Tabby Wilson,BBC Newsand
Ana Faguy,Minneapolis
EPA
US President Donald Trump says his administration is “reviewing everything” after the deadly shooting by immigration brokers of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday.
In his feedback to the Wall Street Journal, Trump additionally indicated that he would finally withdraw brokers from town. But he didn’t give a timeframe.
Protests continued in Minneapolis and different US cities on Sunday, as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz warned that America was at an “inflection point”.
The info across the incident – the second deadly shooting by brokers of a US citizen in current weeks – have been hotly contested, organising a recent confrontation between state and federal officers.
The administration has defended the officer who shot Pretti. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated Pretti was shot as a result of he was “brandishing” a gun.
Local authorities deny this, including that the gun was legally registered and that Pretti was shot after the firearm was eliminated.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump was instantly requested twice whether or not the agent had performed the suitable factor. He responded: “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.”
He additionally advised the newspaper: “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it.” He added: “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
The Trump administration is dealing with strain from some distinguished Republicans, who’ve joined opposition Democrats in calling for a wide-ranging investigation.
Senator Bill Cassidy stated the probe ought to contain each federal and state officers. Congressman James Comer, an ally of Trump, urged that the president ought to take into account withdrawing immigration brokers from Minneapolis and sending them elsewhere, telling Fox News that town’s mayor and state governor had been placing them in hurt’s method, and “there’s a chance of losing more innocent lives”.
In his feedback to the Wall Street Journal, Trump stated of the deployment: “At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job.”
Multiple vigils had been held for Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend.
Lifelong resident Pege Miller, 69, was amongst those that gathered on Sunday afternoon to pay her respects and protest towards the Immigration and Customs Enforcement company (ICE).
“I’m tired of protesting,” she advised the BBC. “We can’t comprehend how this is happening. Why are we letting this happen?”
Demonstrators of all ages had been chanting “No more Minnesota nice – Minneapolis on strike” and “ICE out now” earlier than they started shifting by way of town streets.
“This is not the America I fought for,” stated one man the BBC spoke to, who requested to not be named.
Protests have unfold to different US cities, together with New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The chief executives of greater than 60 Minnesota-based companies, together with 3M, Best Buy and Target have additionally signed an open letter calling for “an immediate de-escalation of tensions” and for native and federal officers “to work together to find real solutions”.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara advised the BBC that state officers had been blocked from accessing the scene of Pretti’s shooting by federal brokers, regardless of securing a search warrant.
He added that each one ranges of regulation enforcement in Minnesota have been working with federal regulation enforcement “for several years”, and that the unfolding state of affairs in Minnesota was hampering businesses’ capacity to proceed such investigations.
Lawmakers proceed to be divided over the shooting of Pretti, in addition to his second Amendment proper to bear arms. It is authorized in Minnesota to hold a handgun in public when you’ve got a allow.
The administration has characterised the Minneapolis operation as a public security effort aimed toward deporting criminals illegally within the US. It has additionally described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist”.
Critics warn migrants with no prison document and US residents are being detained, too.
Pretti’s household issued an announcement in response to the remark, saying: “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting”.
They added that he had no interplay with regulation enforcement past a handful of site visitors tickets. According to Associated Press (AP), courtroom information present he had no prison document.
“Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man,” his household stated within the assertion.
On Sunday, Tim Walz stated: “I don’t care if you are conservative and you are flying a Donald Trump flag, you’re a libertarian, don’t tread on me, you’re a Democratic Socialist of America. This is an inflection point, America.
“If we can’t all agree that the smearing of an American citizen and besmirching every little thing they stood for and asking us to not imagine what we noticed, I do not know what else to let you know.”
Watch: ‘Horrifying to so many people’ protesters express anger and shock over ICE killing
Backlash against the Trump administration’s crackdown is growing, including from within the Republican party.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt told CNN that people were watching fellow Americans being shot on television and that “federal techniques and accountability” had become a growing concern for voters.
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said the Minneapolis shooting was “extremely disturbing” and “the credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake.”
Democrats have responded by threatening to block a key government financing package if it contains funds for the Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, raising the prospect of another government shutdown.
Former Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have both criticised the situation in Minneapolis, with the former described events in Minneapolis as “horrible scenes” that “I by no means thought would happen in America.”
Getty Images
25 January, 2026: A demonstration against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago
Few Minnesotans the BBC spoke to said they supported ICE operations, but several polls suggest about half of voters nationwide support President Trump’s efforts to deport those living in the US illegally.
Other polls indicate voters are split on how Trump is carrying out that crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Meanwhile on Sunday evening Trump demanded in a post on Truth Social that Walz and Frey, as well as “EVERY Democrat Governor and Mayor within the United States” must “formally cooperate with the Trump Administration to implement our Nation’s Laws, slightly than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos, and Violence”.
He also called on US Congress to end sanctuary cities, which he alleged were the cause of “all these issues”.
The term ‘sanctuary city’ is commonly used to describe places in the US that limit their assistance to federal immigration authorities.
Trump’s posts followed remarks from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, where she condemned Walz as wanting chaos, and encouraging “left-wing agitators to stalk and document federal officers within the center of lawful operations”.
Getty Images
Federal agents shot and killed Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday, and videos have since emerged showing a scuffle between Border Patrol agents and Pretti just before the shooting.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the agents fired in self-defence after Pretti, who they say had a handgun, resisted their attempts to disarm him.
Eyewitnesses, local officials and the victim’s family have challenged that account, pointing out he had a phone in his hand, not a weapon.
O’Hara, the Minneapolis police chief, told the BBC that Pretti was a lawful gun owner with no criminal record other than traffic violations.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) – which is typically aligned with Trump – has joined other US gun lobby groups in calling for a “full investigation” into the killing of Pretti.
In a statement, it said: “Responsible public voices ought to be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalisations and demonising law-abiding residents.”
US Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino said earlier that at the time of the shooting, ICE agents were looking for a man named Jose Huerta Chuma during a “focused” operation, and that Chuma’s criminal history includes domestic assault, intentional infliction of bodily harm and disorderly conduct.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) has since rebutted those claims and said that Huerta had never been in Minnesota DOC custody and public records reflected only misdemeanour-level traffic offences from more than a decade ago.
Unpicking the second Minneapolis shooting frame by frame
The latest shooting follows weeks of tensions between the Minnesota authorities, federal agents and protesters who have taken to the streets to observe the agents during their anti-immigration raids.
Earlier this month, an ICE agent shot dead Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident who was taking part in such an observation.
In a statement to CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner, Good’s family law firm Romanucci & Blandin urged all Americans to “belief their very own eyes as they interpret the horrific video” of Pretti’s shooting.
Trump’s crackdown in Minneapolis was launched in December after some Somali immigrants were convicted in a massive fraud of state welfare programmes. The state is home to the largest community of Somali immigrants in the US.
ICE brokers have the facility to cease, detain and arrest individuals they think of being within the US illegally.
