding measures. "If those bills pass, 96% of the federal government is funded," King said. "Take up DHS by itself, let’s have an honest negotiation, put some guardrails on what’s going on, some accountability, and that would solve this problem.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [1/25/2026 12:11 PM, Dana Bash, 18595K] reports Democratic Senator Chris Murphy calls on Democrats to reject any government funding bill that included money for the Department of Homeland Security after the fatal shooting in Minneapolis. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Caller [1/25/2026 1:34 PM, Anthony Iafrate, 835K] reports Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said during a Sunday morning CNN appearance that his party’s caucus cannot support a government shutdown-averting bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which he claimed was "murdering American citizens.". Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a Saturday statement, vowed his party’s caucus "will not provide the votes" necessary to pass a spending package which includes a DHS funding bill. The declaration came hours after Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Murphy appeared to agree with Schumer, saying on "State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash" that "Democrats are not going to vote" for the package — that if not passed by its Jan. 30 deadline would launch the country into a partial government shutdown." "Well, we can’t vote to fund this lawless Department of Homeland Security," the Connecticut Democrat told host Dana Bash after she had asked him to weigh in on Schumer’s remarks. "And, remember, it’s not just in Minnesota. They’re violating the law all over the country." Murphy then said he had spent the previous week in Texas where he claimed DHS agents were "locking up two-year-old and three-year-old kids who are here in the United States legally just for the purpose of traumatizing them.".

Daily Caller [1/25/2026 9:05 PM, Anthony Iafrate, 835K] reports Democratic New York Rep. Laura Gillen, who was one of just seven Democrats to vote Thursday for a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced Sunday she now supports the impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. In an X post announcing her new position, Gillen appeared to cite the fatal Saturday shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis — though she incorrectly stated he was "killed at the hands of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]." The first-term moderate Democrat, who has often broken with her party on immigration issues, represents a swing district covering parts of Nassau County on Long Island and narrowly defeated a one-term Republican incumbent in 2024. "Another U.S. citizen has been killed at the hands of ICE and there must be accountability, which is why Secretary Noem must be impeached immediately," Gillen wrote in her social media post. While ICE and Border Patrol are separate agencies, they are both components of DHS, and therefore would both be funded by the bill currently under consideration by the Senate which Gillen voted for Thursday. "Under her [Noem’s] leadership, ICE has targeted U.S. citizens and children and killed Americans. She is not focused on safety or border security; she’s focused on chaos and self-promotion, undermining local law enforcement and stoking violence as a result. The American people deserve better," the congresswoman added in her X post. Another U.S. citizen has been killed at the hands of ICE and there must be accountability, which is why Secretary Noem must be impeached immediately. Under her leadership, ICE has targeted U.S. citizens and children and killed Americans. She is not focused on safety or border… — Congresswoman Laura Gillen (@RepLauraGillen) January 25, 2026. Gillen, along with six other moderate House Democrats, joined all but one voting Republicans in supporting the bill funding DHS. The bill is presently part of a spending package which, if not passed by the Senate by Jan. 30, will trigger a partial government shutdown. The congresswoman previously justified her breaking ranks with the vast majority of her party on the funding bill in a Thursday statement, writing, "I’m shocked my colleagues would vote to cut off national and community security funding while leaving ICE to operate under the status quo.” She added in the statement that she supports "funding our immigration enforcement and the commonsense guardrails that have been included in this package.” In the aftermath of Pretti’s shooting, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and members of his Democratic caucus have vocally come out against the bill, making it increasingly likely the country will enter the second government shutdown of the past few months. "I urge the Senate to pass this bill swiftly," Gillen wrote in her Thursday statement.

New York Post [1/25/2026 12:52 PM, Brandon Cruz, 42219K] reports Long Island’s two House Dems defied their party’s leaders last week to back a GOP-led spending bill that pumps more cash into ICE — sparking outrage from the left demanding they be booted from office. Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi — two proudly self-described "moderate" Democrats representing large portions of Long Island — joined their Republican colleagues Thursday in passing a $64.4 billion funding package for the Department of Homeland Security that includes about $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The pair’s votes, which helped the bill pass the House 220-207, has sparked sharp pushback from many Democrats who are now publicly calling for the pair to be challenged in their primary races. But both representatives defended their positions and even blasted back at their colleagues for voting against the funding. "I support funding our immigration enforcement and the commonsense guardrails that have been included in this package," Gillen said in a statement. "I’m shocked my colleagues would vote to cut off national and community security funding while leaving ICE to operate under the status quo," she said. Gillen and Suozzi were joined by five other Democrats in passing the bill — while Republican Rep. Thomas Massie was the lone "no" vote in the GOP.

FOX News [1/25/2026 1:57 PM, Alex Miller, 40621K] reports that one of the key negotiators who helped end the last government shutdown won’t support a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, further adding to the likelihood of another closure. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that he could not support the current, six-bill funding package as is because it included the DHS funding bill. King was a pivotal figure in ending the last shutdown, and was one of only eight Senate Democratic caucus members to join Republicans to end it. King, like other members of the Senate Democratic caucus, is infuriated by the death of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse who was shot dead by a border patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday. Congressional Democrats have railed against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entering Minnesota and elsewhere, but begrudgingly agreed to support the DHS bill until the chaos over the weekend unfolded. "I hate shutdowns," King said. "I’m one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to the last — the end of the last shutdown, but I can’t vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under the circumstances." King’s resistance to the package comes after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that Senate Democrats would not support the legislation, increasing the odds of a partial government shutdown by the end of the week.

The Hill [1/25/2026 3:22 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports the White House is hoping “cooler heads prevail” as Democrats begin pulling their support for the funding measure for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), threatening to derail efforts to avert a partial government shutdown. “Democrats were equal partners in negotiating these bills, which are the product of a bipartisan, collaborative process. Now, after a week spent celebrating their successes in the process, and in the midst of a winter storm, they’re holding emergency response funding hostage to score political points,” a White House official told The Hill’s sister network, NewsNation. “We hope cooler heads prevail, and the country does not have to endure another damaging shutdown,” the official continued. Lawmakers had been on the verge of completing their funding work for fiscal 2026 after the House last week passed its final four appropriations bills. But the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, a nurse at the city’s Veterans Affairs hospital, by a Border Patrol agent, jeopardized chances of those bills passing the Senate, with one key Democrat after another saying they will not vote to fund DHS. Five of the eight Senate Democratic Caucus members who voted to end the record-long government shutdown in November have said in recent days they won’t support the latest funding package, as long as the DHS funding is included.

Chicago Tribune [1/25/2026 7:02 PM, Madeline King, 4829K] reports thousands of protesters faced snow and below-freezing temperatures in the Loop Sunday afternoon to protest ongoing violence in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. The Coalition Against the Trump Agenda organized the protest after a federal immigration agent fatally shot 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday. Pretti’s killing follows that of Renee Good, another Minneapolis resident fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent earlier this month. Activists, immigration rights leaders, union leaders and elected officials spoke for around 40 minutes on the snow-covered Congress Plaza Gardens steps. They came with demands to defund and abolish ICE. "We are not OK with ICE killing and shooting innocent people without impunity," Mayor Brandon Johnson said to a sea of American flags and cardboard signs. Gov. JB Pritzker called for the abolition of "Trump’s ICE" on social media and urged for a funding halt Saturday, but didn’t call for the dissolution of the agency in its entirety. Protesters yelled call and response chants against ICE, like "Say it loud, and say it clear. Immigrants are welcome here," and "¡Fuera ICE!" Some held signs honoring Pretti, who was born in Illinois, according to The Associated Press. Following his killing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked officers, and the Trump administration claimed that agents had acted "defensively." Video analysis shows Pretti holding a phone, not a weapon, before agents tackle him to the ground. The agents then disarmed Pretti of a handgun before shooting him, according to The Associated Press. Pretti had a concealed carry license.

FOX News [1/25/2026 12:08 PM, Ashley Carnahan, 40621K] reports that a Republican lawmaker is calling for an oversight hearing of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies, renewing a request from earlier this month as attention turns to a fatal shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis. Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Saturday he is seeking testimony from senior DHS officials following the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Garbarino said the request builds on an invitation issued by committee staff on Jan. 15, which he is now formally following up on. The officials he named include acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow. "As chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, my top priority remains keeping Americans safe and ensuring the Department of Homeland Security can accomplish its core mission," Garbarino said. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem pushed back against Frey during a press conference on Saturday, blaming him and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for inflaming tensions and accusing them of encouraging resistance to federal law enforcement and refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities. "They need to evaluate their rhetoric, their conversations, and their encouragement of such violence against our citizens and our law enforcement officers," she said.

Washington Examiner [1/25/2026 9:39 AM, Brady Knox, 1394K] reports the American Civil Liberties Union requested a reinstatement of constraints on federal officers’ tactics against protesters in Minnesota after federal officers in Minneapolis fatally shot a 37-year-old man. U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez agreed to impose constraints earlier this month, but the move was temporarily lifted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit on Wednesday. The ACLU is now arguing that the situation has escalated to an extent that the restraints are more urgently needed. The plaintiffs argued that in light of heightened tensions, "it is more essential than ever to reinstate the district court’s narrow, considered injunction to prevent violent retaliation against individuals exercising their constitutional rights.". "Intervening events that post-date the parties’ filings have created an urgent need for intervention to prevent irreparable injury to the named plaintiffs, protesters, and observers," the filing read. "In these circumstances, every hour that a stay remains in place presents new opportunities for irreparable injury to protesters and observers. To prevent that imminent, irreparable harm, Appellees respectfully request that the Court lift the administrative stay immediately, and in no event later than" Sunday at 5 p.m. Central Time, the filing read. The restraints, previously briefly imposed by Menendez, include forbidding federal officers from arresting or pepper-spraying protesters if they weren’t directly engaging in violence. She also ruled that closely following ICE vehicles and agents couldn’t warrant a response, nor could crowds forming around officers during operations.

New York Post [1/25/2026 9:56 AM, Ryan King, 42219K] reports Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino praised the agents who were involved in the shooting of anti-ICE protester Alex Pretti — and said they are the real victims of the fatal melee in Minneapolis. Bovino stood by his agents and revealed that they are still on the job, albeit on administrative duty following the shooting of Pretti, 37 — which has caused a new wave of outcry from Dems and also some on the right. "The victims are the Border Patrol agents. I’m not blaming the Border Patrol agents," Bovino shot back on CNN’s "State of the Union" Sunday when asked if he was "blaming the victim." BASH: It feels as though you’re blaming the victim here. BOVINO: The victims are the Border Patrol agents. I’m not blaming the Border Patrol agents. The victims are the Border Patrol agents. pic.twitter.com/rjmB7bOzrn. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reported similarly:
Breitbart [1/25/2026 10:34 AM, Pam Key, 2416K]

AP [1/25/2026 4:24 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports at a news conference Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis, Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino urged people not to continue to “interfere, obstruct, delay or assault law enforcement” the wake of another shooting death by federal agents. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Caller [1/25/2026 12:03 PM, Anthony Iafrate, 835K] reports Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino sparred Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash over whether the armed man his subordinates shot and killed Saturday in Minneapolis was the "suspect" or "victim" in the situation. Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, 37, whom the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleged was prepared to "massacre law enforcement" with his firearm. Pretti’s parents and left-wing groups, on the other hand, maintained he was assisting a woman and not pointing his gun at officers at the time. During Bovino’s Sunday appearance on "State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash," Bash pressed the senior Border Patrol official over his assertion Pretti assaulted a federal agent, sparking a contentious exchange. "Where did he assault the federal officer in any of the video that you have seen?" Bash asked Bovino. "Because it looked to us from every angle, sir, that he was approached by them when he was helping another individual who was pushed down. What evidence do you have that he was assaulting any law enforcement?" “Dana, we don’t need a suspect’s help in an active law enforcement scene. We don’t need his help. We didn’t ask his help," the Border Patrol commander-at-large responded, referring to Pretti. "When you say ‘suspect,’ what is he suspected of?" the CNN host interjected. "That’s an active law enforcement scene," Bovino said. "He knew that was an active law enforcement scene, especially when the officers approached him and it was very evident he did not need to be where he was.".

CNN [1/25/2026 11:13 AM, Margaret Dawson, 18595K] reports CNN’s Dana Bash pressed Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino about video analysis that contradicts the Department of Homeland Security’s account of yesterday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/25/2026 4:09 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports Greg Bovino blamed politicians, activists and media rhetoric for disrupting a targeted arrest and allowing a criminal suspect to remain at large after agents were assaulted and forced to withdraw. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

DailySignal [1/25/2026 7:14 PM, Anthony Iafrate, 549K] reports Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino sparred Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash over whether the armed man his subordinates shot and killed Saturday in Minneapolis was the "suspect" or "victim" in the situation. Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti, 37, whom the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleged was prepared to "massacre law enforcement" with his firearm. Pretti’s parents and left-wing groups, on the other hand, maintained he was assisting a woman and not pointing his gun at officers at the time. During Bovino’s Sunday appearance on "State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash," Bash pressed the senior Border Patrol official over his assertion Pretti assaulted a federal agent, sparking a contentious exchange. "Where did he assault the federal officer in any of the video that you have seen?" Bash asked Bovino. "Because it looked to us from every angle, sir, that he was approached by them when he was helping another individual who was pushed down. What evidence do you have that he was assaulting any law enforcement?" "Dana, we don’t need a suspect’s help in an active law enforcement scene. We don’t need his help. We didn’t ask his help," the Border Patrol commander-at-large responded, referring to Pretti. "When you say ‘suspect,’ what is he suspected of?" the CNN host interjected. "That’s an active law enforcement scene," Bovino said. "He knew that was an active law enforcement scene, especially when the officers approached him and it was very evident he did not need to be where he was." In a statement shared Saturday with the Daily Caller News Foundation, DHS claimed "law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault" when the man later identified as Pretti "approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun."

Breitbart [1/26/2026 2:42 AM, Staff, 2416K] reports clad in tactical gear with a helmet and hurling a tear gas canister at protesters, Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino has become the public face of US President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign. Bovino’s public profile rose further in recent days as he defended violent immigration sweeps in Minneapolis, which culminated Saturday with federal agents fatally shooting 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, the second citizen to be killed in the heavily Democratic northern city in several weeks. The Trump administration swiftly accused Pretti of seeking to harm immigration agents, saying he was in possession of a pistol, despite footage from the scene showing that Pretti never drew a weapon, as agents fired multiple shots after throwing him to the ground. Bovino doubled down, saying it was the agents, not Pretti, who were the victims in the confrontation. "The fact that they’re highly trained prevented any specific shootings of law enforcement, so good job for our law enforcement in taking him down before he was able to do that," Bovino told CNN’s "State of the Union" on Sunday. He added: "It’s too bad the consequences had to be paid because he injected himself into that crime scene. I can’t say that enough. He made the decision to go there.” Cesar Garcia Hernandez, an immigration law professor at Ohio State University, said that with the Trump administration seeking to deport millions of undocumented migrants, Bovino is the man for the job. "He is turning the aggressive rhetoric that we see from (Homeland Security) Secretary (Kristi) Noem, President Trump and other top officials into an operational reality," Garcia Hernandez told AFP. Over the past year, Bovino, who is in his mid-fifties, has directed several high-profile immigration raids, including sweeps in Los Angeles and Chicago, using what he calls the "turn and burn" tactic of moving in to make quick arrests and leaving swiftly before protesters arrive. Bovino was leading an immigration sweep in Minneapolis when on January 7, an agent fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, in her car, an incident that prompted mass demonstrations and national outrage. Bovino also defended his agents taking a five-year-old boy into custody last week while seeking to arrest his father, saying: "We are experts in dealing with children.”

CNN [1/25/2026 7:00 AM, Catherine E. Shoichet, 18595K] reports that, a year ago, few Americans knew Gregory Bovino’s name. Now he’s the face of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. And everything from the Border Patrol commander-at-large’s tactics in the field to his wardrobe choices have become lightning rods in a storm with no end in sight. On the streets of multiple American cities, Bovino – sporting a buzzcut and the Border Patrol’s olive green uniform – has been spotted leading patrols, hurling tear gas canisters and verbally sparring with critics. He often stands out among groups of federal officers as one of the few people not wearing a mask. On social media, he’s known for sharing photos and cinematic videos that tout Border Patrol agents’ determination to carry out their mission. And now, his presence at the podium and on screens around the world is becoming more common as he delivers briefings from Minneapolis. That’s where Bovino stood hours after a Border Patrol officer shot and killed a man in that city Saturday, telling reporters that officers had followed their training when faced with an armed suspect who "wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Critics quickly slammed Bovino’s statement and others from Homeland Security officials, arguing that videos of the shooting show no evidence the man was trying to harm anyone. But Bovino doubled down on his defense of officers Sunday. "The fact that they’re highly trained prevented any specific shootings of law enforcement, so good job for our law enforcement in taking him down before he was able to do that," Bovino told CNN’s "State of the Union.” ‘What evidence do you have?’: Dana Bash presses Bovino on fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. Pressed to provide evidence, Bovino said more details would emerge as authorities investigate and argued that the man was trying to impede officers. "It’s too bad the consequences had to be paid because he injected himself into that crime scene. I can’t say that enough. He made the decision to go there," Bovino said. The Border Patrol official’s account drew sharp criticism Sunday morning from Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy. "Everybody saw that video, and yet there he was telling you and telling the American public that this young man was brandishing a weapon, that he was impeding officers, that he was there to attend a riot, that he was engaged in assault, when everyone can see that that’s not true," Murphy told CNN. "It should freak the American public out that the Trump administration lies this easily, will lie to your face when you can see the evidence for yourself.” Bovino is no stranger to criticisms of his approach. For months in interviews, court testimony and social media posts, he’s repeatedly defended federal officers’ actions and vowed not to back down. In multiple social media posts and interviews, Bovino has repeatedly used a phrase to describe his officers’ tactics. "He calls them ‘turn and burn,’" CNN contributor Lulu Garcia-Navarro says. "They’re very rapid. They’re very aggressive. Break windows, go in, grab people. And the reason he says that he does these tactics is to not put …agents at risk, not to allow protests to develop.”

