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By Shane Croucher
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Tom Homan, the White House border czar sent to take control of immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, would not comment on the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, saying he had an opinion but would wait for the investigation to finish.
At a press conference in Minneapolis on Thursday morning, Homan was asked to respond to a new video showing Pretti clashing with federal immigration officers eleven days before he was fatally shot on January 24. Pretti, 37, can be seen kicking the taillight off an SUV.
The ICU nurse, a U.S. citizen, was shot dead by Border Patrol agents in a confrontation during an operation in Minneapolis days later. The officers had removed a gun that Pretti was lawfully carrying in a holster on his body. Federal investigations are underway.
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"Do I have an opinion? Yeah, my personal opinion, but I'm not going to share that with you. I'm going to tell you, let the investigation play out and see where it goes," Homan said.
"I don't want to see anybody die. Even the people we're looking for," he added.
Essential Reading: Uncommon Knowledge—Amid Calls To Abolish ICE, Has Trump Made America Safe Again?
Pretti's death and DHS officials' reaction to it, characterizing him as a domestic terrorist, perhaps intending to massacre law enforcement officers, triggered a wave of bipartisan backlash against the administration.
The outcry prompted President Donald Trump to pull Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino from Minneapolis and replace him with Homan, and said he intended to de-escalate in Minnesota. Pretti was the second U.S. citizen protesting against ICE to die at the hands of federal officers in Minneapolis, the first being Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, on January 7.
Homan called on people to tone down the "dangerous rhetoric" that he said was fueling attacks on ICE officers and leading to clashes in the streets. He said he has reached agreements with Democratic leaders in Minnesota that, if implemented, should lead to a winding down of federal immigration agents in the state.
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Trump this week promised an "honest" investigation into Pretti's shooting.
“A week before Alex was gunned down in the street—despite posing no threat to anyone—he was violently assaulted by a group of (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents," Steve Schleicher, a Minneapolis-based attorney representing Pretti's parents, said in a statement to AP about the earlier altercation involving Pretti, shown in the new video.
"Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing at the hands of ICE on Jan 24.”
Three federal investigations into the shooting are underway. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were investigating the shooting, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection was “conducting their own internal review,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.
Meanwhile, a judge issued an order blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” after Minnesota officials sued in a bid to preserve evidence for an independent state investigation.
Update 1/29/26, 10:36 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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