Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced rising calls to step down or be fired Wednesday over her handling of President Trump’s Minneapolis immigration crackdown and the killing of Alex Pretti by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
At least two Republican senators have joined many Democratic lawmakers in calling for the ouster of Noem as public outrage continues to build over her effort to whitewash the killing of Pretti and smear the victim as a “domestic terrorist.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) called for Noem to go. Both relative moderates voted to confirm Noem last year.
“What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis (R-NC) told reporters on Capitol Hill. “She should be out of a job. I mean, really, it’s just amateurish.”
“I would not support her again,” Murkowski added to NBC News. “She should go.”
In another sign that the White House is in damage control mode, officials Wednesday said that the two ICE officers who killed Pretti have been placed on administrative leave.
Hardline White House adviser Stephen Miller said the officers “may not have been following … protocols” in the shooting incident, a sharp reversal from his previous strong defense of the killing, even calling Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who “tried to murder federal agents.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi arrived in Minneapolis Wednesday and announced the feds have charged 16 protesters with allegedly assaulting federal agents and impeding their immigration operations. So far, the FBI and Department of Justice have not launched any probe of the Pretti killing.
Trump has so far stood by Noem, a right-wing former South Dakota governor. But that could change as she appears to be a political albatross dragging down his approval ratings in polls and causing him to lose support even among Republican lawmakers.
After weeks of spewing pugnacious rhetoric about the Minnesota crackdown, Trump has sought to take a more measured tone since the Saturday killing of Pretti, which has sparked widespread bipartisan outrage.
Trump effectively sidelined Noem and removing her tough-talking ally Greg Bovino from his Border Patrol “commander at large” position on Monday, placing border czar Tom Homan at the helm.
Homan has sought to put a more professional and less confrontational stamp on the enforcement operation, meeting with Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey on his first full day in the city Tuesday.
Pretti was using his cell phone to record ICE agents and sought to help a fellow protester when the agents tackled him on Saturday morning. They shot him 10 times.
ICE agents found a gun on Pretti but he was legally licensed to carry it and never unholstered it, a preliminary DHS investigative report said.
Despite evidence to the contrary, Noem falsely said Pretti “brandished” the gun at agents. An official statement from DHS claimed Pretti “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” without providing any evidence to back up those claims.
Pretti is the second U.S. citizen to be killed by ICE agents this month after agents shot dead unarmed motorist Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt dodged questions about whether Trump agrees with Noem’s false statements about the killing of Pretti, 37, a respected intensive care nurse at a local Veterans Administration hospital.
The president vowed to hold an “honest and honorable” investigation of the slaying, but so far it’s being handled by DHS itself, and there is no sign of a serious probe into whether the agents broke the law by killing Pretti.
Trump also questioned why Pretti was carrying a gun, statements that have irked some of his conservative supporters who are also gun-rights advocates.