CBS News [1/25/2026 10:43 PM, Nicole Sganga, Sarah N. Lynch, Camilo Montoya-Galvez, 39474K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations branch is leading the federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, FBI Director Kash Patel said. HSI will be assisted by the FBI, according to multiple U.S. officials briefed on the investigation. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is also conducting an internal administrative review through its Office of Professional Responsibility, as per standard practice, the officials said. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot and killed by an ICE agent around 9 a.m. local time Saturday in south Minneapolis. The decision to place HSI in the lead investigative role is unusual and has raised questions among current and former federal law enforcement officials, given that HSI is not typically tasked with investigating officer-involved shootings and is not structured or equipped to handle core elements of such cases, including ballistics analysis, forensic processing, firearm examinations, video review and large-scale witness canvassing. HSI historically has investigated crimes with an international or immigration nexus, including human trafficking, drug smuggling, child exploitation and the theft of stolen artifacts. FBI Director Kash Patel said on Fox News, "All the pieces of the investigation are being led by DHS in HSI, and I don’t want to comment on their ongoing investigation.” Patel added that investigators are focused on "mostly scientific evidence," including fingerprints, DNA, how many rounds were fired and other physical evidence associated with the firearm. A former senior ICE and HSI official told CBS News that the approach marks a clear break from prior administrations and long-standing practice. The official said it makes little sense for the Department of Homeland Security to oversee a criminal investigation into a fatal shooting involving its own personnel rather than turning the matter over to an outside entity, describing the current setup as highly irregular. "That’s not the way it was done before this admin," one former senior ICE official told CBS News, calling the Trump administration’s move "not normal.” The former official noted HSI agents are criminal investigators, but said a probe into a Border Patrol shooting should be handled by an entity outside of the Department of Homeland Security. Both ICE and Border Patrol are overseen by DHS. Any potential prosecution would still have to be handled by the Justice Department. Pretti is the second person killed by ICE agents in recent weeks in Minneapolis, after Renee Good was fatally shot on Jan. 7. In both cases, administration officials said the agents were acting in self-defense, but eyewitness accounts and videos appeared to contradict some of their claims. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti approached several officers with a handgun. They attempted to disarm him, but he "reacted violently," and "fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots," she said.

Washington Post [1/25/2026 7:44 PM, Perry Stein, Jeremy Roebuck and Molly Hennessy-Fiske, 24149K] reports since the U.S. Border Patrol fatally shot a protester in Minneapolis on Saturday, the federal agencies that would typically be involved in investigating an officer-involved shooting have been on the sidelines. Federal law enforcement leaders in Minnesota haven’t made public statements or appearances even as the fatal shooting, the second by immigration officers in Minneapolis this month, has drawn increasing criticism from elected officials, including several prominent Republicans. FBI agents and prosecutors in the state are confused about what — if anything — their involvement will be in the investigation, according to multiple people familiar with the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation. In the apparent absence so far of the Justice Department, Minnesota authorities have vowed to pursue an investigation under state laws into the shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse. That has set up a potential legal clash between state and federal authorities. Already, the state has sued the federal government, successfully asking a judge over the weekend to ensure that federal law enforcement officials do not destroy evidence. The Justice Department’s apparent back seat in the investigation contrasts with how the agency has frequently handled similar fatal officer-involved shootings. Typically, federal investigators would take the lead, deploying FBI agents and Civil Rights Division prosecutors — the department’s experts in investigating use of force cases. Rather than the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, of which the Border Patrol is part of, has taken the lead in the investigation, with the FBI assisting, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. That internal probe is at least in part examining whether Border Patrol agents adhered to protocol when Pretti was shot. Homeland Security doesn’t have independent authority to prosecute crimes, but if its examination finds evidence of criminal wrongdoing, DHS officials could refer the investigation to the Justice Department, the law enforcement official said. That typical federal deployment of resources has not occurred after the most recent shooting, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal decisions that have not been made public. FBI Director Kash Patel, in an interview with Fox News’s "Sunday Morning Futures," said he trusted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem and her agency to "do the right thing.". "I don’t want to comment on their ongoing investigation," he said.

Wall Street Journal [1/25/2026 1:44 PM, Jack Morphet, 646K] reports Minnesota criminal investigators and prosecutors have asked a federal court to bar Homeland Security and Justice Department officials from destroying or concealing evidence related to a U.S. Border Patrol officer’s fatal shooting of Minneapolis man on Saturday. In a U.S. District Court filing late Saturday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said federal officers had made “astonishing” missteps in the aftermath of the shooting, which indicated to him “the federal government may continue to withhold—and fail to protect—evidence.” The filing opens new ground in the continuing battle between state and federal officials over federal law-enforcement operations that have turned deadly. Local authorities have been blocked from investigating the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Good, 37 years old, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. On Saturday, Ellison said, state officials were once again blocked from gathering evidence at the scene where Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse, was fatally shot by a federal agent. “If this Court does not provide immediate emergency relief, recent events suggest Defendants may fail to properly preserve evidence, and the State may permanently lose access to information gathered on the scene,” Ellison said. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin defended the actions of immigration agents, saying they were attacked, and called claims that evidence was destroyed “a ridiculous attempt to divide the American people.” Late Saturday, Judge Eric Tostrud issued a temporary order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to Pretti’s death. A hearing is scheduled for Monday in Minnesota federal court.

Bloomberg Law [1/25/2026 5:29 PM, Keith Perine, 803K] reports a Minnesota federal judge has ordered US officials not to destroy or alter evidence related to Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by a Border Patrol agent. US District Judge Eric C. Tostrud issued his order Saturday, and set a hearing on the order for Monday in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed a complaint Saturday against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other federal officials, seeking access to evidence from the shooting. The Washington Examiner [1/25/2026 12:36 PM, Jenny Goldsberry, 1394K] reports A U.S. district judge ruled in favor of Minnesota agencies requesting access to evidence in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday. Pretti, 37, was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday morning, the second fatal shooting by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis since Renee Good’s shooting death on Jan. 7. As a result, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office filed a joint restraining order against the Department of Homeland Security from destroying evidence from this shooting. Earlier this month, when Good, 37, was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, the BCA said it was excluded from the investigation into the shooting. The lawsuit on Saturday night is meant to prevent these agencies from being shut out again. U.S. District Judge Eric C. Tostrud issued a temporary restraining order within hours of the suit’s filing, blocking DHS from "destroying or altering evidence related to the fatal shooting involving federal officers that took place in or around 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026.". Tostrud was nominated by President Donald Trump in February 2018. While Tostrud worked for the law firm Lockridge Grindal Nauen, his pro bono work included representing military veterans in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Notably, Pretti was an intensive care unit nurse for Veterans Affairs. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty promised in a statement after filing suit that "I will not rest, my team will not rest, until we have done everything in our power, everything within our authority, to achieve transparency and accountability.". Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison promised in a statement that "justice will be done.". "Any claim that the federal government would ‘destroy’ evidence is a ridiculous attempt to divide the American people and distract from the fact that our law enforcement officers were attacked — and their lives were threatened — yesterday," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner. "We are actively investigating this matter and will continue to do so as we do for any officer involved shooting. DHS eagerly awaits any effort from Minnesota to help our officers arrest criminal aliens in the meantime.".

Reported similarly:
New York Post [1/25/2026 1:12 PM, Anthony Blair, 42219K]
The Hill [1/25/2026 12:47 PM, Sophia Vento, 12595K]

NPR [1/25/2026 2:02 PM, Luke Garrett, 28013K] reports congressional leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration’s account of the killing of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old U.S. citizen shot dead by federal officers during an immigration enforcement protest in Minneapolis Saturday. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., accused the administration of a "cover up" Sunday and said the federal government is ignoring a court order that allows state investigators to access evidence in Pretti’s killing. "Our state investigators had to get a warrant to have access to the evidence of the shooting of Alex Pretti," Smith said. "And even then, the federal agents refused to give them access to the evidence. So this looks very much like another cover up.". Pretti’s killing has prompted strong bipartisan condemnation, a forceful defense from the Trump administration and the prospect of another government shutdown, this one over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is part of DHS. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a reported statement Saturday that her department will lead the investigation into the killing. Meanwhile, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told CBS News Sunday that his department hasn’t received any cooperation or information from the federal government. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., warned the Trump administration against any attempt to shut out local and state law enforcement from the investigation. "There must be a thorough and impartial investigation into yesterday’s Minneapolis shooting," Tillis said in a post Sunday morning. "Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy.". Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also called for a "full joint federal and state investigation" and said the "credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake" in a statement.

AP [1/25/2026 6:02 PM, Steven Sloan, 31753K] reports a growing number of Republicans are pressing for a deeper investigation into federal immigration tactics in Minnesota after a U.S. Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man in Minneapolis, a sign that the accounting of events by President Donald Trump’s administration may face bipartisan scrutiny. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee sought testimony from leaders at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, saying "my top priority remains keeping Americans safe." The push for more information was echoed by the committee’s former chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, along with Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Their statements, in addition to concern expressed from several Republican governors, reflected a party struggling with how to respond to Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at a VA hospital. The killing has raised uncomfortable questions about the GOP’s core positions on issues ranging from gun ownership to states’ rights and trust in the federal government. Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller issued social media posts referencing an "assassin" and "domestic terrorist." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti showed up to "impede a law enforcement operation." At a minimum, some Republicans are calling for a de-escalation in Minneapolis. The killing spurred notable tension with the GOP’s long-standing support for gun rights. Officials say Pretti was armed, but no bystander videos that have surfaced so far appear to show him holding a weapon. The Minneapolis police chief said Pretti had a permit to carry a gun. Yet administration officials, including Noem and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, have questioned why he was armed.

Reported similarly:
USA Today [1/25/2026 3:50 PM, Kathryn Palmer and N’dea Yancey-Bragg, 67103K]

The Hill [1/25/2026 8:30 PM, Sarah Fortinsky, 12595K] reports Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Sunday called for a thorough investigation into the latest fatal shooting involving a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent in Minneapolis, saying the American people are entitled to that “basic standard” of accountability from law enforcement. “There must be a thorough and impartial investigation into yesterday’s Minneapolis shooting, which is the basic standard that law enforcement and the American people expect following any officer-involved shooting,” Tillis wrote in a post on the social platform X. The Republican senator also urged federal, state and local government officials to work together and avoid drawing conclusions about what transpired before a proper investigation takes place. “For this specific incident, that requires cooperation and transparency between federal, state, and local law enforcement,” Tillis continued. “Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy.” The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, has escalated tensions on the ground in the city, where demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have continued since the fatal shooting of Renee Good, another 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, earlier this month. The Trump administration has defended the shooting, saying the agent fired “defensive shots” at Pretti, who had a gun that was recovered by federal authorities. Others have accused the agent of acting with excessive force, pointing to video footage that shows Pretti recording Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers with his phone before the incident escalated. But amid growing calls for an investigation into the incident, federal officials have resisted efforts from state officials to participate. The superintendent of Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which investigates police shootings, told reporters Saturday that members of his agency were blocked from the scene of the shooting. A federal judge had earlier issued an order prohibiting the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting, The Associated Press reported.

New York Times [1/25/2026 8:14 PM, Tiffany Hsu, Stuart A. Thompson and Steven Lee Myers, 135475K] reports that, across social media, pro-Trump influencers and others muddled the evidence of the killing of a nurse in Minneapolis on Saturday with social media posts that included misdirection and fabricated content. While verified videos and witnesses showed how federal immigration agents tackled and shot Alex Pretti, 37, the posts tried to warp the events, including in ways intended to support the Trump administration’s claims that Mr. Pretti was at fault for his own death. Some posts smeared him or portrayed him as a radical activist. Nick Sortor, a pro-Trump influencer with 1.4 million followers on X, incorrectly identified Mr. Pretti, a U.S. citizen, as an unauthorized immigrant. Jack Posobiec, a Trump loyalist with 3.3 million followers on X, falsely described Mr. Pretti as having “run up on police” and drawn a gun — claims that other users on X corrected in an appended note. Photos of different men — dressed in drag or shirtless at a street festival — were wrongly identified as Mr. Pretti and shared widely. Mr. Posobiec, Mr. Sortor and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The chaotic scene was captured on video from several angles, yet that shaky footage added to debate online, where it was rapidly interpreted and scrutinized. Authenticated footage shows Mr. Pretti, who had no known criminal record and had a permit to carry a concealed firearm, stepping in front of a woman being pepper-sprayed by an agent before being restrained himself. One agent removed Mr. Pretti’s pistol, which he had not drawn, and then another shot him repeatedly in the back. Witnesses corroborated the details in the videos. The flurry of online activity echoed the broader political narratives that emerged after the shooting. Top Trump administration officials have repeatedly lodged unsubstantiated accusations of domestic terrorism against Mr. Pretti, who was pinned down and had been disarmed when agents opened fire. Some conservative accounts pushed back against the Trump administration’s narrative. Responding to the Trump administration’s suggestion that Mr. Pretti wanted to “massacre” law enforcement, Tim Pool, a right-wing podcaster, wrote on X that Mr. Pretti “clearly was not intending to massacre ICE.” Still, many social media users repeated the Trump administration’s representation of events. Others posted images of the scene misleadingly altered with artificial intelligence. One image, for example, was edited to depict Mr. Pretti pointing a gun at an agent, though he was actually holding a phone. Another was altered with Gemini, Google’s A.I. tool, supposedly to enhance and sharpen it to reveal key details about the scene. The altered image included obvious errors, including changes to Mr. Pretti’s face. It also removed a gun from the agent’s hand, fueling more debate on social media over what had happened.

NewsMax [1/25/2026 12:54 PM, Brad Brooks, Tim Reid, 4109K] reports senior Trump administration officials on Sunday defended the fatal shooting of ⁠a U.S. citizen by immigration agents in Minneapolis even as video evidence contradicted their version of events and tensions grew between local law enforcement and federal officers. As residents visited a makeshift shrine of flowers and candles in frigid temperatures and snow to mark Saturday’s fatal shooting of Alex Pretti — the second shooting death by federal officers in Minneapolis this month — the Trump administration argued that Pretti assaulted officers, compelling them to fire in self-defense. Gregory Bovino, Border Patrol commander-at-large speaking on CNN’s "State of the Union," could not offer evidence that Pretti was trying to impede a law enforcement operation, but focused on the fact that the ICU nurse was carrying a gun, which he had a license to carry. "The victims are border patrol ‍agents," Bovino said. "Law enforcement doesn’t assault anyone.". Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused Pretti of assaulting the agents, rioting and obstructing them. "We do know that he came to that scene ‍and impeded a law enforcement operation, which is against federal law," Noem told Fox News’ "Sunday Briefing" program. "It’s a felony. When he did that, interacting with those agents, when they tried to get him to disengage, he became aggressive and resisted them.". That official line, echoed by other Trump officials on Sunday, triggered outrage from local law enforcement, many in Minneapolis and ⁠Democrats on Capitol Hill, because of bystander videos that appear to show a different version of events. Videos from the scene verified and reviewed by Reuters showed Pretti, 37, holding a phone in his hand, not a gun, as he tries to help other protesters who have been pushed to the ground by agents.

NPR [1/25/2026 3:00 PM, Jennifer Ludden and Liz Baker, 28013K] reports Minnesota officials are pushing to ensure they can help investigate the shocking fatal shooting of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti. After a late night court filing a federal judge granted them a temporary restraining order, ruling that no Homeland Security officer can destroy or alter evidence related to the death Saturday morning. Federal investigators have refused to allow access to the scene, despite the state obtaining a search warrant for public areas. It’s the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis by immigration agents this month, and once again Trump administration officials immediately defended the action as self-defense while blaming the victim — in this case claiming he was a "domestic terrorist" intending to "massacre" officers. Multiple bystander videos and witness testimony contradict that. Pretti can be seen holding only a phone in his hand before at least six officers tackle him, pinning him face down on the ground and shooting him in the back, firing what sounds like 10 shots. One eyewitness said in a court document that Pretti was not even facing agents when they grabbed him. "It didn’t look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help [a] woman up," they wrote. Pretti was a U.S. citizen with no known criminal record. DHS says he was armed, and the city’s police chief confirmed he had a lawful permit to carry. There has been no evidence that NPR has verified of Pretti brandishing his handgun at any time during the encounter with federal agents. One video appears to show an officer take away his gun just before another shoots him. Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche stood by the agents in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. "This was an incredibly split-second decision that had to be made by ICE officers confronting a very complicated, violent situation," he said, adding that Pretti was "interrupting an ICE operation.". Gregory Bovino, the immigration official commanding the operation in Minneapolis told CNN on Sunday that "the victims are the Border Patrol agents. The suspect put himself in that situation.". "Once again DHS has come out with a predetermined narrative that contradicts everything we saw with our own eyes," said Minn. U.S. Representative Kelly Morrison, a Democrat. "Two 37-year-old Minnesotans are now dead, a poet and a nurse, for what?". There are concerns over the integrity of the shooting investigation. Gov. Tim Walz told reporters Saturday that the federal government cannot be trusted with this investigation. "We continue to hear, and we heard it from the vice president, that these folks can do whatever they want. They can have full immunity. And what I’m telling you is they will not. There will be justice to Minnesotans," he said. The Trump administration has portrayed its mission in Minnesota as a crackdown on criminal, undocumented immigrants, and has sent a force of some 3,000 agents — five times larger than the Minneapolis police force. Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs for Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin has told NPR that the agency is "delivering on the American people’s mandate to deport illegal aliens.". But residents say federal agents are sweeping up legal residents and even U.S. citizens in an arrest-first, ask-questions-later approach And policing and immigration experts say DHS agents are pushing the limits of their power, causing confusion for people who want to safely express their opposition.

