GOP Wavers on Trump Immigration Crackdown After Latest Killing

Congressional Republicans showed signs of wavering on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in the wake of another shooting of a US citizen in Minnesota.

While the weakening resolve was far from a full break with Trump, it signals growing unease with the administration’s aggressive actions as Democrats threaten another government shutdown and November’s midterm elections come into view. Until now, Republicans have backed Trump as he deploys federal agents and National Guard to US cities.

Hundreds of videos have shown the agents using pepper spray, shoving, punching and kicking protesters who have stayed largely peaceful and are recording the agents’ actions. On Saturday, agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a nurse at a VA hospital, while he was subdued and on his knees after they discovered a gun he had a permit to carry.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, suggested on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that Trump should consider going “to another city and then maybe let the people of Minneapolis decide” how to proceed on immigration. He also defended immigration agents.

Residents near the scene of a shooting by a federal law enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

Photographer: Jaida Grey Eagle/Bloomberg

New York Republican Andrew Garbarino, the chairman of the House Homeland Security panel, has requested public testimony from top immigration officials, telling them in a letter Saturday that Congress “has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect.”

Other Republicans who have previously broken with Trump on other matters — including retiring Senator Thom Tillis and Representative Thomas Massie — were more frank.

“There must be a thorough and impartial investigation into yesterday’s Minneapolis shooting, which is the basic standard that law enforcement and the American people expect following any officer-involved shooting,” Tillis said on X.

Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, also called in post on X for an investigation “both to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain Americans’ confidence in our justice system.”

Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino said on CNN’s State of the Union that the agents involved in Pretti’s killing were “most likely” being placed on administrative leave and sent from Minneapolis.

Another Senate Republican, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, also broke sharply from the White House’s messaging and demanded “a full joint federal and state investigation.” Cassidy called the events in Minneapolis “incredibly disturbing” and said the credibility of ICE and Homeland Security are at stake.

“We can trust the American people with the truth,” Cassidy said.

But silence from other leaders, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, suggest that many in the party are still weighing how to respond to Pretti’s killing.

Shutdown Threat

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer vowed late Saturday to block a massive spending package next week unless Republicans strip funding for the Department of Homeland Security, dramatically increasing the risk for a partial US government shutdown.

Read More: Border Patrol Kills Man as Minnesota Crackdown Fuels Outrage

Democratic opposition to the funding package potentially affects not just Homeland Security but also the departments of Defense, Labor, Education, State, Treasury and Health and Human Services.

None of the Republicans speaking on Sunday mentioned the looming shutdown fight.

The effects of another shutdown would be widespread, including possibly delaying the next Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

In the event of a shutdown, many essential workers — including the military and Transportation Security Administration agents — may have to work without pay. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol employees would likely be paid through additional funding in Trump’s tax bill signed last year.

The House passed the spending bill Thursday and left Washington until after the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline. Any changes to that legislation, including stripping Homeland funding, would require the House to return and vote on the new bill.

With the White House calling Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and accusing him of impeding the work of Border Patrol, despite video evidence to the contrary, Senate Republican leaders will be under enormous pressure to protect DHS funding.

The spending legislation needs votes from at least seven Democrats to pass the Senate.

Several moderates in the party quickly announced Saturday they’d oppose the bill. .

At least one other American, Renee Good, was killed by an ICE agent when he stopped her for partly blocking a street with her car, claiming she tried to run him over.

Federal law enforcement agents deploy tear gas into a crowd in Minneapolis on Jan. 23.

Photographer: Jack Califano/Bloomberg

“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling —and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer said. “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE.”

Forcing a shutdown risks hard-fought Democratic victories in the spending deal, including reversing many Trump cuts to medical research, foreign aid, education grants and mass transit.

The situation in Minnesota, however, has alienated key Democratic senators.

Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, each of whom voted to end the last shutdown, said in statements Saturday they would oppose funding for Homeland Security without changes. Rosen insisted she will oppose funding “until we have guardrails in place to curtail these abuses of power and ensure more accountability and transparency.”

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said the resistance isn’t about his party or politics.

“It’s about our country and our Congress, and what we need to do to impose some safeguards on an out-of-control agency which is imbued with a culture of lawlessness and seems to be committing murder in Minneapolis,” Blumenthal said.

Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, called Pretti’s killing a “heartbreaking tragedy.”

“It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault,” they said in a statement.

Delays Ahead

The Senate, a slow-moving legislative body, already faces potential delays from an expected snowstorm. The House’s planned absence next week complicates matters further ahead of the Jan. 30 funding deadline.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, center, joined by Republican lawmakers, speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol in Washington on Jan. 22. The House passed the bill Thursday and left Washington until after the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline.

Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg

All but seven House Democrats voted against the DHS bill in the House, with many in the party seeking body camera requirements and other restraints on raids by ICE and Border Patrol agents.

Top Senate Democrat spending panel member Patty Murray said she won’t support the DHS bill as it stands, and it “needs to be split off from the larger funding package.”

“Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences,” Murray said in a post on X. “I will continue fighting to rein in DHS and ICE.”

--With assistance from Jamie Tarabay.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Steven T. Dennis in Washington at sdennis17@bloomberg.net;
Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Megan Scully at mscully32@bloomberg.net

Wendy Benjaminson

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