Border Patrol Agents Killed Alex Pretti. Why Is Border Patrol in Minneapolis at All? |
Border patrol
Joe Lancaster | 1.26.2026 3:55 PM
Over the weekend in Minneapolis, agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shot and killed bystander Alex Pretti. It was the second time a federal officer killed a protester in Minneapolis in the month of January, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good in her car just two weeks earlier.
Right away, officials said Pretti—who had a legally registered handgun in a holster—was trying to kill or injure the officers, who shot him in self-defense. This claim is contradicted by numerous videos of the interaction, which show Pretti holding a cell phone and never appearing to reach for his weapon. It also casts doubt on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) pledge to investigate the shooting, especially after having prejudged the outcome.
One aspect of the shooting that shouldn't go unaddressed is what the CBP—which many Americans know as "border patrol"—was doing in Minneapolis, hundreds of miles from the nearest international border, at all. In fact, federal agents have considerable authority even outside their given jurisdiction. But this can have deadly consequences, especially when they're also operating outside what they're trained for.
U.S. law allows the CBP to conduct stops and searches "within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States." Federal regulations define reasonable distance as "within 100 air miles" from any international border—be it the land borders with Mexico or Canada, or the........