NPR [1/25/2026 1:36 PM, Staff, 28013K] reports bystander videos contradict the accounts of federal officials about the shooting of a man in Minneapolis on Saturday. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that 37-year-old Alex Pretti had approached DHS officers with a pistol and that he was killed after he resisted attempts to disarm him. But multiple videos show Pretti never drew a weapon and was filming with his phone at the time officers pepper sprayed him and grappled him to the ground. They also show that one of the agents did disarm Pretti. The shooting remains under federal investigation. Pretti’s death comes less than three weeks after Renee Good was shot dead in Minneapolis by an ICE agent. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [1/25/2026 7:31 PM, Curt Devine, Thomas Bordeaux, Isabelle Chapman, Casey Tolan, and Yahya Abou-Ghazala, 18595K] reports shortly before his fatal encounter with federal immigration agents on Saturday, Alex Pretti was confronted on a Minneapolis street by an officer who was later on the scene of his shooting, video analyzed by CNN shows. That video, combined with court declarations filed by eyewitnesses, sheds new light on the moments that led up to the deadly incident. Those moments are facing heightened scrutiny amid escalating rhetoric by Trump administration officials who sought to cast Pretti as a violent agitator involved in a "riot" as federal agents carried out an immigration operation. "The suspect did bring a weapon, a loaded nine-millimeter high-capacity handgun, to a riot," Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino told CNN on Sunday. He claimed that Pretti "was in the scene actively impeding and assaulting law enforcement," and that Border Patrol agents were "the victims" in the shooting. Much remains unknown about the moments before Pretti’s death, including when he arrived at the scene and what he did before the incidents recorded on camera. But video analyzed by CNN so far does not capture any violent actions by protesters, who blow whistles and yell at federal agents – nor does it show Pretti acting violently or holding the handgun that a federal officer removed from his waistband seconds before he was killed. On Sunday, as the videos of the deadly incident ricocheted across social media, Trump administration officials continued to reiterate their claim that Pretti’s shooting was justified. "When an officer tells you to back off and gives you orders, you should comply," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Fox News interview. "You shouldn’t show up with weapons… and no indication of how they’re going to be used." Opponents of immigration operations in Minneapolis, she said, "aren’t just protesters, these are violent rioters." But policing experts interviewed by CNN questioned whether the use of force was legitimate – pointing to the hail of bullets once Pretti was already prone on the ground, and noting that Pretti did not seem to actively threaten agents. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Times [1/25/2026 1:00 PM, Seth McLaughlin, 852K] reports Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara is openly pushing back on Homeland Security’s description of the shooting of Alex Pretti. He says the “videos speak for themselves” and that some of the statements coming from federal officials are “deeply concerning.” Mr. O’Hara said Mr. Pretti seemed to be doing two things he was legally allowed to do: record law enforcement and carry a permitted firearm. “It appears that he was present, exercising his First Amendment rights to record law enforcement activity and also exercising his Second Amendment rights to lawfully be armed in a public space in the city,” he said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “So, I think, very obviously, there are serious questions that are being raised.” He also pushed back hard on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s claim that Mr. Pretti had “brandished” a weapon or assaulted officers. “I do not have any evidence that I’ve seen that suggests that the weapon was brandished,” he said. “You have a Second Amendment right in the United States to possess a firearm, and there are some restrictions around that in Minnesota.” According to him, nothing so far shows Pretti violated those restrictions. “Everything that we see, that we are aware of, shows that he did not violate any of those restrictions… He is not a convicted felon, and he is someone that did have a permit for the handgun to carry it.” Mr. O’Hara also said the sudden arrival of thousands of federal immigration officers has overwhelmed his 600‑officer department and strained what used to be a strong working relationship with federal agencies.

CNN [1/25/2026 5:28 PM, Daniel Dale, 18595K] reports top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have responded to the killing of Alex Pretti by the Border Patrol in Minneapolis on Saturday with a torrent of claims that are either contradicted by video footage or unsupported by any evidence presented so far. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti "attacked" officers, an assertion echoed by FBI Director Kash Patel, but no footage available as of Sunday afternoon shows Pretti committing any attack. Noem claimed Pretti was "brandishing" a gun, but no available footage shows Pretti even holding a weapon in his hand at the scene; a concealed gun appeared to be taken from his waistband area by a federal agent moments before he was shot. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller referred to Pretti as "an assassin" who "tried to murder federal agents," Vice President JD Vance reposted this claim, and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino (and the Department of Homeland Security in a social media post) said it "looks like" Pretti "wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement." But nobody has shown any evidence that Pretti sought to kill anyone, let alone perpetrate a massacre. Patel suggested that Pretti broke the law by carrying a concealed gun at a protest, but the Minneapolis police chief said Pretti had a permit to carry the gun and was allowed to have it on him as he was protesting in a public place. Pretti’s parents issued a statement on Saturday saying, "The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting." And in television interviews on Sunday, the administration declined to repeat some of its most incendiary allegations from Saturday about Pretti, who was a registered nurse in an intensive care unit at a Veterans Affairs facility.

CNN [1/25/2026 8:48 PM, Sydney Bishop, 18595K] reports federal officials have claimed Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by at least one Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis Saturday, "brandished" a firearm to officers. "This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing like that," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Saturday. In addition to the common meaning of the phrase, brandishing a weapon is also a criminal charge with a legal definition. A person can meet the definition of brandishing without even showing the gun, but given how quickly officials made that claim, it’s "implausible" DHS had time to do an investigation that would be thorough enough to support that claim, a policing expert said. Noem did not provide detail about when, exactly, she alleges the "brandishing" happened. "Brandishing" has a specific legal meaning, according to Title 18 of the United States Code pertaining to Crimes and Criminal Procedure. Its defines the term, as it relates to firearms, this way: "to display all or part of the firearm, or otherwise make the presence of the firearm known to another person, in order to intimidate that person, regardless of whether the firearm is directly visible to that person.". It is possible to "brandish" a weapon without holding it, according to Seth Stoughton, policing expert and law professor at the University of South Carolina, who responded to CNN’s questions over email. "Think of a bank robber who gestures to a concealed or partially concealed weapon to draw attention to the fact that they are armed as part of the robbery.". "However, merely possessing a gun or even drawing attention to it (for example, the way a motorist during a traffic stop might tell officers that there is a gun in the glovebox) does not constitute brandishing," Stoughton added. When CNN’s Dana Bash asked Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino Sunday if officials have evidence to support their claim Pretti was "brandishing" his weapon, Bovino said Pretti’s firearm, at some point, became visible to officers. "He brought a semi-automatic weapon to a riot, assaulted federal officers, and at some point, they saw that weapon," Bovino said. "So, I do believe (Noem) is 100% spot-on in what she said."

ABC News [1/25/2026 10:00 PM, Gaby Vinick, Chris Looft, Josh Margolin, Peter Charalambous, and Camilla Alcini, 30493K] reports the interaction that ended in the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday morning began at least three minutes earlier when Pretti appeared to be using his phone to record CBP officers, according to videos reviewed and verified by ABC News. Minutes later, Pretti was pinned on the street by multiple federal agents -- visibly being hit by one of them -- when one of the officers can be seen leaving the struggle with what appears to be a gun. Those videos appear to contradict, at least in part, claims by federal officials that Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and “attacked” officers carrying out immigration duties. During a news conference Saturday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” Videos verified by ABC News show that Pretti appeared to be using his phone to record the agents before he was shoved by a federal officer. Seconds later, a federal officer repeatedly pepper-sprayed Pretti and then appeared to pull him into the street. While Pretti seems to have been pinned on the street by officers, one of the agents is seen in multiple verified videos emerging from the scrum with a handgun that appears to match the weapon federal officials say Pretti was carrying. Before the first shot is fired, another agent can be seen drawing his own handgun, while another repeatedly hits Pretti. In total, 10 shots were fired in less than five seconds, according to a forensic audio analysis of the videos. Pretti was declared dead on the scene. “What the videos depict is that this guy did not walk up to anybody from CBP in a threatening manner,” said former acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence John Cohen, a police trainer and ABC News contributor. “For [DHS] to construe that he arrived at that location with the intent to shoot those border patrol officers, there’s nothing in the video evidence that we’ve seen thus far that would support that.”

CBS News [1/25/2026 8:22 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports a CBS News analysis delves into the confrontation with federal agents that led to Alex Pretti’s death Saturday in Minneapolis. Nicole Sganga reports. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Wall Street Journal [1/25/2026 8:59 PM, Joshua Chaffin and Michelle Hackmam, 646K] reports for months, Jacob Frey, the Minneapolis mayor, felt a growing dread watching the number of federal immigration and Border Patrol agents swell from dozens to hundreds to thousands, all deployed to his city to carry out President Trump’s promise of the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in American history. “We’ve seen constant, constant, escalation,” Frey said. “The [police] chief and I were both publicly and privately expressing deep concern of the possibility, even likelihood, that somebody was going to get seriously injured or killed.” Then Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, was fatally shot in the head on Jan. 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during one of the many protests erupting in the city against the actions of federal agents. On Saturday, it happened again. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was shot with 10 rounds and killed by a Border Patrol agent after a group of officers wrestled him to the frozen ground in front of a doughnut shop where he died. Those fatalities, in a span of little more than two weeks, marked a new and alarming phase in a two-month confrontation between the residents of an American city, carrying phones and whistles, and armed officers of the U.S. government. It has yielded jarring images that, to many outside of Minneapolis, seem from a foreign land—unmarked vehicles of masked men prowling city streets, and the martial scowl of Gregory Bovino, the uniformed lead of Operation Metro Surge, tossing a chemical grenade at protesters. Broadly, the conflict reflects the nation’s split views of immigration policy, an issue that helped carry Trump to the White House a year ago. To many Minneapolis residents, it has become a fight against an occupying army bent on subduing their progressive city. In both killings, the details are contested, subject to partisan interpretations of shaky amateur videos. Good was said to be in her car either driving at an ICE agent who fired in self-defense, as the Department of Homeland Security contends—or just a woman trying to leave the scene of a lawful protest with her wife. Kristi Noem, the DHS chief, called her a “domestic terrorist.” “Never in a million years would I have thought our federal government would be invading our city in these numbers,” Frey said in an interview the day before Pretti was killed. The 44-year-old mayor, married with two young children, spoke in his third-floor office of Minneapolis’s granite City Hall whose entrance features a statue of native son and liberal champion Hubert Humphrey. “Never in a million years,” he added, “would I have thought that this kind of conduct would be taking place on our streets. And at the same time, it’s happening.” “The Trump administration is looking for any excuse to further deploy troops to Minneapolis,” the mayor said.

Breitbart [1/25/2026 8:28 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports the shooting death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, by federal agents Saturday in Minneapolis has spurred a new kind of debate around gun rights in the United States. President Donald Trump’s administration and law enforcement agencies under him have justified the fatal shooting on the grounds that Pretti was carrying a handgun and acting aggressively when he became entangled with agents during protests against Trump’s immigration crackdown. "We can’t have individuals that are impeding law enforcement operations and then showing up with guns and weapons and no ID, and confronting law enforcement," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on "Fox News Sunday." "That is one of the reasons that we see situations like this unfold," she added. FBI chief Kash Patel echoed those comments. "No one who wants to be peaceful shows up at a protest with a firearm that is loaded with two full magazines! That is not a peaceful protest," Patel, a close Trump loyalist, said Sunday on Fox. At least one high-profile politician from the opposition Democrats as well as gun-rights advocacy groups — who normally stand on opposite sides of the debate — criticized Trump administration officials for that justification. The shooting has led to a reversal of sorts in the usual debate around the right to own and carry guns in America. Republican officials normally are staunch defenders of gun rights while Democrats have traditionally fought against the spread of firearms and gun violence in the country.

Reported similarly:
Washington Post [1/25/2026 2:30 PM, Naftali Bendavid and Kim Bellware, 24149K]
New York Post [1/25/2026 12:28 PM, Ariel Zilber, 42219K]

NBC News [1/25/2026 2:51 PM, Jonathan Allen, 34509K] reports a war of words over deeply held beliefs erupted on the political right in the hours after a federal agent shot and killed Alex Pretti on a Minneapolis street Saturday, pitting top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration against Second Amendment defenders in his electoral base. At the core of the debate is that Pretti — who was permitted to carry a gun in public in Minnesota — had a concealed firearm on his person that eyewitness videos show federal agents apparently discovering and removing during the altercation that led to his death. Videos do not appear to show Pretti holding the weapon during that confrontation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought to justify the killing by asserting at a news conference that Pretti "attacked those officers, had a weapon on him, and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers coming, brandishing like that and impeding their work that they were doing." No evidence has been provided to back up this account. Noem argued that his possession of a firearm demonstrated that he did not intend to remain peaceful. "I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign," Noem said on Saturday. On Sunday, when asked on Fox News if it is protocol to use deadly force on a disarmed person, Noem said, "That’s all part of this investigation."

Axios [1/25/2026 2:46 PM, Marc Caputo, 12972K] reports a Minnesota gun-rights group accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI director Kash Patel of spreading misinformation about the right to bear arms at protests. The Trump administration’s misstatements about Alex Pretti’s shooting death are damaging its credibility even with allies, especially in the gun-rights community. Patel was echoing Noem, who said Saturday, "I don’t know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign." The Gun Owners Caucus of Minnesota was quick to dispute Patel’s statements, posting on X that Patel was "completely incorrect on Minnesota law. There is no prohibition on a permit holder carrying a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines at a protest or rally in Minnesota." The group’s president, Rob Doar, told Axios that Noem’s understanding of Minnesota gun law was "fundamentally wrong," and he took issue with her statements about Pretti not having his ID while he carried his concealed weapon. DHS was also facing a credibility problem over misstatements by top Border Patrol enforcer Greg Bovino and by Homeland Security’s spokesperson before Pretti’s shooting. Noem, who faces calls for impeachment from Democrats, complicated the situation with her Saturday comments. Echoing a DHS statement on X, Noem said that "an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. The officers attempted to disarm the suspect, but the armed suspect reacted violently." Videos shot from different angles tell a different story. Pretti had no visible weapon: He clearly had a smartphone recording video in his right hand. His left hand was free, videos show. The struggle did not begin because agents "attempted to disarm" Pretti: The conflict apparently began because he was trying to help two women who were in a confrontation with the officers. Pretti’s handgun was discovered only after he was taken to the ground: It was strapped to his back on his waist. His hands were on the ground. He did not appear to reach for the firearm. Pretti was shot after he was disarmed: An agent removed Pretti’s gun. One of the officers yelled "gun!" Pretti was then shot to death. A DHS spokesperson said every sentence in the department’s statements was accurate and based on information from agents on the ground during an "evolving" situation. Noem also imputed motive, saying Pretti was "wishing to inflict harm on these officers coming, brandishing like that." The DHS spokesperson did not explain how "brandishing" was an accurate characterization. In Sunday show appearances, Bovino and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche both ducked questions about whether Pretti "brandished" a firearm. Noem’s performance drew criticism from Republicans and influencers normally friendly to the administration.

Daily Caller [1/25/2026 12:17 PM, Mark Tanos, 835K]gun rights organizations are demanding investigations and measured rhetoric after federal agents fatally shot a lawfully armed man during an immigration operation in Minneapolis. The National Rifle Association (NRA) posted on X that "radical progressive politicians like Tim Walz have incited violence against law enforcement officers who are simply trying to do their jobs." The group said calls to interfere with law enforcement "have ended in violence, tragically resulting in injuries and fatalities." The NRA urged political figures to "lower the temperature to ensure their constituents and law enforcement officers stay safe."

NBC News [1/26/2026 12:16 AM, Megan Lebowitz, 34509K] reports eight additional Democrats signed on to an impeachment resolution against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti, bringing the total number of co-sponsors to 120, according to a spokesperson for the office of Rep. Robin Kelly of Illinois. Kelly’s impeachment resolution against Noem had garnered 100 co-sponsors as of Jan. 20, according to a press release, but the number spiked in recent days amid outcry over immigration enforcement practices as thousands of federal officers were deployed to Minnesota in what the administration has dubbed Operation Metro Surge. “IMPEACH KRISTI NOEM,” the Democratic Party said on X Sunday. The latest calls for Noem’s impeachment come as the Department of Homeland Security faces a fresh wave of scrutiny in the aftermath of two killings of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said late last week that he would support efforts to impeach Noem. After Pretti was killed, Thompson said in a statement, “The House must immediately take steps to impeach Kristi Noem.” Pretti’s killing “is sick and should shock all Americans,” he said in the statement. “It is also more of the purposeful chaos and violence that Trump and Kristi Noem welcome and are responsible for,” he continued. “Trump and Noem have blood on their hands.” Several other Democrats called for Noem to resign.

