In Reversal of Admin’s Statements, DHS Officials Say Pretti Killers Are on Leave

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has said that the federal officers who shot and killed Alex Pretti have been put on administrative leave, marking a reversal from previous statements as the agency faces increased pressure and a funding battle in Congress.

News outlets have also cited a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson saying that the officers are on leave.

“The two officers involved are on administrative leave. This is standard protocol,” a CBP spokesperson told The Guardian. The killers have still not been identified.

This stands in direct contrast to what top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino said about the officers. When asked if the officers have been placed on leave, Bovino told reporters on Monday that “all agents that were involved in that scene are working, not in Minneapolis, but in other locations.”

DHS said in a preliminary report to Congress this week that two agents fired shots at Pretti, a Border Patrol agent and CBP officer. This confirms analysis by outside groups of the incident. Together, the two fired at him at least 10 times over the course of five seconds, analyses of video footage have found.

The about-face on the agents, as well as the appeal to “standard protocol,” comes as the administration is seemingly scrambling to find the right response to and potentially a scapegoat for the horrific killing of Pretti on Saturday.

Facing dual pressures of calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and immigration boss Stephen Miller to resign or be removed, as well as a standoff in the Senate as Democrats threaten to vote down DHS’s funding bill, administration officials who initially came out strong with remarks about the incident have since softened their rhetoric.

On Wednesday, for instance, Miller pointed fingers at the “CBP team” responsible for the killing. He said the White House has given “clear guidance” for officers to protect “arrest teams,” suggesting but not outright saying that the shooting was not part of that guidance.

“We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,” Miller said in a statement provided to news outlets.

This is a sharp turn from Miller’s statements shortly after the killing on Saturday, when he characterized Miller as an “assassin” and “domestic terrorist.” Noem also characterized Pretti’s actions — which were apparently just filming ICE with his phone — as the “definition of domestic terrorism.” Bovino, meanwhile, said, completely without evidence, that Pretti wanted to “massacre law enforcement.”

Those statements were so extreme that even the White House sought to distance itself from them — even as President Donald Trump and others in the executive continued their smear campaign against the Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. The Trump administration also reassigned Bovino and took away his access to his X account, where he was a prolific poster.

However, in distancing itself from the most extreme claims, the Trump administration is likely trying to draw heat away from its still ongoing enforcement actions.

DHS is still active in Minneapolis with staunchly anti-immigration Tom Homan now reportedly in charge of the operation. The Trump administration is still seeking to escalate its tactics against those opposed to ICE, with FBI Director Kash Patel saying on Monday that his agency is investigating Signal chats where ICE watchers are organizing.

Meanwhile, in a sharp break from protocol, the Department of Justice is not pursuing a civil rights investigation of the killing of Pretti, despite such a probe being standard protocol when law enforcement carry out fatal shootings.