The Midday report ….
CNN: “The earlier incident started when he stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle, according to a source who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.”
“Pretti later told the source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back – an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene.”
Neither has been identified…
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Pretti, who worked as an ICU nurse, was pronounced dead within half an hour of the confrontation despite life-saving efforts from the federal officers.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office is currently conducting an autopsy.
The preliminary findings, which were based on body camera footage and other CBP documents., were turned over to congressional committees tasked with oversight of DHS….
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Border Patrol agents who fatally shot Alex Pretti during Minneapolis anti-ICE protest placed on administrative leave..
The Border Patrol agents involved in the fatal shooting of nurse Alex Pretti have been placed on administrative leave, The Post has learned.
The move is standard protocol for officers involved in a shooting, Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed….
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Miller Suggests Federal Agents May Have Diverted From ‘Protocol’ Before Pretti Shooting
Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Trump, has suggested that federal agents “may not have been following” protocol before the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, after days in which he and other Trump administration officials portrayed the shooting as justified.
Mr. Miller said in a statement that the White House had provided “clear guidance” to the Department of Homeland Security that federal agents deployed to Minnesota as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown be used to protect “arrest teams” from people he described as “disruptors.”
“We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,” Mr. Miller said in the statement, referring to agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a law enforcement agency under the department. The statement was provided to The New York Times on Wednesday by a White House spokesperson and was reported earlier by CNN….
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Shortly after the shooting, Mr. Miller, the highly influential deputy White House chief of staff, characterized the 37-year-old Minneapolis resident in a social media post as a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin” who had “tried to murder federal agents,” without providing evidence. He accused Democratic leaders who had condemned the killing of inciting insurrection….
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Trump is dealing with an immigration mess of his own making
The killing of Alex Pretti on Saturday, coming just two weeks after the shooting death of Renée Good, represents a crisis moment for Trump’s immigration policy. The tentative steps he has taken to de-escalate may offer him some breathing room. But will he learn from the mistakes that have brought him to this moment? History suggests no, because it would require a fundamental rethinking of his immigration policy.
Trump has shown no limits on the issue of immigration. He used the issue to win the 2016 election and again the 2024 election. Attacking immigrants, particularly those here illegally, was his not-so-secret sauce. Economic issues aided his comeback in 2024, but frustration over immigration was also a major driver.
President Joe Biden’s immigration policy — he allowed a huge influx of undocumented immigrants through a porous southern border — provided Trump with the conditions he needed in the campaign to exploit the always volatile issue. In the campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t find a way to undo the political damage the president she served had caused….
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Trump promised to rid the country of violent undocumented immigrants, those with criminal convictions who nonetheless were still here. But he went further. His agents would seek to deport anyone who had crossed the border illegally, whether they had lived here peacefully for years or even decades. That part of the policy was unworkable from the start; now it has been Trump’s undoing…..
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To meet quotas established by Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, enforcement became random and often violent, sweeping up noncriminal undocumented immigrants. A Wall Street Journal editorial Monday, citing the Cato Institute, noted that since October, “73% taken into ICE custody had no criminal conviction and only 5% had a violent criminal conviction.”
That is a dramatic reversal compared with early in 2025. “The Trump Administration’s rhetoric about deporting criminals doesn’t match its current much broader policy of mass deportation,” the Journal editorial said…
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There will be events to take attention away from Minneapolis, and it’s probable that Homan will bring about a reduction in the ICE footprint there. But for Trump, the issue that has been at the heart of his political appeal is dragging him down.
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Trump comes out swinging at Minneapolis Mayor Frey and Trp Omar after slowing his roll ….
President Trump renewed his verbal attacks on Minnesota officials over the last 24 hours, jeopardizing attempts to de-escalate tensions between his administration and the state’s leaders.
Why it matters: The White House’s attempt to turn down the temperature in Minnesota after two fatal shootings by federal agents seems to have been short-lived.
Driving the news: Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was “PLAYING WITH FIRE!” after Frey saidthat his city does not enforce federal immigration law.
- Frey replied, saying he wants police protecting residents, not “hunting down a working dad.”
Zoom out: On Tuesday, Trump again targeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) during a speech in Iowa….
More Updates Here Later in the day….
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