Reported similarly:
Axios [1/25/2026 12:20 PM, Andrew Solender, 12972K]

AP [1/25/2026 5:06 PM, Mary Clare Jalonick, 852K] reports Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is calling for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, saying that she believes Noem is attempting to “mislead the American public” about the fatal shooting of a 37 year-old protester in Minneapolis. The call from Rosen, a moderate from Nevada who was part of the group that helped Republicans end the 43-day government shutdown last year, comes amid a growing fury from congressional Democrats who have also vowed to block funding for the Homeland Security Department. A House resolution to launch impeachment proceedings against Noem has the support of more than 100 Democrats, but few Senate Democrats have so far weighed in. “Kristi Noem has been an abject failure leading the Department of Homeland Security for the last year — and the abuses of power we’re seeing from ICE are the latest proof that she has lost control over her own department and staff,” Rosen said in a statement to The Associated Press. Rosen said Noem’s conduct is “deeply shameful” and she “must be impeached and removed from office immediately.” Impeachment proceedings are unlikely in the GOP-controlled Congress, but mounting Democratic outrage over the violence in the streets of Minneapolis is certain to disrupt Senate Republican leaders’ hopes this week to quickly approve a wide-ranging spending bill and avoid a partial government shutdown on Jan. 30. And while some moderate Democrats have been wary over the last year of criticizing the Trump administration on border and immigration issues, the fatal shootings in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti on Saturday and Renee Good on Jan. 7 have transformed the debate, even among moderates like Rosen. The senator’s call for impeachment followed Noem’s quick defense, without a full investigation, of the fatal shooting of Pretti by a Border Patrol agent. Videos of the scene reviewed by The Associated Press appear to contradict statements by the Trump administration that the shots were fired “defensively” against Pretti as he “approached” them with a gun. Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, but he appears to be seen with only a phone in his hand in the videos. During the scuffle, agents discovered that he was carrying a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and opened fire with several shots, including into his back. Officials did not say if Pretti brandished the weapon. Noem said Pretti showed up to “impede a law enforcement operation.” “This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement,” Noem said Sunday. In her call for Noem’s impeachment, Rosen cited other issues beyond the current ICE operations. She said Noem has also “violated the public trust by wasting millions in taxpayer dollars” on self promotion and cited reports that the Coast Guard purchased her two luxury jets worth $172 million. Rosen’s statement follows that of Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, who is one of the more left-leaning members of the Senate Democratic caucus. Markey said last week that Congress should begin impeachment proceedings against Noem, “who is right now actually orchestrating on the streets of our country this almost vigilantism on the part of ICE agents terrorizing cities all across the country.” And while other senators stopped short of calling for Noem’s impeachment, several moderate Democrats who joined Rosen in voting to reopen the government last year said they would vote against Homeland Security funding this week even if it meant a government shutdown.

New York Post [1/25/2026 2:20 PM, Carl Campanile and Ariel Zilber, 42219K] reports Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday demanded the resignation, firing or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino. The New York governor told reporters that Noem needs to give up her post after another fatal shooting by federal agents of a protester during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. “Kristi Noem has forfeited her right to lead, and I’m calling on her to resign or [President] Donald Trump to do the right thing and fire her,” Hochul told reporters in Albany. “If not, she must be removed or impeached.” Hochul hinted at future legal action against Trump, Noem and Bovino over the feds’ immigration enforcement operations. “It’s a shame I have to say this in America, but no one is above the law,” the governor said. “Not an ICE agent, not a federal officer, not the president of the United States.” She added that when top Trump administration officials are out of power, “states including New York will hold them accountable.

Breitbart [1/25/2026 8:12 AM, Staff, 2416K] reports the killing of a US citizen by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis on Saturday triggered a wave of criticism, from family members and local leaders to Hollywood stars. Federal agents shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, less than three weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed Renee Good, also 37, in her car. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Pretti was found to be carrying a pistol and ammunition, but cell phone footage of the incident has raised serious questions about the federal government’s description of the incident. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called the shooting "horrific" and demanded state authorities lead the investigation. "The federal government cannot be trusted to lead this investigation. The state will handle it, period," Walz told a news conference. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, wrote on X: "The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing. The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake.” "There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged President Donald Trump to end the immigration operation, which has sparked sometimes violent demonstrations. "This is a moment to act like a leader. Put Minneapolis, put America first in this moment — let’s achieve peace. Let’s end this operation," Frey told a news conference. Pretti’s parents said in a statement he was "a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends.” "The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," they said. "Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.” Dimitri Drekonja, chief of the Infectious Diseases Section at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital and a colleague of Pretti, called him "a good kind person who lived to help.” Pretti was a nurse working "to support critically ill Veterans," he said in a post on the Bluesky social media platform. Hollywood stars used red carpet appearances at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah on Saturday to denounce the killing. "I can’t believe that we’re watching people get murdered in the street," she told AFP at "The Invite" premiere.

FOX News [1/25/2026 12:08 PM, Ashley Carnahan Fox, 40621K] reports a Republican lawmaker is calling for an oversight hearing of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies, renewing a request from earlier this month as attention turns to a fatal shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis. Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Saturday he is seeking testimony from senior DHS officials following the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Garbarino said the request builds on an invitation issued by committee staff on Jan. 15, which he is now formally following up on. The officials he named include acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow. "As chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, my top priority remains keeping Americans safe and ensuring the Department of Homeland Security can accomplish its core mission," Garbarino said. "I take my oversight duties for the department seriously, and Congress has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect," he added. "I am committed to ensuring ICE, CBP, and USCIS are effectively using the historic resources provided through reconciliation to strengthen public safety, and I look forward to each of these agencies testifying before the Committee." Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called on the Trump administration to end its ICE operations in the state after the second shooting death of a U.S. citizen in recent weeks, saying they were not making the city safer. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem pushed back against Frey during a press conference on Saturday, blaming him and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for inflaming tensions and accusing them of encouraging resistance to federal law enforcement and refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities.

Washington Examiner [1/25/2026 4:55 PM, David Sivak, 1394K] reports the Trump administration is facing rare GOP pushback over the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis man by federal agents, with a small but growing number of congressional Republicans calling for an investigation and at least one suggesting immigration officials should leave the state. So far, Democrats have led the groundswell of criticism after immigration agents pinned and then killed a man protesting ICE’s presence in the city on Saturday, marking the second shooting death this month. But a handful of Republicans have called the incident "disturbing" while urging congressional oversight. "I am troubled by the events that have unfolded in Minneapolis," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Sunday, supporting the decision of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) to request testimony from the leadership of ICE and other immigration agencies. "As an attorney and former federal prosecutor, I believe a thorough investigation is necessary — both to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain Americans’ confidence in our justice system," added McCaul, who chaired the committee until 2019. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who leads the House Oversight Committee, seemed to urge President Donald Trump to consider drawing down its immigration forces from Minneapolis, which has become the epicenter of weeks of protests over ICE tactics. Earlier this month, an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, a woman who appeared to be obstructing traffic before an altercation with the officer. "If I were President Trump, I would almost think … if there’s a chance of losing more innocent lives, then maybe go to another city and let the people of Minneapolis decide," Comer said Sunday on Fox News while accusing state officials of stoking the controversy. The shooting has fanned Democratic calls to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, with Rep. Laura Gillen (D-NY) joining more than 100 other House Democrats in describing her as unqualified for the job on Sunday. Gillen is one of seven Democrats who supported funding for the Department of Homeland Security in a House vote last week. In the Senate, that money is freshly in jeopardy over the shooting, as virtually all Democrats appear poised to block the government funding bill ahead of an end-of-January shutdown deadline. Most Republicans have yet to comment on Saturday’s shooting, even some centrists who have been vocal with the administration in the past. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said he was "loathe" to give his opinion before he learned more about the circumstances of 37-year-old Alex Pretti’s death. "It’s hard to determine," Bacon told the Washington Examiner, reiterating his support for legislation that bolsters border security while providing a pathway to legal status for illegal immigrants. "The biggest issue from a congressional standpoint is that we need to update our legal immigration laws," he added. "I support the Dignity Act for this reason.” Other Republicans joined calls for an investigation, with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) chiding the initial response from administration officials who have characterized Pretti as an "assassin" and "domestic terrorist.” "Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy," Tillis said in a Sunday statement.

Breitbart [1/25/2026 11:02 AM, Pam Key, 2416K] reports that, Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said that President Donald Trump was flooding the streets with “poorly trained agents who are shooting Americans in cold blood.” Schiff said, “It’s up to the state and local governments how they decide to prioritize their law enforcement. If they make a decision, we’re going to prioritize going after violent criminals. It is not up to the federal government to say, no, you won’t. You’re going to help us with massive Ice raids in urban centers, going after people who are simply undocumented and have no other criminal record. The federal government may make that poor policy decision, may violate the president’s promises to go after violent criminals, but they do not have the right to coerce states and local governments into essentially becoming an arm of federal immigration enforcement. So he’s flat wrong about that. And what’s more, for him to blame the cities and blame the states for flooding the streets of America with thousands of poorly trained agents who are shooting Americans in cold blood in the street and through windshields is despicable.” He added, “What the American people have seen is horrifying.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS Boston [1/25/2026 1:12 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports the Democratic governor of Massachusetts called for President Trump to remove ICE from Minnesota after a man died during a Saturday shooting. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

ABC News [1/25/2026 12:13 PM, Ford McCracken, 30493K] reports Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Sunday that federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis are making the city less safe. After Saturday’s shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, Klobuchar called the situation "out of control." "My message is simple: [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is making us not more safe, they’re making us less safe, and they need to get out of our state," Klobuchar told ABC News’ "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl. Pretti was killed after federal agents pinned him on the ground before firing several shots. Trump administration officials said Pretti was "brandishing" a gun and multiple magazines with the intent to inflict harm on officers. Multiple administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, labeled Pretti a "domestic terrorist" without citing any evidence. They also blamed Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for the tension in the city. State and local officials said Pretti was lawfully carrying a gun under Minnesota’s open-carry law. Video reviewed and verified by ABC News does not appear to show that Pretti drew his gun on the agents and was holding a phone -- not a gun -- during the incident. The Minnesota senator said after Pretti’s shooting and that of Renee Good by federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, residents are "afraid." Several Republicans have spoken out about Pretti’s shooting and called for investigations, including Sen. Thom Tillis, Reps. Thomas Massie and Michael Baumgartner, and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Chairman Rep. Andrew Garbarino said he has formally asked federal officials for testimony in a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.

The Hill [1/25/2026 12:30 PM, Tara Suter, 12595K] reports Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Sunday went after the Trump administration over Saturday’s fatal shooting of a 37-year-old American citizen by a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent in Minneapolis. “What you see is someone brandishing a cellphone, who is simply there with a cellphone, helping someone up, a woman up, as his parents point out, when she had slipped,” Klobuchar told NBC News’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.” “And so, when I hear the officials from the Trump administration describe this video in ways that simply aren’t true, I just keep thinking, ‘Your eyes don’t lie.’ You know — we’re not sitting at a — the American people aren’t sitting at a Trump Cabinet meeting, having to say everything to make him happy. They’re going to make their own judgments,” she added. On Saturday, CBP agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who lived in the city, multiple times in the chest, marking the second time federal immigration authorities have killed a U.S. citizen in Minnesota this month. The administration argued the agents acted in self-defense, as Pretti had a gun, which was recovered by officials. But video of the incident appears to contradict this narrative, as footage does not appear to show Pretti holding a gun before he was killed. Pretti’s death follows the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis, an incident that sparked mass backlash. Following Good’s death, Minneapolis has been at the center of turmoil surrounding President Trump’s strict immigration agenda.

The Hill [1/25/2026 2:16 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 12595K] reports Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) on Sunday said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers “outnumber” local police in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., amid the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations in the state. “So, what I have going in my state right now … is 3,000 ICE agents that outnumber the Minneapolis-St. Paul police, sworn officers, 3-to-1. They actually — it’s more ICE agents and border control than our 10 metro police departments,” Klobuchar said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “They are overwhelmed by this federal presence, as are our citizens, grabbing 2-year-olds away from their parents, putting them on planes to Texas and then my office has to go and get them back, or taking an elderly Hmong man in his underwear and then realizing they have the wrong guy,” she added. Minnesota residents have decried the killing of local mother Renee Good and the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, and they have railed against the detainment of a 5-year-old who was returning home from preschool. Protests have ensued over increased immigration enforcement, and some have urged ICE to leave the state amid fear that independent investigations into shootings will be overtaken by federal authorities. “People are afraid. And two of the three, two-thirds of the recorded homicides in Minneapolis right now were committed by federal agents. Two of three. That’s what we’re dealing with,” Klobuchar said. The Minnesota senator also spoke out against Pretti’s killing after the Department of Homeland Security said he was shot because he had a gun. “What we saw of how he died should never happen to an American citizen. He was called by the Trump administration officials a ‘domestic terrorist,’ when all he had in his hand was a cellphone,” Klobuchar said.

Washington Examiner [1/25/2026 2:32 PM, Asher Notheis, 1394K] reports Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) defended the "Constitutionally protected God-given right" to carry a firearm after a Minneapolis protester carrying a handgun was shot by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday. The Trump administration is defending federal law enforcement after a shooting left Alex Pretti, 37, dead, with video showing he was disarmed before being shot multiple times. Pretti was helping another protester who had been shoved to the ground when an agent began pepper-spraying him from behind and wrestled him to the ground with the help of several other agents. During the struggle, an agent was seen carrying what appeared to be Pretti’s gun away, with the fatal shots being fired seconds later. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Fox News’s The Sunday Briefing that agents were reacting to someone shouting "Gun, gun, gun!" and FBI Director Kash Patel claimed on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo that people can’t bring a firearm "loaded with multiple magazines" to a protest despite Pretti having a concealed carry permit. Noem had said on Saturday that Pretti was a domestic terrorist. First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli took to X on Saturday to address the shooting, claiming "there is a high likelihood" law enforcement will be "legally justified" in shooting people approaching them with a gun. His statement prompted a rebuff from Massie. "Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement or government," Massie said on X. The National Rifle Association also pushed back on Essayli’s "dangerous and wrong" assessment of the shooting. The organization also said "responsible" people should await a full investigation instead of "demonizing law-abiding citizens.".

Los Angeles Times [1/25/2026 4:41 PM, Ian James, 14862K] reports public outrage continued to grow in Minnesota and across the country on Sunday after a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a man. A federal judge issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to the shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday. Videos showed that federal agents who were wrestling Pretti to the ground took a handgun from him moments before firing multiple times. The images showed Pretti, who had a permit to carry a gun, did not brandish the weapon before the shooting. He was holding up a phone when the agents approached him. “The videos speak for themselves,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan on Sunday. “It appears that he was present, exercising his 1st Amendment rights to record law enforcement activity and also exercising his 2nd Amendment rights to lawfully be armed in a public space in the city. So I think very obviously, there are serious questions that are being raised.” O’Hara said the chaotic scene in the videos as officers descended on Pretti “looks very untrained.” “It is absolutely not how we train law enforcement in Minnesota,” O’Hara told CNN. The killing of Pretti has sparked demonstrations and vigils in Minneapolis and other cities across the country, including Los Angeles. Hundreds of demonstrators protested peacefully in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, chanting “abolish ICE!” More demonstrations are being held Sunday. Minnesota Atty. Gen. Keith Ellison said a lawsuit filed by the state and county is meant to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect. A court hearing is scheduled for Monday in federal court in St. Paul. “A full, impartial, and transparent investigation into his fatal shooting at the hands of DHS agents is nonnegotiable,” Ellison said. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said during a news conference on Saturday that Pretti showed up to “impede a law enforcement operation.”

FOX News [1/25/2026 1:37 PM, Anders Hagstrom, 40621K] reports Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the actions of federal law enforcement in Minnesota on Sunday as Minneapolis reels from a second killing of an anti-ICE protester. Blanche made the comments during an appearance on NBC’s "Meet the Press," telling host Kristen Welker that the vast majority of ICE’s operations have gone forward without incident. Welker highlighted a handful of examples that have faced criticism, including the deadly shootings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti this month. "Yes, our agents are acting humanely," Blanche said. "Their jobs are very, very difficult," he continued. "It is a very difficult place to be going out and trying to arrest these violent felons with no support from local law enforcement, with no support from the governor." Blanche went on to state that there have been "thousands of arrests" in Minnesota, but critics focus on "two or three things that are pointed to as being wrong or being too aggressive or not being appropriate." "That’s not fair to the men and women that are doing this every day," he added. Blanche’s appearance comes as investigations into Pretti’s death are just beginning. Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem said the victim, who was armed, "violently resisted" arrest and that the federal agent fired his weapon "fearing for his life."

Los Angeles Times [1/25/2026 3:34 PM, Vanessa Franko and Mark Olsen, 14862K] reports as filmmakers celebrated independent moviemaking at the Sundance Film Festival, events unfolding nationally cast a pall on the indie showcase’s final installment in Park City. More than a thousand miles away from the mountain town, ongoing ICE crackdowns in Minneapolis resulted in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti Saturday morning by federal agents. "It’s remarkable and disturbing all at the same time," said director Alex Gibney, at Sundance with "Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie," to The Times Saturday afternoon. "I mean, what’s great about it is that you have evidence. You have evidence of the truth in terms of this kind of state-sponsored terrorism being meted out on Americans." "These are not normal times," actor Edward Norton told The Times in an interview Sunday morning. "It’s like we have extrajudicial assaults on Americans and humans going on on a daily basis now. And it’s not OK. Even though all people kind of have to put one foot in front of the other and deal with the demands of the day, we cannot act like this is not happening." Norton is one of the stars of "The Invite," which premiered at Sundance on Saturday night. "I think what they’re doing in Minnesota with the strike needs to expand," he continued. "I think we should be talking about a national general economic strike until this is over.".

