Soon after Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, top Trump administration officials made sweeping, categorical statements about the deadly shooting before a full investigation had begun.
The Department of Homeland Security said the Border Patrol agent fired “defensive shots,” fearing for his life because Pretti had a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed Pretti intended to “kill” and “inflict maximum damage.” Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said Pretti planned to “massacre” federal agents. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called Pretti a “would-be assassin.”
These statements by senior administration officials, many of which have been directly contradicted by videos of the incident and witness accounts, have caused internal frustration among some at DHS who are increasingly concerned about the agency’s reputation, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation told CBS News.
One U.S. government official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said top DHS officials were mishandling the public messaging around the deadly incident, making statements that were not supported by concrete evidence, before any investigative findings came out.
“It’s unclear who at DHS thought it would be a good idea to make such claims before any facts were established, but it was a terrible miscalculation,” the U.S. official said.
A Homeland Security official who works on immigration enforcement expressed concern about the possibility of “self-inflicted reputational harm” being caused by the “strong language” used by top officials following Pretti’s killing.
“When we gaslight and contradict what the public can plainly see with their own eyes, we lose all credibility and it’s going to damage our reputation for generations,” the DHS official said, also requesting anonymity because this official is not authorized to talk to the press.
In a statement to CBS News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Nobody, including President Trump, wants to see people get shot or hurt.”
“That’s exactly why Governor Walz and Mayor Frey need to allow local police to work with federal law enforcement to remove illegal alien criminals, murderers, and pedophiles from Minnesota,” Leavitt added.
The frustrations inside DHS come amid a shift in public opinion toward President Trump’s deportation efforts. A CBS News poll earlier this month found that Americans’ support for his deportation campaign had fallen to 46%, down from 59% at the start of his administration. The poll also found 61% of those surveyed believe immigration agents are being “too tough.”
A former senior Border Patrol official who continues to be in touch with current agency personnel said many still “believe in the overall effort.”
“But what is being done is starting to lose them,” the former official said, noting the “initial narrative” from DHS about the shooting “undermines our credibility.”
“They feel caught in the middle with harmful rhetoric on both sides,” the former official said.
“A horrible situation for everyone”
The shooting of 37-year-old Pretti has further inflamed tensions in Minneapolis, which has been the focus of the deployment of federal agents so far under President Trump’s nationwide campaign against illegal immigration. It came less than three weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed Renee Good, another U.S. citizen and Minneapolis resident.
In Good’s case, top Trump administration officials also made broad accusations early on, branding her a “domestic terrorist” and alleging that she had sought to injure the ICE officer. Lawyers representing Good’s family have said the Minneapolis mother and her partner were observing ICE activity.
Videos of the latest shooting show Pretti standing in the middle of a street holding up his phone toward Border Patrol agents. After he and several others were pushed back, he was sprayed with a chemical agent before being wrestled to the ground by agents and appeared to struggle as they tried to bring his arms behind his back. He was then shot multiple times.
While DHS alleged that Pretti “approached” officers with a handgun and “violently resisted” when agents tried to disarm him, videos reviewed by CBS News do not show Pretti with a gun in his hand before he’s shot. Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.
How the incident is being investigated is also raising questions. U.S. officials and FBI Director Kash Patel said ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations branch has taken the lead role investigating the shooting, a move current and former agency officials described as highly unusual. Instead of tasking an outside entity to probe the shooting, they noted, ICE would be tasked with investigating the actions of another DHS agency: Border Patrol.
As in the Good case, Minnesota state officials have said they’ve been blocked from accessing evidence needed to investigate Pretti’s shooting. Over the weekend, a federal judge barred DHS from altering or destroying evidence of the incident. The judge is holding a hearing on the case later Monday.
A Border Patrol official who was granted anonymity to speak freely said the Trump administration should wait for an investigation before making definitive statements about Pretti’s killing, calling the shooting “a horrible situation for everyone.”
The official said immigration agents are facing an “extremely difficult situation” in the field, citing instances of them getting attacked or obstructed while on the job.
Border Patrol agents, the official argued, have been “beat up” by both sides of the political spectrum in recent years. First, by some conservatives, who accused them of being complicit in the crisis at the U.S. southern border under former President Joe Biden and now, by liberals angry over President Trump’s deportation crackdown.
“We are being politicized and that’s not the job we signed up for,” the Border Patrol official said.