On Wednesday, January 28, 2026, a growing memorial is rising where 37-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents days earlier on Nicollet Avenue and 26th Street in Minneapolis. (Photo: Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
WASHINGTON – Top leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee showed video footage leading up to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by Customs and Border Protection officers during a hearing Thursday of the heads of two federal immigration agencies over the incident.
Chairman Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, said there must be accountability in the January deaths of Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, and Renee Good, a mother of three and a poet, at the hands of immigration agents.
“The thousands of people on the streets of Minneapolis and Minnesota and the millions of spectators who witnessed the recent deaths clearly demonstrate that public trust has been lost,” Paul said. “To restore trust in (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the Border Patrol, they must admit their mistakes, be honest and direct about their rules of engagement, and commit to reform.”
Paul and Michigan State Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the panel, questioned acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott about immigration officers’ use of force tactics and whether agents followed de-escalation procedures.
“You need to look at your draw policy because I don’t think they’re applying the same standards as the police,” Paul said of immigration agents.
This was the second hearing this week for Scott and Lyons on congressional oversight. Democrats and Republicans are at an impasse on agency funding for fiscal year 2026, with Democrats demanding changes in immigration enforcement tactics following deadly encounters in Minneapolis.
However, shutting down the country will not stop President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Even if no agreement is reached on DHS funding by Friday and the agency is closed, ICE will still have $75 billion in funding from last year’s tax and spending package.
Minutes after Thursday’s hearing, border czar Tom Homan announced that immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis would end after two months.
Pretti pepper sprayed, held
Paul and Peters showed the leaders of CBP and ICE New York Times video analysis leading to shooting Prettiwho was pepper sprayed and knocked to the ground by multiple immigration officers. He was held down and at least 10 shots are heard on the recording.
Lyons and Scott declined to comment on the videos shown, saying multiple investigations are ongoing. Scott said the FBI, CBP and ICE are conducting their own investigation.
Paul expressed frustration with that response and pointed to events leading up to Pretti’s meetings with federal officers. The video shows a woman shouting at a federal immigration officer. She is pushed to the ground and Pretti helps her up.
“No one in America believes that sticking that woman’s head in the snow was de-escalation,” Paul said.
Paul asked if the appropriate response to someone screaming is to knock them to the ground.
Scott said that wasn’t the case, but he couldn’t comment on a specific movie.
Paul said the video clearly shows Pretti using his hand to protect his face from the pepper spray.
“He backs out at any moment,” Paul said. “He tries to escape and gets splashed in the face with water. I don’t think that’s de-escalation. That’s escalation.”
Paul said an investigation needed to be conducted quickly.
Scott said there is body camera footage from the officers involved in Pretti’s shooting that will be made public.
“I don’t think it should take months and months and years and years,” Paul said. “Conclusions must be drawn.”
Peters turned his attention to immigration officers beating Pretti with a canister of pepper spray. He asked Scott if that was the right answer.
“I see that the subject is also not following the rules, he is not following any directions. He is constantly resisting,” Scott said, adding that he could not answer Peters’ question because the investigation was ongoing.
Peters then asked Scott and Lyons why DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was quick to label Good and Pretti “domestic terrorists.” He asked the men if they had given her any briefings or additional information that would enable her to reach this conclusion.
They both said no.
Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin also told Lyons she was concerned about Trump’s statements about sending immigration agents to polling places ahead of the midterm elections.
“There is no reason for us to go to the polling station,” he said.
Minnesota withdrawal
Oklahoma Republican Senator James Lankford informed the first panel that brought Minnesota leaders to the nation’s capital of Homan’s decision announcement that the wave would end in Minneapolis.
The first panel included Republican Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota; Republican Party Leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives Harry Niska; Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Democrat; and Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell.
Lankford said better coordination between local and federal law enforcement is needed, such as through 287(g) agreements. For those relationships that are voluntary, local law enforcement will notify ICE if they arrest someone who is in the country illegally and hold that person until federal immigration officials arrive.
“So my office’s position is that if you are a sheriff who wants to pursue 287(g), you need to have the support of the county board,” Ellison said, adding that seven counties have such agreements.
One Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, blamed the deaths of Pretti and Good on immigration agents who killed them. He said they occurred because Ellison insisted that Minnesotans exercise their First Amendment rights.
“Two people are dead because you encouraged them to put themselves in danger,” Johnson told Ellison. “And now you’re taking advantage of these two martyrs. You should feel damn guilty about it.”
In response, Ellison said, “It was cool theater, but it was all lies.”
“Occupied by the Federal Government”
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Andy Kim noted that the number of ICE agents, about 3,000, initially sent to Minneapolis far outnumbered the local police force, which numbers roughly just under 600. He asked Ellison how he felt in Minneapolis, with so many federal immigration agents in the city.
“I felt like we were being occupied by the federal government,” Ellison said.
During the second panel, Kim asked Lyons if ICE planned to conduct a similar operation in other cities.
Lyons said the agency would do so and learned lessons from the deportation operation in Minneapolis.
“We are learning lessons,” Lyons said. “I think the problem is… the agitators and the coordination on the protest side. People can go out and protest, but why are we going to encourage individuals to go out there and be disruptive and put themselves in harm’s way? I think that’s the lesson learned from this.”