Washington Times [1/25/2026 1:09 PM, Seth McLaughlin, 852K] reports former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama said the shooting of Alex Pretti should mark a turning point in the national debate over President Trump’s immigration crackdown. “It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault,” the Obamas said, adding that while federal immigration agents have difficult jobs, “Americans expect them to carry out their duties in a lawful, accountable way, and to work with, rather than against, state and local officials to ensure public safety.” The Obamas argued that the administration’s enforcement teams have crossed a line by using “tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city” — tactics they say contributed to the deaths of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good earlier in the month. They also criticized the administration’s response, saying, “And yet rather than trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they’ve deployed, the President and current administration officials seem eager to escalate the situation, while offering public explanations for the shootings of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good that aren’t informed by any serious investigation — and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence. “This has to stop,” they said. The Obamas urged federal officials to shift course and work constructively with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Mr. Trump and Homeland Security officials have accused the two Democrats of fostering a hostile environment with their criticism of ICE.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [1/25/2026 1:53 PM, Alex Oliveira, 42219K]

Telemundo [1/25/2026 6:13 PM, Jon Schuppe and Erik Ortiz, 2218K] reports federal immigration agents have shot 12 people since September, as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramps up its detention and deportation operations across the United States. The most recent shooting was on Saturday in Minneapolis, when an agent killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti just weeks after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good, also 37 and a mother of three. Both were U.S. citizens. In most of the shootings linked to immigration agents, including the one that cost Good his life, officers have opened fire on a car, a tactic that authorities and analysts of police actions have been trying to curb for decades. These shootings at vehicles have sparked questions from law enforcement experts about how quickly DHS personnel are being deployed to different communities where agents have been caught on video acting with excessive force, both against migrants and against citizens protesting the arrests. In that context, shootings “are not the exception,” says Jim Bueerman, former police chief of Redlands, California, who now heads the research group Future Policing Institute. “This is clearly becoming a pattern and the norm in how they deal with people when they want to enforce immigration laws. That’s what I find most alarming.” The DHS maintains that in every case where an agent or officer shot someone, those members of either the Border Patrol (CBP) or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allegedly feared for their lives. The federal department also asserts that its own agents have been injured in several of the incidents. “The pattern is NOT of law enforcement and security forces using lethal force. It is a pattern of violent agitators using vehicles as if they were weapons to attack our officers,” he said in a statement.Tricia McLaughlin”Dangerous criminals, whether they are ‘illegal’ aliens or U.S. citizens, are assaulting officers and trying to use their cars as weapons,” the DHS spokesperson said. The 12 shootings to date reflect a variety of circumstances and locations in which ICE or CBP officers have opened fire on people while enforcing the immigration measures championed by President Donald Trump. This push has resulted in thousands of immigration officers across the country conducting raids on homes and businesses, targeting people attending court dates or immigration offices, and detaining individuals in the street. The protest movement against these measures has been growing, and also leading to confrontations. Those shot by DHS agents include undocumented migrants, U.S. citizens, and people with criminal records. Four of them have died. It is unclear how many of these cases have been fully investigated by the authorities. If they have been, there are no publicly accessible records of the investigations’ findings, whether the shootings were deemed legally justifiable, or whether any of the officers involved have been disciplined. In at least five of the cases, DHS attempted to file criminal charges against the people who were shot; in two of those situations the charges were later withdrawn or dismissed after a judge’s deliberation. Chris Burbank, a former police chief in Salt Lake City, Utah, who has assisted the Justice Department in past investigations into suspected civil rights violations by officers, said he finds it very disturbing to see so many repeated cases of immigration officers shooting at cars. He said that since the 1990s, police departments have tried to avoid doing so, implementing new standards and regulations after several people were injured or killed following cases in which officers said they were afraid of being run over. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [1/25/2026 4:07 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports thousands of anti-ICE protesters marched through Minneapolis on Sunday to voice their anger at the fatal shooting of a local man a day earlier. “Shut it down,” they chanted, as many waved signs calling for justice for 37-year-old Alex Pretti who was shoot and killed by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday morning. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

New York Post [1/26/2026 2:12 AM, James Keivom and Caitlin McCormack, 42219K] reports anti-ICE protesters violently swarmed a Minneapolis hotel where they believed federal officers were staying, hurling items at people inside, smashing its windows, and graffitiing "F–K ICE" across the building’s facade Sunday. The large mob descended on the Home2 Suites by Hilton Hotel late Sunday night, as tensions gripped the Twin Cities just one day after Border Patrol agents shot and killed protester Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis. They shoved and hurled objects at a Minneapolis Police Department officer and others just inside the hotel’s lobby and attempted to push their way in — forcing those inside to use two large vending machines to physically block the rowdy demonstrators. "We’re all locals, it’s all locals!" one man shouted as he tried to ward the protesters away. "You guys are doing this for no reason," he added. The protesters also banged on trash cans, slammed snow shovels, blew whistles, stomped, yelled and shone strobe lights on the hotel’s facade in an attempt to disturb the federal officers they believed were sleeping inside. Several turned to vandalism, smashing the windows of the hotel and scrawling "ICE OUT," "F–K ICE" and "ICE KILLS" across its facade. Debris and trash littered the hotel’s lobby following the madness. Swarms of heavily armed federal agents later arrived at the scene, spilling out of an armored vehicle. They quickly deployed tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the crowd. "The Minnesota State Patrol and DNR [Department of Natural Resources] were called to assist Minneapolis police with damage to hotel property at Home2 Suites Hotel on University Avenue," the Minnesota Department of Public Safety said in a statement on X just before 11 p.m. local time. "While they collaboratively worked to encircle the group for arrests because the demonstration was not peaceful, federal agents arrived without communication and deployed chemical irritants, clearing the group. The State Patrol and DNR are no longer on the scene.” One federal agent who was guarding the hotel entrance appeared to be bleeding from his nose or mouth. It wasn’t immediately clear how he became bloodied. At least two people were taken away in cuffs. It wasn’t immediately clear if any federal agents were actually staying at the hotel.

FOX News [1/25/2026 7:46 PM, Ryan Gaydos, 40621K] reports NBA fans delivered anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) messages during the Minnesota Timberwolves’ game against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday. Fans held signs inside the Target Center that read, "ICE out now," after two deadly incidents involving federal officers rocked Minneapolis this month. The second incident occurred Saturday when a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a Minneapolis man. The NBA postponed the Warriors-T’Wolves game that was scheduled for Saturday, pushing it to Sunday. Fans responded with anti-ICE messages inside the building, while protesters had similar messages outside of the arena. A moment of silence was held for Alex J. Pretti before tip-off.

CBS Colorado [1/25/2026 7:19 PM, Staff, 39474K] reports hundreds of Colorodans showed up on Sunday at the State Capitol in solidarity with Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by Customs and Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Times [1/25/2026 2:46 PM, Mae Anderson, 852K] reports more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies including Target, Best Buy and UnitedHealth signed an open letter posted on the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce website on Sunday calling for state, local and federal officials to work together, as businesses grapple with how to address tensions in the state and across the country following two fatal shootings by federal agents amid a massive immigration enforcement operation that has spurred protests. “With yesterday’s tragic news, we are calling for an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions,” the open letter reads. CEOs that signed the letter included 3M CEO William Brown, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening, Target incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke, UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Helmsley, and others. Before the letter, most of the biggest Minnesota-based companies had not issued any public statements about the enforcement surge and unrest. But the issue has become more difficult to avoid. Over the past two weeks protesters have targeted some businesses they see not taking a strong enough stand against federal law enforcement activity, including Minneapolis-based Target. Earlier in January a Minnesota hotel that wouldn’t allow federal immigration agents to stay there apologized and said the refusal violated its own policies after a furor online. Meanwhile, the state of Minnesota and the Twin Cities cited devastating economic impacts in a lawsuit filed this month imploring a federal judge to halt the immigration operations. The lawsuit asserted that some businesses have reported sales drops up to 80%. “In this difficult moment for our community, we call for peace and focused cooperation among local, state and federal leaders to achieve a swift and durable solution that enables families, businesses, our employees, and communities across Minnesota to resume our work to build a bright and prosperous future,” the letter reads.

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [1/25/2026 5:32 PM, María Paula Mijares Torres, 18207K] r

USA Today [1/25/2026 7:47 PM, Kate Perez, 67103K] reports that, after weeks of protests and pressure from clergy members and shoppers, incoming Target CEO Michael Fiddelke signed an open letter from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce on Sunday calling for an "immediate deescalation of tensions" following the fatal shooting of a man in Minneapolis by a federal agent. The letter, which was published Jan. 25 on behalf of more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies, states the companies are also calling "for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions" in the wake of the shooting death of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, which has sparked protests across the city and country. "We have been working for generations to build a strong and vibrant state here in Minnesota and will do so in the months and years ahead with equal and even greater commitment," the letter said. "In this difficult moment for our community, we call for peace and focused cooperation among local, state and federal leaders to achieve a swift and durable solution that enables families, businesses, our employees, and communities across Minnesota to resume our work to build a bright and prosperous future.” Fiddelke starts in his new role as Target CEO on Feb. 1 after serving as chief operating officer. Target’s involvement in the letter comes shortly after a small delegation of clergy from the Twin Cities met with current Target Corporation CEO Brian Cornell to voice their concerns about "the escalating harm caused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal law enforcement operations in Minnesota and across the country," according to a press release shared with USA TODAY. Minnesota and its most populous city, Minneapolis, have seen an influx of federal officers from multiple law enforcement agencies since early January, with agents arriving to ramp up the Trump administration’s immigration and deportation efforts. Federal authorities were also sent to other major cities, including Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Chicago. Tensions in the Minneapolis region rose after an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7. The incident immediately sparked protests across the country, and the backlash swelled after Pretti’s death on Jan. 24. Both Portland and Chicago have also seen instances of shootings at the hands of ICE, including the death of immigrant Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez. The news release states that while the clergy and Target shared concern for the safety of employees and customers, "Target failed to agree to these demands to address the crisis gripping our communities, and their inaction on the above demands falls short of the urgency this moment requires.” "We remain hopeful that continued dialogue with Target will yield meaningful results in the near future, and we ask other corporate leaders to join this important conversation," the release said. "Until then, we stand unwavering in our organizing and call for Target and all Minnesota-based companies to step forward as champions for justice, using their voices and influence to help transform the current harms afflicting our state and nation.” A Target spokesman also confirmed to USA TODAY that their incoming CEO signed the chamber letter and declined to comment further on any matters regarding Target and ICE operations or protests.

Wall Street Journal [1/25/2026 4:42 PM, Staff, 646K] reports when Donald Trump visited the Journal in October 2024, he was asked how he’d implement his mass deportation policy to avoid appearing to be cruel and inviting a political backlash. His answer was surprisingly nuanced. He said he had to deport illegal migrants because “we can’t handle these people coming in right now. But the interest from the heart, yeah, something’s got to be done. I’m not going to do that [separate families]. I can’t do that. Okay, thank you. Really good question. I mean, there’s some human questions that get in the way of being perfect, and we have to have the heart, too. Okay?” Fifteen months later in Minneapolis, there isn’t much heart in Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Saturday shooting of Alex Pretti, as he lay on the ground surrounded by ICE agents, is the worst incident to date in what is becoming a moral and political debacle for the Trump Presidency. Videos of an event aren’t always definitive, but this is how it looks to us. Pretti attempted, foolishly, to assist a woman who had been pepper-sprayed by agents. Multiple agents then tackled Pretti, and he had a phone in one hand as he lay on the ground. An agent discovered a concealed gun on Pretti, and disarmed him. An agent then shot Pretti, and multiple shots followed. The Trump Administration spin on this simply isn’t believable. Stephen Miller, the political architect of the mass deportation policy, called Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” He was a nurse without a criminal record. Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, said the fact that he carried a gun and (she said) two magazines, meant he “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.” Pretti made a tragic mistake by interfering with ICE agents, but that warranted arrest, not a death sentence. The agents may say they felt threatened, but it’s worth noting the comments over the weekend by police around the country who say that this isn’t how they conduct law enforcement. Either many ICE agents aren’t properly trained, or they are so on edge as they face opposition in the streets that they are on a hair trigger. Either way, this calls for rethinking how ICE conducts itself, especially in Minneapolis as tensions build.

New York Times [1/25/2026 2:00 PM, Staff, 135475K] reports the federal government owes Americans a thorough investigation and a truthful accounting of the Saturday morning shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti on a Minneapolis street. When the government kills, it has an obligation to demonstrate that it has acted in the public interest. Instead, the Trump administration is once again engaged in a perversion of justice. Mere hours after Mr. Pretti died, Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, declared without offering evidence that Mr. Pretti had “committed an act of domestic terrorism.” Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, offered his own assessment: “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” These unfounded and inflammatory judgments pre-empt the outcome of an investigation, which the Department of Homeland Security has promised. They also appear wholly inconsistent with several videos recorded at the scene. Those videos showed that Mr. Pretti had nothing but a phone in his hands when he was tackled by Border Patrol agents, and that he never drew the gun he was carrying (and reportedly had a license to carry). Indeed, the videos seem to show that one federal agent took the gun from Mr. Pretti moments before a different agent shot him from behind. Separate analyses by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, CBS News and other organizations all concluded that the videos contradict the Trump administration’s description of the killing. The administration is urging Americans to reject the evidence of their eyes and ears. Ms. Noem and Mr. Bovino are lying in defiance of obvious truths. They are lying in the manner of authoritarian regimes that require people to accept lies as a demonstration of power.

Washington Post [1/25/2026 3:22 PM, George F. Will, 24149K] reports the unjust killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse in Minneapolis, marks a turning point in President Donald Trump’s second term. His mass deportation campaign has been a moral and political failure, leaving American citizens feeling outraged and unsafe. A Border Patrol officer killed Pretti on Saturday, and the Department of Homeland Security quickly claimed that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist” who wanted to “massacre” agents. Yet Pretti can be seen on tape holding his phone, not a gun, in his right hand, and his left hand is empty. While an independent investigation is necessary to iron out all the facts, it appears that the precipitating event was a federal officer pushing a woman down onto the sidewalk. Pretti, who was a medical professional at the VA, stepped between them and gets pepper sprayed. In the ensuing scuffle, a federal officer fired 10 rounds. Minneapolis’s police chief said Pretti was “a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.” Minnesota law allows the open carry of handguns for people with permits. He had no criminal record. The outrageous refusal by the feds to allow local authorities to properly secure the crime scene or gather evidence further inflames tensions with state and city police. The lack of accountability for federal officers has undermined the administration’s claims that this is about law and order. The local population clearly wants the roughly 3,000 immigration officers now deployed around the Twin Cities to leave. Senate Democratic leaders have threatened to shut down the federal government by blocking passage of a DHS funding bill which must be approved by Friday. Republican senators horrified by the immigration enforcement tactics could create room for a compromise. But it’s not that simple. ICE’s operations will continue under the status quo if Democrats block the DHS spending bill, because $75 billion was already allocated in the tax bill last summer. If Democrats block the bill, unintended consequences will cascade across unrelated parts of government, from FEMA to the Coast Guard. The version of the DHS funding bill that passed the House on Thursday adds money for conflict de-escalation training and independent oversight of detention facilities. It also provides $20 million for the purchase of body cameras for DHS agents. The mayhem in Minneapolis has made it untenable to argue that the tweaks in the House package go far enough. The House version does not require DHS officers to wear the body cameras it allocates funding for. Officers should want that because video will help exonerate them when they’re falsely accused of wrongdoing. Transparent guidelines for releasing this footage would go a long way to restoring trust between law enforcement and locals. Absent body cameras, many citizens will continue to feel compelled to constantly record federal officers performing their duties.

San Diego Union Tribune [1/25/2026 6:30 PM, Kathleen Butterstein, 1538K] reports re: “Man shot, killed by federal agents in Minneapolis” (Jan. 25): The Department of Homeland Security urgently needs to enroll its agents in the training program “Communicate to De-escalate” mentioned in Steven P. Dinkin’s article (Jan. 25). It contrasts the “survivor brain” that, in challenging situations, relies on angry, aggressive behavior triggered by fear with an alternative “learning brain” that aims to de-escalate with empathy and restore harmony. This article appeared one day after federal agents shot and killed a 37-year-old U.S. citizen whose only crime was attempting to render aid to a woman being pepper-sprayed on a street in Minneapolis. Perhaps if the federal agents had spent more training time learning about how to act with civility rather than how to deploy tear gas and flash bangs into crowds of peaceful protesters, Alex Pretti and Renée Good might both be alive today

USA Today [1/25/2026 6:08 PM, Rex Huppke, 67103K] reports there comes a point when lying feels like swallowing a sharp-edged rock. If you lack a conscience, your ability to choke the lie down, to not gag, to endure the pain as that deceit descends your gullet, improves. Republican lawmakers and conservative voters across the country find themselves, in the wake of a second U.S. citizen’s senseless death at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minnesota, with a jagged rock in their mouths and a decision: Do you swallow this lie or spit it out? Do you still have a conscience, or not? There are early signs that some Republicans might view the killing of Alex Pretti, 37, as a bridge too far. Among them is Republican New York Rep. Andrew Garbarino, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, who released a statement Jan. 24 calling for testimony from the heads of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: "I take my oversight duties for the department seriously, and Congress has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect.” That’s good, but many more need to start asking questions. Video of Alex Pretti’s death contradicts all the Trump administration claims. Pretti, 37, was an intensive care unit nurse who cared for veterans. There’s a video of him reciting a Final Salute ceremony over the flag-covered body of a veteran who had just died in the hospital, then pushing the gurney on the man’s walk of honor. On Jan. 24, Pretti was using his phone to record the federal agents’ activity in Minneapolis. A bystander video shows him trying to help a woman who was pushed by agents. He was then pepper sprayed by the agents. A crowd of agents tackled him. One agent appeared to remove a gun from around Pretti’s right hip. At no point is there any indication that Pretti, a lawful gun owner with a carry permit, had the gun in his hand or was using it to threaten agents. Remember, he had been hit with a chemical agent and appeared face down on the ground. As the agent who removed the gun leaves the scrum, at least one agent opens fire while Pretti appears to be on his knees and restrained. A New York Times video analysis found "at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds.” Lies, lies and more lies about Pretti being gunned down. It’s unclear whether Pretti’s body had even been removed from the scene before officials from the Department of Homeland Security were labeling him a domestic terrorist.

