Hundreds of people gather around the growing memorial at 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue South in Minneapolis where federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti on Saturday, January 24, 2026. (Photo: Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is facing growing criticism, including from some congressional Republicans and moderate Democrats, for her response to the second killing by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
President Donald Trump reiterated his confidence in Noem on Tuesday, but several Republican senators – a group that overwhelmingly voted for Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security last year – are pushing for an independent investigation into Saturday’s killing 37-year-old Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents and calling on her to testify before Congress.
And Democrats, who are generally not among the most aggressive members of their party in opposing the Trump administration, have joined the call to impeach Noem and reduce funding for her department.
Trump, however, told reporters that the former South Dakota governor did a good job, especially when it came to controlling border crossings.
“No,” he replied when asked whether he would step down, according to White House pool reports.
He made a similar statement to Fox News’ Will Cain during an afternoon appearance in Iowa.
“She was there with the border,” he told Cain. “Who closed the border? She did it.”
GOP calls for an investigation
Calls for an independent investigation signaled something of a loss of trust among some Republicans in Noem in the wake of his missteps after Pretti’s killing. Last year, no Republican senators voted against her confirmation.
Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, criticized Noem on Tuesday for not placing the agents involved in Pretti’s shooting on administrative leave.
“This should happen immediately,” Paul wrote on Tuesday on social media, adding that “an independent investigation is necessary to restore calm.”
Within hours of Saturday’s shooting, Noem called Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, a “domestic terrorist” whose intent was to “do maximum harm to individuals and kill law enforcement.”
Noem used similar terminology to refer to a federal immigration officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good It’s January 7th.
Both Good and Pretti’s shootings were widely captured on camera, contradicting Noem’s claims that both posed a threat.
Multiple videos show Good driving away when Ross fired three shots into her windshield.
Video analysis by the New York Times shows Pretti being wrestled to the ground by multiple agents, and after being restrained, two officers fired 10 shots. The analysis also shows that the officer took away Pretti’s pistol for which he had a permit while immobilizing him.
These contradictions hurt Noem’s standing among some Republicans.
“I don’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately refer to a victim as a ‘domestic terrorist’ or a ‘would-be assassin,'” Paul said, taking aim at both Noem and senior White House adviser Stephen Miller, who called Pretti a “would-be assassin.”
Auditions
Also mention he said that because Pretti had a gun, he inherently posed a threat to DHS agents, which divided Republicans.
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho disagreed with Noem’s criticism of Pretti’s gun ownership.
“His family, law-abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights, and the trust of the American people deserve a fair trial,” he said on the show Monday on social media.
Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, criticized Noem for the way she responded to Saturday’s shooting.
“Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the mission of law enforcement.” – he wrote on social media Monday. “I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature response from DHS, which came before all the facts were known, which undermined confidence.”
He also called for an independent investigation.
On Monday, Paul called several heads of homeland security agencies to testify before his committee – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The same agency leaders are scheduled to appear before the House Homeland Security Committee on February 10.
Democrats intensify impeachment talks
Democrats are calling for Noem’s removal and also pushing for changes to the Homeland Security Funding Act, increasing the risk of a partial government shutdown at midnight on Friday.
in the House, Co-sponsored by 162 Democrats Articles of impeachment against Noem were published on Tuesday afternoon, and the number continued to grow throughout the day. There were articles first introduced shortly after Good’s death.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other House Democratic leaders issued a joint statement Monday calling for Noem’s firing. If that doesn’t happen, Democrats will pursue impeachment, leaders said. These efforts are unlikely to be undertaken in a GOP-controlled House.
“Radical changes are needed at the Department of Homeland Security,” Jeffries said. “Federal agents who broke the law must be held criminally accountable. Paramilitary tactics must stop.”
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called on Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio to begin impeachment proceedings against Noem, noting that her department’s masked agents “brutally killed two American citizens.”
“Rather than cold-bloodedly condemning these unlawful and brutal killings, Secretary Noem immediately labeled Renée and Alex ‘domestic terrorists,’ blatantly lied about the circumstances of the shooting that took their lives, and attempted to cover up and block any legitimate investigation into their deaths,” Raskin said.
On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a moderate Democrat who voted to confirm Noem, directly appealed to Trump to fire her.
“Americans have died,” Fetterman said in a statement. “It betrays the core mission of DHS and destroys its border security legacy.”
Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, another moderate Democrat, also called for Noem’s impeachment.
Trump is pivoting
Facing mounting pressure, Trump did just that he softened his tone with state and local officials and withdrew from his administration’s aggressive immigration operations in Minnesota, which Noem oversaw.
Trump directed border czar Tom Homan to go to Minnesota to take over ICE operations, effectively sidelining Noem, who in December deployed 3,000 federal immigration officers to the state after right-wing influential media outlets again revealed reports of fraud in state social services programs.
According to numerous media reports, on Monday evening, top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino was removed as top commander and sent back to California.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision to send Homan to Minnesota, arguing that Noem was busy managing FEMA operations while the winter storm gripped much of the country.
Financial account
In the wake of Saturday’s shooting, Senate Democrats he quickly objected the homeland security spending bill that the chamber was expected to adopt this week.
Democrats instead argued that the measure should be removed from the government’s six-bill package and renegotiated to include more restrictions on federal immigration enforcement.
The funding package passed the House this month, but most Democrats opposed any ICE funding that would keep the funding level constant at $10 billion.
Even in the event of a partial government shutdown, DHS could still spend up to $190 billion under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the president’s signature tax and spending cut package signed into law last summer.
