All the Trump Allies Turning Against His ICE Tactics |
For the past decade, people have been waiting for the moment when Donald Trump would finally go too far, even for his GOP allies. While so far Republicans are not denouncing the president en masse, the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on January 24 has quickly become the biggest flashpoint of his second term. The killing of the 37-year-old local ICU nurse by Border Patrol agents — which came three weeks after federal immigration agents fatally shot another U.S. citizen, Renee Good, in Minneapolis — has led many individuals and groups that typically side with Trump to publicly question ICE’s brutal tactics and the administration’s handling of Pretti’s death.
Here’s a running list of the generally Trump-aligned people and groups who have unexpectedly spoken out about the deadly violence in Minneapolis.
Naturally, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Representative Thomas Massie, and a handful of other congressional Republicans who regularly dare to defy Trump spoke out against the administration after Pretti was killed.
But now a growing number of Republicans are joining them in publicly pushing back against the tactics used by federal immigration agents, even if they still support the Trump administration’s broader mass-deportation goal.
On Sunday, Thom Tillis, North Carolina’s outgoing GOP senator, issued a statement calling for a “thorough and impartial investigation” of Pretti’s shooting.
“Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy,” he said.
His call for an investigation was echoed by Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, who is facing a Trump-backed primary challenger:
The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing. The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth.
As well as two very conservative members of the House GOP, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota and Michael McCaul of Texas, both of whom demanded a “thorough investigation.”
On Monday afternoon Senator John Curtis joined the calls for an investigation and said he’ll be “working with a bipartisan group of senators to demand real oversight and transparency.” He also criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem by name, saying, “I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence.”
Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat who sometimes sides with Republicans, called on Trump to fire Noem. “She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy,” he said on Tuesday. “DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.
On the day of Pretti’s shooting, Representative Andrew Garbarino of New York, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, asked the leaders of ICE, U.S. Customs and Borders Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to testify before the committee. Though he did not explicitly criticize immigration agents or even mention Minneapolis, he noted in a statement that “Congress has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect.”
Senator Rand Paul, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent letters on Monday to three top officials at ICE and Customs and Border Protection requesting that they testify at a........