FOX News [1/25/2026 9:59 AM, Dan Gainor, 40621K] reports a picture is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes. There’s just no guarantee those words are truthful. In the case of a photo of a 5-year-old boy in Minnesota, the major media embraced shock and "awwww" instead of the truth. The boy, named Liam Ramos, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, were approached by ICE agents. The father reportedly ran, leaving the boy alone with authorities. The father was quickly captured, but a photo of an officer with his hand resting lightly on the boy’s backpack sent the media into a predictable nationwide panic. The press dug deep to find words of alarm — "upsetting," "firestorm," "controversy," "outrage," "haunting." Each network tried to outdo the other with one goal in mind, and it wasn’t journalism. The goal was to help Democrats succeed in shaping the illegal immigration narrative, holding on to the millions of potential new voters they let into the country under Biden and keeping ICE from sending them back. No one is more on board with that agenda than so-called neutral journalists.

New York Times [1/25/2026 9:34 AM, Thomas L. Friedman, 135475K] reports every day now, I sit at my computer and ask myself: What is there left to say about the two news stories I care about most? One is unfolding in my hometown, on the banks of the Mississippi River; the other is unfolding on the West Bank of the Jordan and on both banks of the Wadi Gaza. Which video should I linger on longest? The footage of Renee Good, shot in the face by an ICE officer in Minneapolis while she was clearly trying to evacuate the scene? Or the video from Saturday of federal agents shooting Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care nurse, after he tried to help a woman who was being pepper-sprayed? Or perhaps the video from Wednesday showing the aftermath of Israeli strikes that killed three Palestinian journalists, among others, in Gaza? The journalists had been working for a committee providing Egyptian aid and were documenting its distribution at a displacement camp. Or perhaps the videos of Hamas executing rivals and refusing to yield, despite the fact that the war the group ignited on Oct. 7, 2023, has resulted in nothing but catastrophe for Palestinians? These stories have much more in common than you might think. All are driven, in my view, by terrible leaders who prefer easy, violent solutions to the hard work of negotiated problem-solving. These leaders see an iron-fisted approach as the best way to win their next elections: President Trump in the 2026 midterms; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who is expected to call elections around the same time; and Hamas, in its desperate effort to lead the Palestinian movement in the postwar era, despite having lost the war. Hamas and ICE also share one very visible trait that I never thought I’d see in the United States: Almost all of their foot soldiers wear masks. My experience as a reporter in the Middle East taught me that people wear masks because they are up to something bad and don’t want their faces captured on camera. I saw it often in Beirut and in Gaza; I never expected to see it in Minneapolis. Since when have America’s domestic policing forces, charged with defending the Constitution and the rule of law, felt the need to hide their identities? I understand why Hamas fighters wear masks — they have both Israeli and Palestinian blood on their hands and fear retribution. But if you placed a photo of an ICE officer next to a Hamas militiaman in a news quiz, I would defy you to tell them apart. Memo to the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem: That is not a good look. What are you hiding? Good and Pretti were both clearly present as observers — and trying to defend others — yet both were drawn into the chaos and shot at close range by agents who should never have pulled a trigger. Yet the Trump team insists that ICE is blameless. That is not how you build legitimacy for a government effort to track down and deport illegal immigrants.

FOX News [1/25/2026 12:35 AM, David Marcus, 40621K] reports the highly organized groups of agitators in Minneapolis, coordinated online to harass federal immigration agents (or anyone in an SUV it seems), have begun to employ tactics that any Israeli would recognize from decades of terrorism in their country. The basic idea employed by both the Minnesota leftists and Hamas is to be as menacing as possible to authorities, including through acts of violence, and then, when the authorities strike back, to claim victimhood and martyrdom. The tragic and needless death of Alex Pretti on Saturday morning was a terrible example of this phenomenon, one that, sadly and unconscionably, is being not only tolerated by Minnesota officials, but shamelessly encouraged. The video of the shooting is vague, and it will take time and testimony to piece together the chain of events that led to Pretti’s death. But there are a few facts that seem clear, and they all point to an organized effort to antagonize and provoke law enforcement. Pretti left home Friday with a gun and extra ammunition and a plan to impede federal agents, which is exactly what he seemed to be doing when he allegedly intervened in the arrest of a suspect. It is reasonable to assume that Pretti brought the gun and extra clips in anticipation of a potential confrontation with law enforcement. Can we know that for sure? No. Is it more likely than not? Absolutely. The key point here is that no matter how much one may cherish the Second Amendment, nobody has a right to carry a gun while committing a felony, because to do so obviously puts everyone involved in harm’s way.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [1/25/2026 9:54 AM, Staff, 706K] reports U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino reacts the shooting of Alex Pretti. Bovino is asked what he sees when viewing the video. Multiple angles of the incident show Pretti holding up a cell phone and recording it, not a gun. Bovino is asked if Pretti pulled his weapon out at any point. "We do know that the suspect did bring a weapon, a loaded 9- millimeter high-capacity handgun, to a riot. We do know that. As far as what happened in that intervening moment with the video that you just showed, that’s going to come to light through the investigation. That’s being investigated. And those facts and those questions will be answered soon enough." Bovino comments. Homeland Security Secretary was not waiting for that investigation to take place before saying that Alex Pretti was "brandishing a weapon." "I think what we need to take a look at here is the situation in its totality. What happened leading up to this situation? The suspect decided to inject himself into a law enforcement action. What’s not being said here is the fact that Border Patrol agents and law enforcement were conducting a targeted law enforcement effort against a violent illegal alien that was nearby, and that suspect injected himself into that law enforcement situation with a weapon. And what happened between the -- when that situation first came about and the shooting, that’s going to be investigated and we’re going to get to the facts of that." Bovino states.

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [1/25/2026 9:54 AM, Staff, 706K] reports Greg Bovino says that every situation is different. He says that Minneapolis has created a chaotic environment for the officers, very violent and difficult situations. Bovino goes on to say that the situation there in Minneapolis is chaotic and ever-changing, people need to follow directions from law enforcement and to not inject yourself knowingly beforehand into a law enforcement situation. When hostess Bash comments that it feels like he’s blaming the victim, he had this to say, " The victims are the Border Patrol agents. I’m not blaming the Border Patrol agents. The victim are the Border Patrol agents. The suspect put himself in that situation. The victims are the Border Patrol agents there."

CNN’s State of the Union With Jake Tapper and Dana Bash [1/25/2026 9:54 AM, Staff, 706K] reports Greg Bovino keeps saying keep saying that he injected himself into the crime scene but others say he was just a guy on the street filming an operation. "The fact that he was standing in the middle of the road, there was interaction between him, the bystanders and law enforcement, and, again, follow directions of law enforcement. He doesn’t need to be in the middle of a crime scene. Dana, I don’t think you would want to be in the middle of a crime scene or you would want civilians in the middle of a crime scene injecting themselves into something that is none of their business at all." Bovino comments.

NBC’s Meet the Press [1/25/2026 11:54 AM, Staff, 2796K] reports the administration spent all day Saturday arguing that Alex Pretti posed a threat to law enforcement. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche after watching the video of the altercation with Pretti does he seem him as someone who posed a threat to law enforcement. "I’ll tell you what I don’t see. And I don’t see protesting happening. And this narrative that what was happening on that yesterday morning was protesting interrupted by ICE is not what we see. I also do not see a single state and local law enforcement officer there to help. And that should be the narrative that we’re talking about, is that what we have is ICE doing isolated operations to get criminals off the street, with zero cooperation from the governor, from leadership in Congress, or from the mayor. And so when you see what we just observed, was that peaceful protesting? Of course not. That was a very violent occurrence because ICE cannot do their job effectively when law enforcement — local law enforcement refuses to help. And that is what is so tragic about what happened yesterday and what’s been happening in Minneapolis for the past several weeks, is that ICE is doing all of this work, doing their jobs, and local law enforcement are not being allowed to do a single thing to help. And that is dangerous, as we saw yesterday morning." Blanche comments.

NBC’s Meet the Press [1/25/2026 11:54 AM, Staff, 2796K] reports Blanche is asked, why shouldn’t every American be bothered by what they see in this video? "Absolutely. Every American should be bothered. But what should they be bothered by? They should be bothered that ICE is going on an isolated arrest to arrest a criminal, and they have zero support from law enforcement." Blanche comments. Blanche says that ICE officers have to make decisions all day everyday when trying to protect the people of America. "You work together with local law enforcement. Police are there to assist with crowd control, and rioters, and the violent acts that we see happening. And again, this is not a peaceful protest. He was not protesting peacefully." Blanche states.

NBC’s Meet the Press [1/25/2026 11:54 AM, Staff, 2796K] reports Blanche is asked for the big picture, is the death of U.S. citizens a price the Trump administration is willing to pay to carry out its immigration policies? President Trump said his goal was to deport the “worst of the worst” people. Is this part of the collateral damage, something that the administration is willing to accept as a part of its crackdown on people who are here illegally? "It shouldn’t be. It should not be. And you don’t see it anywhere in this country. I’m very confused about why the conversation’s about what you’re talking about instead of focusing on what really matters, which is why, in one city, in one place, do we have these problems. We deport ten times the number of illegal aliens out of Texas than we do out of Minneapolis. Why do we hear nothing out of Texas about any of the same problems that we have in Minneapolis? I’ll tell you why. Because in Texas we have the cooperation and support of local law enforcement so that we can do these operations safely, keeping U.S. citizens and others protected and safe. That is not what we have in Minneapolis. And the fact that it’s the administration that’s being blamed for the utter failure of leadership in Minneapolis is not right, it’s not appropriate." Blanche states.

CBS’ Face The Nation [1/25/2026 11:21 AM, Staff, 2556K] reports Minneapolis Police Chief, Brian O’hara is asked what he’s learned about the shooting of Alex Pretti. "Unfortunately, we don’t have any official information from federal law enforcement about what has happened. Even when our officers initially responded to the scene, our watch commander was not given even the most basic information that is typical in a, in a law enforcement involved shooting, just to ensure that there is potentially no other victims. Since then, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension responded to the scene at my request. They were blocked from the scene yesterday, but they have since returned to the scene and are, are now canvassing for additional witnesses and evidence that may be there." O’HARA comments. From what O’hara has seen in the public space and heard from federal officials, is there any evidence that he knows of that Pretti was assaulting the federal officers, as the Border Patrol chief claims? "I have seen the videos, just as thousands of people around the country have, and the videos speak for themselves. I think it’s deeply concerning the things that are being said. This is an individual that was a city resident. It appears that he was present, exercising his First Amendment rights to record law enforcement activity and also exercising his Second Amendment rights to lawfully be armed in a public space in the city. So I think very obviously, there are serious questions that are being raised. And I think the greater issue is, even if there is an investigation that ultimately proves that at the time of the shooting it was legally justified, I don’t think that even matters at this point, because there just- there is so much outrage and concern around what is happening in the city." O’hara states.

CBS’ Face The Nation [1/25/2026 11:21 AM, Staff, 2556K] reports DHS claims that Pretti had a weapon on him. O’hara implied Pretti was carrying at the time of the incident, when he said Pretti was a legal firearm owner with a license to carry. O’hara is asked if he knows if the weapon remained concealed or was it ever brandished? "I have seen different experts and people analyzing the video that have made statements about that. I cannot speculate, but I do not have any, any evidence that I’ve seen that suggests that the weapon was brandished." O’hara states.

Reuters [1/25/2026 4:05 PM, Ted Hesson and Kristina Cooke, 36480K] reports President Donald Trump’s administration opposed efforts to expand the use of body cameras by immigration officers and sharply cut oversight staffing as it surged officers into Minneapolis and other cities, leading to a series of violent clashes. Footage from bystanders of two fatal shootings of U.S. citizen protesters, including Saturday’s incident that left an ICU nurse dead, has underscored the power of video in checking official statements that have portrayed people who have been shot as provoking violent encounters with immigration officers. Cameras worn by officers long have been central to police reform efforts for this reason. The Trump administration, however, moved last year to slow-walk a pilot program to give ICE officers body cameras, urging Congress in June to cut the funding by 75% and bucking a nationwide trend of cameras for law enforcement. Officials last year also placed on paid leave nearly all staffers working for three internal watchdogs conducting oversight of immigration agencies, undermining their capacity to investigate abuses. Darius Reeves, who was the director of ICE’s Baltimore field office until August, said a body camera pilot program rollout had been slow in 2024 under President Biden, a Democrat, and "died on the vine" under Trump, a Republican. In response to a request for comment, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said ICE officers "act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities.". "Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens," she said.

NPR [1/25/2026 8:15 AM, Adrian Florido and Ayesha Rascoe, 28013K] Audio: HERE reports an internal DHS memo said ICE agents can enter people’s homes without a judicial warrant. This contradicts decades of legal precedent.

Breitbart [1/25/2026 3:16 PM, Warner Todd Huston, 2416K] reports Maine’s Democrat governor, Janet Mills, is demanding a meeting with President Trump by using the shooting by immigration agents in Minnesota to highlight her anti-ICE stance. Mills posted her "letter" to President Trump on her social media, in which she demanded the federal government stop enforcing federal immigration laws in her state. "In response to Federal agents killing another person in Minnesota, I have requested a meeting with the President of the United States and demanded that his Administration immediately withdraw ICE agents from Maine," she wrote. She attached her letter to the president, in which decries the "weaponization of Federal law enforcement.” The governor’s January 24 letter states: “I am appalled and heartbroken by reports of yet another killing at the hands of federal immigration agents. President Trump and Secretary Noem’s weaponization of Federal law enforcement against the people they are meant to serve is not only a grave violation of the Constitution, but a threat to the lives of law-abiding people in the cities and states they seek to occupy, including Maine. As Governor, I am requesting that the President of the United States meet with me so that I can demand in person that his Administration withdraw these untrained and reckless ICE agents in Maine and across the country who are stoking fear in communities, arresting legally present people, including law enforcement officials, and who pose a grave threat to public safety. I call on Congress to immediately bring Secretary Noem before them for a public hearing and cut off any further funding for ICE until their lawless tactics and dangerous behavior cease. I am proud of Maine people for standing up in peaceful protest across our state and I continue to encourage peaceful protest as we show the world that we will always stand up for our values — support for the rule of law, due process, compassion, integrity, and justice.” Mills has thus far been wholly ineffectual in her attempts to put a stop to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent "Operation Catch of the Day" that was launched in Maine on January 21. But like many other Democrat governors, she has attempted to use ICE operations to grandstand on her pro-illegal migrant bona fides with constant calls for the federal government to cease enforcing federal laws. Further, in December, Mills gave her approval for a state law that would ban police from working with federal law enforcement. That law has not yet taken effect. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that in the first few hours four dangerous criminals were taken into custody, including Dominic Ali, a kidnapper and violent offender from Sudan; Ethiopian national Ambessa Berghe, wanted on assault and drug charges; Elmara Correia, a woman from Angola wanted for endangering a child; and Guatemalan Dany Lopez-Cortz, who has convictions for drunk driving. DHS also reported arresting more than 100 people on its target list of about 1,400 criminal illegals in Maine.

CNN [1/25/2026 2:57 PM, Audrey Romjue, 18595K] reports Sheriff Kevin Joyce of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office reacts to ICE arresting a Portland corrections officer and leaving his car unlocked and unattended at the scene. Joyce says the officer is legally allowed to work in the U.S., calling the arrest a “show” and “bush league policing.” He says the incident makes him “absolutely” question the Department of Homeland Security and its tactics. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

USA Today [1/25/2026 2:14 PM, Kathryn Palmer, 67103K] reports in an interview recorded a day before a Border Patrol agent fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani fiercely criticized the Trump administration’s ongoing federal immigration campaigns. Mamdani told ABC News’ "This Week" that federal immigration agents are "terrorizing" people across the country and pledged to work to prevent similar operations from taking place in New York City. He said he has shared his opinions with President Donald Trump and remains in communication with the Republican leader following their White House meeting shortly after Mamdani’s election. "These ICE raids − they are cruel, they are inhumane," Mamdani alleged during the interview that aired Sunday, Jan. 25. "They do nothing to serve the interests of public safety.". Pretti, a U.S. citizen and registered nurse who treated veterans, was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent after confronting immigration authorities the morning of Jan. 24. Federal officials said Pretti was carrying a gun he intended to use to "kill law enforcement." Videos from bystanders − and a witness account in court filings − do not show Pretti brandishing a weapon when he approached agents . Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are separate agencies but are both under the Department of Homeland Security. The two agencies work on immigration issues and have been in the Twin Cities area as part of the Trump administration’s wide-reaching deportation crackdown. "We know that the fear that so many are living with in Minneapolis. It’s a fear that New Yorkers are also living with, a fear of being terrorized," Mamdani said. "And I will do everything in my power to ensure that we do not see that take place in New York City.".

Reported similarly:
Bloomberg [1/25/2026 12:17 PM, Elizabeth Rembert, 18207K]

CNN [1/25/2026 12:14 PM, Taylor Galgano, 606K] reports that, one week ago, Destiny Jackson spoke with CNN about her family of eight getting tear gassed in Minneapolis while stopped on their way home from her son’s basketball game on January 14. The family says they did not realize an anti-ICE protest was happening around them when they first reached the scene. Video from the scene showed her children rushing out of the car and into a nearby house for safety, on the same night a federal agent shot a man in the leg. It was one of several interviews Jackson had done that week with different news outlets. Someone asked her to make a GoFundMe, so she did, she said — and donations poured in, raising more than $170,000 in all. Since then, Jackson tells CNN she has faced online attacks by far-right social media users and select media publications. That’s partly because, since CNN published the story, a one-hour-and-36-minute livestream from that evening has surfaced, which was first reported by Crime Watch Mpls and then covered by the Daily Mail, that shows Jackson at the actual protest itself without her children – at one point, making an inflammatory comment on camera. But that’s also because Jackson has a past criminal record. In two interviews with CNN on January 23 and 24, Jackson explained more about why she was seen at the protest in the livestream and addressed her previous criminal charges. In her January 17 interview with CNN, Jackson said she had retrieved her mother from the protest before getting back into her vehicle with her six kids and husband to leave the area. That’s when she says she heard commotion from the protest and told her husband to drive away, but said they were blocked in and couldn’t get out. From there, a tear gas canister rolled under her car and exploded. In the newly surfaced video, she and her husband appear in and out of frame at or near the protest for at least 45 minutes. Jackson explained she and her husband were driving home from her son’s basketball game when they noticed the road ahead was blocked off. Cars were coming from every direction, while some cars were parked on the street, so they pulled over to allow cars to pass, she said. Her husband wanted to know what was happening, so he got out of the car to ask around. From the passenger seat, Jackson says she coincidentally noticed her mother, her mother’s boyfriend and a family friend crossing the street. She called out to them and they came to talk to her, explaining they were headed to a protest. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin also said in an email to CNN on January 16: "This family was the victim of rioters and agitators whose lawless behavior is encouraged by Minnesota’s top leaders.”

