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The Trump administration’s new head of Operation Metro Surge, “border czar” Tom Homan, suggested on Thursday that anti-ICE protests forced federal agents’ hand in the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, in a chilling statement on free speech.
In remarks at the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, the site of many protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, Homan vowed to continue ICE’s presence in the region “until the problem is gone.” He said, however, that protesters must end their “rhetoric” against the invasion, saying that, the more people protest, the more Department of Homeland Security agents the administration will send in.
“We got to stop the rhetoric, the hateful rhetoric, that has caused an increase in assaults,” he said, referring to the administration’s false claim that DHS agents are facing a 1,000 percent increase in attacks against them. This claim has been thoroughly debunked, including by the fact that the vast majority of cases have represented extremely minor charges or been reduced to no charges at all.
“I begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop. I said in March, if the rhetoric doesn’t stop, there is gonna be bloodshed. And there has been,” Homan continued. “I wish I wasn’t right. I don’t want to see anybody die.”
He went on to say that those opposing ICE shouldn’t be protesting on the streets in their own communities, but instead targeting Congress.
“If you don’t like what ICE is doing, instead of protesting this building, go protest Congress,” he said. “You have your First Amendment rights. I support that. You have the right to protest, I’m just asking you keep it peaceful. But threatening law enforcement officers, engaging in impeding and obstruction and assault is never okay and there will be zero tolerance.”
Homan’s remarks suggest that he believes it was the fault of protesters that DHS agents killed Pretti and Good, whom he never mentioned by name — rather than acknowledging that top administration officials like Vice President JD Vance and Stephen Miller have repeatedly told agents to act as though they have “absolute immunity.”
Remarks like Homan’s and others by the administration also seek to redefine what constitutes violence, painting federal agents as the victims without acknowledging that the quickest way to dissipate protests is for the administration to heed demonstrators’ demands and withdraw.
The so-called border czar says agents will go after anyone participating in “impeding and obstruction and assault,” but Pretti and Good were not doing any of those things at the time of their killings.
Video taken by the ICE agent who killed Good, Jonathan Ross, shows that Good wasn’t blocking officers at all when Ross shot her three times; in fact, she was seemingly trying to de-escalate, saying “That’s fine, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
Footage of Pretti’s killing by Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection agents, meanwhile, shows that Pretti was merely filming agents with his phone when they began to assault him. Though officials have cited his possession of a gun as the reason for his execution-style death, even an internal DHS review has found that he never brandished his firearm.
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