As a federal court weighs the legality of the Trump administration’s “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, new polling shows that the American public is deeply skeptical of the White House’s ability to be the sole investigative authority in the latest killing of a Minneapolis resident by immigration agents.
According to a YouGov survey conducted on Sunday, only 24 percent of Americans say the federal government should conduct an inquiry into the death of Alex Pretti, who was shot and killed by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents over the weekend. The poll shows that 48 percent of Americans want a joint investigation instead, involving both the federal government and state investigators.
In another question, YouGov asked whether or not respondents felt the shooting of Pretti — who was killed by CBP agents as he attempted to help someone who agents had shoved to the ground — was justified. Only 20 percent said it was, with 1 in 2 Americans (48 percent) saying it was not. Thirty-two percent said they were not sure.
Importantly, however, only 52 percent of respondents to the poll said they had seen video of Pretti’s killing, with 30 percent admitting they hadn’t seen it but had “heard about it.” Among those who had seen video of Pretti being killed, a much higher rate, 63 percent, deemed it an unjustified shooting.
Some Trump administration officials have brazenly labeled Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” in the wake of his public killing, providing zero evidence for their claims.
“Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism,” Department of Homeland Security (DSH) Secretary Kristi Noem said hours after Pretti was killed.
Video of Pretti’s interactions with CBP officers shows that, before and during the incident, he didn’t act violently toward agents.
Noem also claimed that Pretti — who is a concealed carry permit holder in the state — was at the protest “to perpetuate violence” based solely on his having a weapon. In fact, Pretti never placed his hand on his gun when CBP agents pepper-sprayed and otherwise attacked him, and video appears to show that his gun was removed from his person before he was shot.
President Donald Trump also appeared to blame Pretti for his own death. In a Truth Social post over the weekend, Trump shared an image of Pretti’s gun, baselessly implying that it was improper or illegal to carry the weapon, despite the fact that it was entirely legal for Pretti to do so.
“This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go – What is that all about?” Trump wrote, whining in a separate post that he believed attention given to Pretti’s killing was a “cover up” for supposed fraud taking place in Minnesota.
Pretti’s parents have since released a statement condemning the administration’s characterization of their son. Their statement reads, in part:
Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. … The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs.
As Americans’ support for Trump’s immigration policies in general has dropped significantly, and opinions on the agencies he’s used to carry out his plans (such as CBP and ICE) sour, Minnesota lawmakers have filed a lawsuit demanding that Operation Metro Surge come to an end, asserting that the state’s 10th Amendment right to self-governance is being violated.
On Monday, a court hearing was held on whether to place a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the federal government from being able to execute the operation further. Brian Scott Carter of the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office argued in favor of the state’s position that the operation should cease completely.
“We have never had the federal government amass what is essentially an army of masked, heavily armed agents, and sent them into a state to basically stir the pot with conduct that is pervasive and includes widespread, illegal violent conduct,” Carter said in his statements to the court.
Putting the present situation in the Twin Cities in dire terms, Carter told Judge Katherine Menendez that, if allowed to persist, he couldn’t see a way that anyone would have faith in how the country operates in the near future.
Although at times sympathetic to Carter’s arguments, Menendez questioned whether a ruling in the state’s favor would be beyond her scope of power.
“How do I decide when a law enforcement response crosses the line from a legitimate law enforcement response to a violation of the 10th Amendment?,” she said, pondering what “line” had been crossed for her to decide in favor of “kick[ing] ICE out of the state?”
But Menendez was equally questioning of the Trump administration’s actions, pointing to times that officials have described Operation Metro Surge in telling ways.
Menendez noted, for example, that Attorney General Pam Bondi had written to the state that the surge would end if state lawmakers merely changed their laws — a statement that suggests the surge of federal immigration officials is politically motivated.
The judge also pointed to Trump’s own claim, prior to the surge, that Minnesota’s “day of retribution” was coming.
“What do I do with that?” Menendez asked lawyers for the administration.
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