New York Post [1/25/2026 5:25 PM, Chris Nesi, 42219K] reports the heartbroken father of a 5-year-old girl who suffered life-altering injuries in a multi-vehicle pileup caused by an illegal-immigrant truck driver says Gov. Gavin Newsom has stonewalled the family’s desperate calls for help. Dalilah Coleman, now 7, was left nonverbal and is relearning how to walk after her family vehicle was srtuck in a 2024 wreck by an 18-wheeler driven by Partap Singh, an illegal immigrant from India. Singh, who had been given a commercial driver’s license by the state despite his immigration status, was speeding through a construction zone and failed to stop his truck for traffic, leading to the horrifying crash, according to the Department of Homeland Security. "When Dalilah’s accident first happened, I reached out to the governor’s office, via phone as well as email. I received nothing back at all," Marcus Coleman said on Fox News’ "The Will Cain Show.” Singh entered the country illegally through the southern border in October 2022 but was released by the Biden administration. He was rearrested by ICE in August 2025 to face deportation proceedings. Dalilah spent three weeks in a coma and required six months of hospital treatment, which included a craniectomy, before her family could bring her home, leaving her without half her skull for four months, DHS said, citing Coleman. The accident left Dalilah unable to eat food orally, and she suffered a broken femur, skull fractures and has since been diagnosed with diplegic cerebral palsy and global developmental delay, which will require lifelong therapy. But despite her debilitating injuries and unimaginably painful recovery, pleas by her family to get government assistance to help cover her treatments have fallen on deaf ears. "It’s just kind of left up to us to sit there and take care of what we need to take care of," Coleman said, telling Cain the family was even denied Social Security benefits. "I’m here … trying to make ends meet to satisfy her needs. And even then, we’re still falling short and there’s nobody there to help us with it," he added. Coleman, himself a truck driver, vented his frustration with California’s lax regulations around giving foreign-born truck drivers commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), calling the practice "gross negligence.” He accused California’s leadership, including Newsom, of putting politics ahead of safety. "I think they’re trying to do what’s going to favor them in the long run, no matter how many people it hurts," he said. Coleman’s anger was echoed by Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who wrote on X that "California’s weak leadership is failing Americans like Dalilah every day.” He said the only public acknowledgement Newsom has made of the family’s suffering was a social media post last September in which he accused President Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of politicizing the crash.

Reuters [1/25/2026 8:59 AM, Nate Raymond, 4109K] reports a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s push to terminate the ⁠legal status of more than 8,400 family members of U.S. citizens and green card holders who moved to the United States from seven Latin American countries. Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction late on Saturday that prevents the Department of Homeland Security from ending the humanitarian parole granted to ‍thousands of people from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and ‍Honduras. They had been allowed to move to the United States under family reunification parole programs that were created or modernized by Democratic President Joe Biden’s ⁠administration. Since Republican President Donald Trump succeeded Biden, his administration has ramped up immigration enforcement with $170 billion budgeted for immigration agencies through September 2029, a historic sum. Under the family reunification ​programs, U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, could apply to serve as sponsors for family members in those seven countries, letting them live in the U.S. while they waited for their ‍immigrant visas to become available. The Homeland Security Department said on December 12 it was ending the ⁠programs on the grounds that they were inconsistent with Trump’s immigration enforcement priorities and were abused to allow "poorly vetted aliens to circumvent the traditional parole process.". The termination was originally set to take effect January 14, but Talwani issued a temporary restraining order blocking it for 14 days while she considered whether ⁠to issue Saturday’s longer-term injunction. Talwani said the ​department, led by Homeland Security Secretary ⁠Kristi Noem, had provided no support for its fraud concerns or considered whether individuals could feasibly return to their home countries, ‍where many had sold homes or left jobs.

Reuters [1/25/2026 5:25 PM, Kanishka Singh and Jonathan Stempel, 36480K] reports the U.S. State Department said on Sunday it was imposing visa restrictions on members of Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council and revoking the visas of two council members and their immediate families. In a statement, the State Department attributed the visa restrictions to council members’ alleged "involvement in the operation of gangs and other criminal organizations in Haiti, including through interference with the Government of Haiti’s efforts to counter gangs designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the United States.” The statement did not identify any council members by name. Haiti’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for more information. The mandate of the council, which acts as Haiti’s top executive, is scheduled to expire on February 7. No official succession plan is in place. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime on Friday. Rubio insisted that the council dissolve as scheduled but emphasized the importance of Fils-Aime remaining in his post, a State Department spokesperson said. Two council members called on Friday for the removal of Fils-Aime from his post. The council was appointed in 2024 to oversee a move toward Haiti’s first election in a decade. This has been repeatedly delayed by a collapse in security during a bloody conflict between security forces and powerful, heavily armed gangs.

NewsNation [1/25/2026 5:08 PM, Ariel Iacobazzi, Jashayla Pettigrew, 8017K] reports federal officials detained a family of three while they were seeking care at a Portland, Oregon, hospital earlier this month. As first reported by Noticias Noroeste, U.S. Border Patrol officers arrested Yohendry De Jesus Crespo and Darianny Liseth Gonzalez de Crespo — along with their 7-year-old child — on Jan. 16. Nexstar’s KOIN spoke with Ana Linares, who said she is friends with the married couple. She said they all came together from Central America a couple of years ago, landing in Southeast Portland while actively seeking asylum. “They are educated people, legally married in Venezuela, and they wanted to formalize their family here and give their daughter a better future,” said Linares, via translation from Spanish. A spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed the arrest to KOIN on Friday, identifying the family as Venezuelan nationals. “These parents illegally entered U.S. with their daughter in 2024 through the disastrous CBP One app and were RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration,” DHS said in a statement. “Any application for asylum does not preclude immigration enforcement. The law requires those in the country illegally claiming asylum to be detained pending removal. You can look it up in the statute. The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.” The family of three will remain in ICE custody, DHS added, and an immigration judge will hear their case at a later date. According to reports, the parents were on their way to Adventist Health Portland to seek medical treatment for their daughter at the time of the arrest. Linares claims none of the family members have criminal records and that they didn’t do anything wrong. She said the little girl is doing better, health-wise, after seeing a doctor. Linares said she remains in occasional contact with the family, who are now being detained in Texas. A GoFundMe fundraiser was also set up by friends on behalf of the family. In an email, Adventist spokesperson Heather Pease told KOIN the health system had no information regarding the incident, did not coordinate with law enforcement and hadn’t heard from any agency. “Adventist Health Portland is here for our community, open, available, and ready to provide care when it’s needed most,” Pease wrote. “Patient care remains our priority, regardless of circumstances.” In a statement, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek strongly rebuked the immigrant enforcement action being taken against a family seeking medical treatment. “Families should be able to seek medical care for their children without fear. I believe in showing up for our neighbors and protecting the safety and dignity of every Oregonian, including our immigrant communities, who make our state stronger,” Kotek said. The Oregon Nurses Association also shared a statement on Friday, condemning the arrest. “Detaining a family while they seek medical care for a child is unconscionable and does not just violate the ethical obligations of frontline caregivers; it violates the fundamental ethical obligation of healthcare institutions,” ONA said in part, calling the detainment “alarming, chilling, and deeply shameful.” According to the organization, frontline staff throughout the state have already warned the public that federal immigration enforcement tactics could impact health care facilities and their patients. ONA previously sent a letter to Legacy Health, urging the organization to protect patients amid local activity from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

CBS Miami [1/25/2026 4:30 PM, Sarah Lynch Baldwin, 39474K] reports flight cancellations are continuing to mount today as the U.S. is being hit with dangerous winter weather from a storm moving across the country. Airlines have canceled more than 11,000 U.S. flights for Sunday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware. That’s the most for a single day since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and more the double the number of U.S. flights that were canceled for Saturday. The National Weather Service says the storm is bringing widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies to New England through Monday. More than 2,400 U.S. flights have already been canceled for Monday. In the Washington, D.C., area, Ronald Reagan National Airport said all flights there are canceled on Sunday, posting: "ALERT: Airlines have canceled all flights at the airport today. Check with your airline for confirmation and rebooking options. Please stay home and off the icy roads.” LaGuardia Airport in New York also closed due to the snow Sunday afternoon and said it expected to reopen at 6 a.m. Monday. More than 90% of LaGuardia’s flights had already been canceled, CBS News New York reported. Even before the winter storm arrived in North Texas, flight cancellations at both major airports there piled up. Dallas Fort Worth international Airport said airlines were expected to operate a reduced number of flights Sunday and encouraged passengers to check their flight status with their airline as schedules could change. "DFW’s teams are actively treating roads, bridges and airfield surfaces to maintain safe operations," it said in a statement. Airports in Atlanta, Charlotte and Philadelphia were also expecting disruptions. Flight tracking service Flightradar24 said American was the most impacted airline this weekend, followed by United and Delta. Major U.S. airlines were issuing travel waivers, allowing customers to change their plans without penalty due to the storm. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [1/25/2026 1:35 PM, Staff, 40621K] reports FEMA official Chase Wollenhaupt joins ‘The Sunday Briefing’ to discuss the agency’s efforts to aid those affected by the historic winter storm as multiple states declare emergencies. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [1/25/2026 8:35 PM, Kate Brumback and Julie Walker, 19051K] reports a massive winter storm dumped sleet, freezing rain and snow across much of the U.S. on Sunday, bringing subzero temperatures and halting air and road traffic. Tree branches and power lines snapped under the weight of ice, and hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the Southeast were left without electricity. The ice and snowfall were expected to continue into Monday followed by very low temperatures which could cause “dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts” for days, the National Weather Service said. Heavy snow was falling from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, while “catastrophic ice accumulation” threatened from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. “It is a unique storm in the sense that it is so widespread,” weather service meteorologist Allison Santorelli said in a phone interview. “It was affecting areas all the way from New Mexico, Texas, all the way into New England, so we’re talking like a 2,000-mile spread.” President Donald Trump approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states by Saturday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had rescue teams and supplies in numerous states, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Reuters [1/26/2026 2:33 AM, Ryan Brooks, 36480K] reports more than 1 million customers in the U.S. as far west as New Mexico were without electricity and over 10,000 flights were canceled on Sunday (January 25), during a monster winter storm that paralyzed eastern and southern states with heavy snow and ice. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Post [1/25/2026 7:58 PM, Brady Dennis, Ben Noll, Tim Craig and Katie Shepherd, 24149K] reports a colossal winter storm barreled across an unusually large swath of the nation on Sunday, dumping snow and ice from Oklahoma to the Deep South to New England. The giant system knocked out power to more than a million customers, caused deaths in multiple states, prompted widespread school cancellations, ground travel to a halt and promised more uncertainty during the frigid days to come. “This situation is expected to get worse before it gets better,” warned Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R), who implored residents to stay off perilous roads and detailed how some utilities had suffered “catastrophic damage” that could lead to prolonged outages. Many areas across the East Coast had received 6 to 16 inches of snow and sleet by early Sunday afternoon, as more powder and destructive amounts of ice were expected to continue to accumulate overnight into Monday. With ice weighing down trees and electrical lines throughout the South, power outages rose rapidly in places such as Tennessee, where as of Sunday evening, more than 300,000 remained without power, according to poweroutage.us. More than 100,000 customers were without power each in Mississippi and Louisiana. The map of misery was vast and varied, even as the storm’s impacts were far from over. More than 11,000 Sunday flights were canceled, along with at least 2,400 on Monday. Washington Post confirmed that at least six fatalities had been attributed to the storm. Two men died in Louisiana and one in Austin because of hypothermia, and three people who appeared to be homeless were found outdoors in New York, local officials said. But public health risks remained for millions of Americans, as precipitation continued to accumulate Sunday evening, electricity failures mounted and the mercury continued to fall in many places. Far-reaching and fearsome cold was forecast to remain well after the snow and ice stopped falling. About 110 million people across the United States can expect to experience subzero temperatures through Friday. tate, local and federal officials implored people to exercise caution and common sense. They warned about the dangers of using generators indoors, the heightened potential for heart attacks while shoveling snow, the signs of hypothermia and the many risks of trying to drive on slick roads. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, who called the storm one of the most sprawling and impactful winter events in “possibly decades,” said Sunday on Fox News that its true toll remained unclear. “This ice that has fallen will keep those lines heavy. Even if they haven’t gone down immediately, for several days we’re going to have the low freezing temperatures that will make sure that if we get a little bit of wind or we get some stress on those lines, they still continue to. could potentially, lose power, so we’re going to continue to monitor that,” Noem said, adding that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is coordinating to make sure states have the equipment they need even after the storm has passed. The Washington, D.C., area saw less snow than some forecasts had anticipated. But a blanket of 3 to 7 inches in most areas was followed by 2 to 4 inches of sleet, creating significant disruptions. All flights — more than 800 — were canceled at Reagan National Airport, said Crystal L. Nosal, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Washington Dulles International Airport had more than 400 cancellations, and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport had more than 400 flight cancellations by Sunday morning, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.

Los Angeles Times [1/25/2026 5:27 PM, Kate Brumback and Julie Walker, 14862K] reports that a massive winter storm continued Sunday morning, dumping sleet, freezing rain and snow across the South and up through New England, bringing frigid temperatures, widespread power outages and treacherous road conditions. The ice and snowfall were expected to continue through Monday in much of the country, followed by very low temperatures, with "dangerous travel and infrastructure impacts" to linger for several days, the National Weather Service said. Heavy snow was forecast from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, while "catastrophic ice accumulation" threatened from the Lower Mississippi Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. "It is a unique storm in the sense that it is so widespread," weather service meteorologist Allison Santorelli said in a phone interview. "It was affecting areas all the way from New Mexico, Texas, all the way into New England, so we’re talking like a 2,000-mile spread." As of Sunday morning, about 213 million people were under some sort of winter weather warning, she said. The number of customers without power topped 880,000, according to poweroutage.us, and the number was rising. Tennessee was hardest hit with nearly 300,000 customers out, and Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi all had more than 100,000 customers in the dark. President Trump had approved emergency declarations for at least a dozen states by Saturday, with more expected to come. The Federal Emergency Management Agency pre-positioned commodities, staff and search and rescue teams in numerous states, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

Daily Caller [1/25/2026 10:31 AM, Mark Tanos, 835K] reports at least three homeless New Yorkers were found dead in freezing temperatures Saturday morning after Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul rebuffed a federal assistance offer from the Trump administration. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reached out to New York ahead of the major winter storm sweeping the country. Hochul responded on X by demanding immigration enforcement changes as a condition for accepting help. "Secretary Noem offered assistance to New York ahead of the impending snowstorm," Hochul wrote on X. "I shared that the fastest way to help is for ICE to back off so people feel safe accessing warming centers, shelters, hospitals, and houses of worship." Hours later, authorities discovered three bodies across New York City as temperatures plunged to 10 degrees overnight, according to the New York Post. A 67-year-old man was found outside on 3rd Avenue in Murray Hill around 7:45 a.m. A 64-year-old woman was discovered in Canarsie, Brooklyn, at 9:25 a.m. A man in his 30s was located on Warren Street in Cobble Hill around the same time. Police suspect all three were homeless, the Post reported. No criminality was suspected in any case. The city medical examiner will determine official causes of death. Mamdani warned the cold snap would be the worst the city has experienced in roughly eight years. NBC News reported that Noem had announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency pre-positioned 30 generators, 250,000 meals and 400,000 liters of water for affected states.

San Francisco Chronicle [1/25/2026 7:00 AM, Kurtis Alexander, 4722K] reports as the Trump administration looks to downsize the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a recent change at the organization is jeopardizing tens of millions of dollars for local fire departments, with the potential of hampering wildland firefighting efforts across the West. FEMA has reduced the payments that local fire departments receive for the use of their equipment, namely fire engines, when they’re asked to help with wildfires outside their jurisdiction. The new reimbursement rates, firefighters say, don’t cover their costs. This not only short-changes hundreds of city and small-town fire departments, many of which operate on shoestring budgets with volunteer staffs, but could prompt some departments to stop answering calls for help. California and other western states rely on a system of mutual aid for wildfire response. Under the system, agencies step up to assist one another in putting out blazes that no single agency could handle alone. “We shouldn’t be doing anything that discourages local-government fire chiefs from helping their neighbors during fire season,” said Mark Lorenzen, fire chief for the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, which serves Menlo Park, Atherton and East Palo Alto and participates in California’s mutual aid system. “But our engines are expensive and the methodology that FEMA is using doesn’t come close to reimbursing us for what the actual cost is. … Certainly, if you get a financial haircut on reimbursement, that doesn’t help you with your decision” to send help. The mutual aid system in several states, including California, is already under strain. The uptick in wildfires over the past two decades has left many fire departments sometimes reluctant to deploy crews elsewhere for fear of a local ignition or burdening their staff with extra work. FEMA officials say the new reimbursement rates simply reflect changes in cost and market conditions.

Washington Post [1/25/2026 3:53 PM, Dan Diamond and Jonathan Edwards, 24149K] reports President Donald Trump on Sunday insisted his proposed ballroom is a done deal — even as Justice Department lawyers in court present the plans as flexible and subject to federal reviews. In a lengthy post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said the project could not realistically be reversed because key materials have been lined up, writing that “there is no practical or reasonable way to go back” and declaring: “IT IS TOO LATE!” The president’s comments contrast with his administration’s position in federal court, where three days earlier Justice Department lawyers told a judge that the ballroom plans can be modified and that the White House intends to wait for two federal advisory panels to review the project before beginning aboveground construction in April. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said he intends to rule in the coming weeks on whether the project may advance. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about how Trump’s post about the ballroom aligned with his administration’s legal argument. Trump and his deputies have said that the ballroom project is personally important to him, and the president wrote Sunday that it is a national security matter. “Stoppage of construction, at this late date, when so much has already been ordered and done, would be devastating to the White House, our Country, and all concerned,” Trump wrote in a late-morning note that published as much of the United States was under a weather alert connected to a significant winter storm. He also listed materials that he said had either been ordered or were “ready” to be obtained: “All of the Structural Steel, Windows, Doors, A.C./Heating Equipment, Marble, Stone, Precast Concrete, Bulletproof Windows and Glass, Anti-Drone Roofing, and much more.” The roughly 450-word statement came in between two posts that referenced Minnesota, the site a day earlier of another fatal shooting connected to immigration enforcement that roiled domestic politics and raised the possibility of a government shutdown. Democrats pledged to block a funding package that must be approved by Friday to keep much of the government open, saying that they could not support continued funding for federal immigration enforcement without operational changes.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [1/25/2026 2:59 PM, Ryan King, 42219K]

USA Today [1/25/2026 2:58 PM, Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, 67103K] reports President Donald Trump said in a Jan. 25 Truth Social post that a preservationist group’s lawsuit against the construction of the $400 million ballroom had exposed a "Top Secret fact" about the involvement of the U.S. military and Secret Service on several aspects of the project, including design. In December, the National Trust for Historic Preservation filed a lawsuit against Trump and several federal agencies aimed at halting the construction, saying it had not gone through a review process, had not completed an adequate environmental assessment or sought congressional authorization. Trump disputed the group’s allegations, saying that "a President has never needed permission to change or enhance, because of the special grounds on which it sits, no matter how big (and important!), that enhancement may be.". "Additionally, in this instance, it is being done with the design, consent, and approval of the highest levels of the United States Military and Secret Service. The mere bringing of this ridiculous lawsuit has already, unfortunately, exposed this heretofore Top Secret fact," he wrote. The East Wing, beneath which an underground bomb shelter has been located since the 1940s amid concerns during World War II that the White House could become a target for an aerial attack, was demolished in October to make way for the ballroom. The underground bomb shelter was installed for President Franklin D. Roosevelt beneath the East Wing, according to the White House Historical Society. "This secret space featured thick concrete walls and steel-sheathed ceilings with a small presidential bedroom and bath inside. Nearby rooms provided ventilation masks, food storage, and communications equipment," the WHHS noted in a Facebook post. "The space is far more modern today. Known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), it can become a command center for the president as needed.". During the hearing, Leon raised doubts whether Trump had statutory power to tear down the East Wing with plans to build a ballroom in its place without approval or oversight from the U.S. Congress, according to Reuters. Leon snapped, "Come on, be serious" after a lawyer for the administration drew parallels to the erection of a pool during the Gerald Ford administration in the 1970s and other smaller renovations, Reuters reported. In court filings by the Trump administration in response to the lawsuit, Matthew Quinn, the deputy director of United States Secret Service, said that unless the remaining work is completed, the Secret Service’s ability to protect the president, first family and the White House complex would be "hampered.".

Washington Post [1/25/2026 3:45 PM, Dana Hedgpeth, 24149K] reports by D.C. Water crews have installed high-powered pumps in an effort to divert sewage after part of a major pipeline collapsed last week, spilling millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into the Potomac River. Work is still underway to completely stop the overflow. For the past several days, crews had been setting up the pumps and other equipment along the Clara Barton Parkway in Maryland after the break was discovered late Monday night through security cameras at a nearby D.C. Water facility. A section of the 54-mile sewer line, known as the Potomac Interceptor, collapsed, resulting in a “significant overflow,” according to officials with D.C. Water. The interceptor line is roughly 60 years old and carries up to 60 million gallons of wastewater per day — from Loudoun, Fairfax and Montgomery counties, Vienna, Herndon, and areas near Washington Dulles International Airport to the Blue Plains wastewater plant in D.C. for treatment. The broken pipe measured roughly six feet in diameter, which officials said was a “very, very large” break. Officials said they estimate 40 million gallons of untreated sewage a day came from the broken pipe and that they don’t yet know what caused the rupture. Six industrial pumps are rerouting the wastewater around the damaged pipe about 125 feet to a section of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, where it is being redirected into the sewer line. The pumps are directing sewage into an isolated part of the C&O Canal, which is designed to be gravity-fed so the sewage will “flow down and then be diverted back” into the Potomac Interceptor, according to D.C. Water. The canal’s locks 11, 12 and 13 were removed to accommodate the bypass, officials said. The sewage did not overflow onto the towpath, which remains open. Officials had anticipated the pumps would be turned on Monday, but crews were able to finish the installation of the bypass and turn them on Saturday evening before the snowstorm started. On Sunday morning, D.C. Water spokesman John Lisle said the bypass and pumps are working. “We’re seeing a significant increase in flow reaching the downstream pump station, which confirms that diversion efforts are working,” he said. “However, overflow to the Potomac River is still occurring.”

FOX News [1/25/2026 12:23 PM, Paul Tilsley, 40621K] Video: HERE reports in Nigeria, Fox News Digital has been told terrorists are ‘on the run’ following U.S. strikes last month aimed at stopping the killing of Christians in Africa’s most populous country, this as a senior official from U.S. Africa Command visited Nigeria this week. According to the recently released persecution watchdog Open Doors World Watch List, three out of every four Christians killed for their religion worldwide have been murdered in Nigeria. It is said to average out that one Christian is killed there every two and a half hours. Thursday in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump confirmed, "In Nigeria we’re annihilating terrorists who are killing Christians. We’ve hit them very hard. They’ve killed thousands and thousands of Christians." This past week, the second-highest-ranking officer at U.S. Africa Command, a former U.S. Special Forces leader who served in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. John Brennan, U.S. Army, was as a key member of a U.S. delegation to Nigeria. Speaking exclusively to Fox News Digital from Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, Brennan detailed U.S. moves on the ground to combat Islamic State and other jihadi terror groups. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Breitbart [1/25/2026 1:32 PM, Staff, 2416K] reports that, Sunday on FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” Breitbart News senior contributor and author of The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon Peter Schweizer talked about Mexico and China weaponizing immigration. Schweizer said, “I think the the chaos in Minneapolis is absolutely horrifying. And I think that foreign actors benefit from that. Here’s what we know. We know that foreign powers like Mexico are actively involved in organizing what they call the resistance to Donald Trump. That’s not my words. That’s what Mexican officials who live inside the United States say.” He added, Well, that we’ve been looking at immigration the wrong way. We view to primarily in terms of the economy and violent crime, which is very important. But the motivation of foreign actors is to weaponize immigration. So what do I mean? China has a very sophisticated program of exploiting birthright citizenship, and the Supreme Court is going to be hearing this case. That’s the notion that if you happen to give birth to a child in the United States, that child will be an American citizen. Our federal government has no idea, no idea how many children are being minted as U.S. citizens using this technique. But China has looked into it. China has encouraged this. They’ve pushed it. The Chinese government believes that every year for the past 13 years, Maria, roughly 100,000 Chinese babies have been born in the United States and then taken back to China, raised in China. When they turn 18, they’re going to be U.S. citizens. They can vote in elections, donate to political campaigns, get government jobs. That’s more than a million voters. Remember that 2016 election was settled by 80,000 votes. So it’s a massive exploitation of our immigration laws. Other entities like the Muslim Brotherhood and the Mexican government are doing the same sort of thing.” [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CNN [1/26/2026 2:17 AM, Laura Sharman, 606K] reports Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez said Sunday she has had "enough" of Washington’s orders, as she works to unite the country after the US capture of its former leader Nicolás Maduro. Rodríguez has been walking a tight-rope since being backed by the US to lead the country in the interim; balancing keeping Maduro loyalists on board at home while trying to ensure the White House is happy. Now, almost a month into her new role, Rodríguez has pushed back on the US, amid ongoing pressure including a series of demands for Venezuela to resume oil production. "Enough already of Washington’s orders over politicians in Venezuela," she told a group of oil workers in Puerto La Cruz city, at an event broadcast by state-run channel Venezolana de Televisión. "Let Venezuelan politics resolve our differences and our internal conflicts. This Republic has paid a very high price for having to confront the consequences of fascism and extremism in our country.” The White House has maintained steady pressure on Venezuela since Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized in a raid in early January and taken to the US, where the former leader is facing charges. Rodríguez, Maduro’s former deputy, has insisted in recent weeks that the US does not govern Venezuela but, equally, has not sought confrontation with Washington. US President Donald Trump had claimed the US was "going to run" Venezuela in the immediate aftermath of Maduro’s capture, but he later backed Rodríguez as the country’s interim leader. CNN has contacted the White House for comment on Rodríguez’s latest statement. For the past 25 years, oil-rich socialist Venezuela has been in constant confrontation with the US. But after deposing Maduro, Washington is now seeking to secure a stable source of authority in Caracas. Internally, the country remains divided among Maduro loyalists, left-wing opposition and "Chavistas No-Maduristas" – supporters of the late Hugo Chávez who reject Maduro, accusing him of betraying 21st-century socialist ideals. Days after the US strikes on Caracas in early January, the Trump administration outlined a number of demands that Venezuela must agree to, including cutting ties with China, Iran, Russia and Cuba, and agreeing to partner exclusively with the US on oil production, two senior White House officials told CNN at the time. Rodríguez was also expected to prioritize the Trump administration and US oil companies for future oil sales. Venezuela’s main economic driver is oil. The country has the world’s largest reserves of extra-heavy crude, a variety that requires a more complex and expensive refining process but which is also compatible with US refineries.

CNN [1/26/2026 12:00 AM, Ben Wedeman, Muhammad Darwish, Charbel Mallo, Nechirvan Mando, 606K] reports we stepped out of the bitter cold, through a plastic flap that passed for a door into darkness. It was warmer inside the tent, but hard to see anything with only a bit of outside light sneaking through the cracks. "Come in! Come in," said a female voice in English. Two children, a girl and a boy, were scampering around. They were speaking in a mixture of English and very proper standard Arabic – the latter immediately striking me as odd since no one in a casual setting speaks that way. We were in Al-Roj camp, a detention center in northeastern Syria where more than 2,000 women and children (though some are no longer children) have been held – some for more than a decade – by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. They are the mostly foreign wives (and in many cases, widows) and children of men affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS. In the gloom I hear another, British-accented, female voice. She asked that we not identify her for fear of complicating her relatives’ legal efforts to repatriate her to the United Kingdom. She told us her British citizenship had been revoked. "I’m scared because I’m a different person," she told us. "I’m not a Daeshi," meaning she’s not a follower of ISIS. "I’m no one. I’m scared for my son.” Her 9-year-old son was regularly beaten up by the other boys in the camp because his mother was no longer loyal to ISIS, she claimed. "I was born in England. I was raised in England," she said. "I don’t have anyone anywhere else. My mum, my dad, my brothers – all are in England. We are utterly and totally stateless.” If you were wondering, this is not Shamima Begum, the east London native who ran away at the age of 15 to join ISIS in 2015. Britain has also revoked her nationality. We did go to what our husky AK-47-toting Kurdish escort said was Begum’s tent, but it was shut. I called out saying I would like to speak to her. "Go away," a London-accented female voice responded. "I don’t want to speak to you.” This was not my first encounter with the women of ISIS. In early 2019, I spent two months in Syria covering the final battle against the terror group. We spoke to dozens of ISIS women – from France, the UK, Morocco, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Indonesia, Finland, etc. Some said they had reluctantly followed their husbands to Syria and Iraq. Others insisted at the time that they still believed in the stark creed of the Islamic State. But here in Roj, the only women willing to speak with us insisted they had long ago discarded any illusions. They just wanted to go home. "I want to come back in my country," Alma Ismailovic, from Serbia, told me in broken English. "I want to live normal life with my children.” Alma was in the camp’s "market," a dirt square with a handful of shops selling food and other basic goods. She was wearing a hijab, a head scarf, rather than the face-covering niqab typical of those with more hardline views. I asked a group of boys who were hanging around the market if they still believed in the ISIS motto that "the Islamic state is staying and spreading," and they laughed dismissively as if I had tried out an old, tired joke on them. "There is no Islamic state," Hanifa Abdallah, from Russia, told me in rudimentary, heavily accented Arabic. "It’s over. All that’s left is us women.”

AP [1/26/2025 3:51 AM, Jon Gambrell, 31753K] reports Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels threatened new attacks on ships traveling through the Red Sea corridor, likely trying to back Iran as it worried Monday about an approaching U.S. aircraft carrier after President Donald Trump threatened military action over its crackdown on nationwide protests. A short video by the Houthis included previously published images of a ship on fire, with the caption: “Soon.” The rebels did not elaborate, but their campaign in the Red Sea saw over 100 ships attacked as part of a campaign the Houthis said pressured Israel over its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis halted their fire after a ceasefire in the conflict, though they’ve repeatedly warned they could resume fire if needed. The Houthi threat come as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other guided missile destroyers with it move toward the region. Trump has said the ships are being moved “just in case” he decides to take action against Iran. Trump already has laid out two red lines for attack — the killing of peaceful protesters and Tehran conducting mass executions of those it has arrested in a massive crackdown over the demonstrations. Iranian Defense Ministry spokesperson Gen. Reza Talaei-Nik renewed warnings Monday to both Israel and the U.S. over any possible attack, saying it would “be met with a response that is more painful and more decisive than in the past.” Iranian state television quoted Talaei-Nik as adding that threats from the two countries required Iran “to maintain full and comprehensive preparedness.”

The New York Times [1/26/2026 12:00 AM, Elian Peltier and Adam Goldman, 135475K] reports for months, U.S. and Afghan officials have secretly negotiated the release of U.S. detainees — a priority for President Trump and a nonnegotiable prerequisite for any further diplomatic engagement with the Taliban. Yet even as at least five U.S. prisoners have been freed from Afghanistan over the past year, talks have stalled over the fate of remaining detainees, according to three people involved in the negotiations. While several U.S. prisoners remain in custody, Afghan officials say the release of the last Afghan inmate at Guantánamo Bay rests with the United States and should be part of any further deal. The Guantánamo inmate’s case and the whereabouts of a U.S. citizen in Afghan custody remain a central flashpoint between the Trump administration, which accuses Afghanistan of hostage diplomacy, and a Taliban government that denies those accusations while it seeks recognition from the United States. “We want these two American detainees to be released, and, at the same time, the fate of our detainee who is in Guantánamo should be made clear,” Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in an interview with The Times in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar — the first time Afghan officials are making their demand public. “Our prisoner should be released.” The Afghan detainee, Muhammad Rahim, is accused of acting as a courier and interpreter for Osama Bin Laden within Al Qaeda. Why the Taliban have decided to comment publicly on a potential prisoner swap is unclear. But it signals an impasse in negotiations with the Trump administration, which has publicly demanded the release of at least three Americans. The Taliban say they have only two — identified by U.S. officials as Dennis Walter Coyle, an academic held since last January, and Polynesis Jackson, a former U.S. Army soldier whose reasons for being in the country remain murky.

Bloomberg [1/26/2026 3:16 AM, Staff, 18207K] reports Russia’s first domestically built ice-class tanker is closing in on the US-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 plant, expanding the facility’s fleet of vessels able to transport the fuel in winter. The Alexey Kosygin tanker has completed its monthlong maiden journey across the eastern part of the Northern Sea Route and is preparing to dock at the Novatek PJSC-led plant, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Once the vessel docks at Arctic LNG 2, it will be only the second ice-class tanker to do so. It is rated Arc-7, the highest ice-class ranking, which means the ship can service the plant in winter. Until now, the only such vessel traveling to the facility has been the Christophe de Margerie. Designed to be Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas plant, Arctic LNG 2 is central to the country’s ambition to triple LNG output to 100 million tons a year and capture a 20% share of the global market. The addition of another ice-class tanker will support LNG production and exports during the winter, when thick ice covers Arctic waters. Novatek, the project’s largest shareholder, didn’t respond to Bloomberg requests for comment on the vessel’s current or future operations. The plant’s operator also didn’t respond. With a design capacity of almost 20 million tons a year, Arctic LNG 2 began producing the super-chilled fuel at the end of 2023, but only started exports the following summer after Western sanctions delayed shipments. During the winter, when ice thickens along the Northern Sea Route, only tankers with reinforced hulls can load cargoes at Arctic LNG 2. Most vessels servicing the facility aren’t designed to operate in such conditions, and Western restrictions have made it difficult to procure additional ice-class ships. Domestic construction of ice-class tankers has also taken longer than expected due to limited expertise in Russia. The Alexey Kosygin, built at the Zvezda shipyard in the country’s Far East, was originally scheduled for delivery in March 2023. Read More: LNG Fleet Scarcity Caps Russia’s Arctic 2 Export Potential: BNEF A shortage of ice-class vessels prevented Arctic LNG 2 from loading during the winter of 2023–24, and gas production at fields supplying the plant slumped to about 1 million cubic meters a day in November and December 2024. By contrast, those fields pumped an average of 9.3 million cubic meters a day last month, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The increase may indicate that Arctic LNG 2 was preparing to resume more active loadings with the arrival of the Alexey Kosygin. While Russia still aims to triple LNG output from current levels, Western restrictions have pushed those plans back by several years, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said in December.

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