MINNEAPOLIS: The Trump administration said Wednesday that two immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of a civilian in Minneapolis had been placed on leave, as the president slammed the city&rsquo;s mayor despite a promise to de-escalate the situation. The officers have been on leave &mdash; a move US officials said was &quot;standard protocol&quot; &mdash; since Saturday, when Alex Pretti was shot multiple times after being forced to the ground by camouflaged officers in a scuffle captured on video. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he wanted to &quot;de-escalate a little bit&quot; in Minneapolis, the focal point for tensions over his hardline immigration crackdown. Yet on Wednesday, the 79-year-old Republican attacked the mayor of Minneapolis, saying that his refusal to cooperate with federal authorities on rooting out suspected illegal immigrants was &quot;a very serious violation of the law.&quot; Mayor Jacob Frey is &quot;playing with fire,&quot; Trump said on social media. Saturday&#39;s fatal shooting of Pretti, an intensive care nurse, was widely condemned across the political aisle despite initial efforts by White House officials to justify the killing. In a bid to stem the backlash, Trump shuffled the leadership of immigration agents deployed in Minneapolis. He replaced the confrontational Greg Bovino, famed for reveling in aggressive, televised immigration crackdowns, with the policy-focused &quot;border czar&quot; Tom Homan. Another high-ranking official, Attorney General Pam Bondi, was in Minneapolis on Wednesday as she announced the arrests of 16 Minnesota &quot;rioters&quot; for allegedly assaulting federal law enforcement. Fury&nbsp;While the White House insists that it is targeting hardened criminals, the use of masked, heavily armed men to snatch people from streets, homes, and workplaces has caused widespread shock. That turned to fury this month after immigration agents shot dead two Minneapolis protesters at point-blank range in separate incidents &mdash; Pretti and Renee Good, both US citizens. Top Trump aide Stephen Miller initially justified Pretti&#39;s killing by branding him a &quot;would-be assassin,&quot; despite video evidence clearly showing the 37-year-old man posed no threat when he was shot in the back while pinned down on the ground. Late Tuesday, Miller said the Customs and Border Patrol agents who killed Pretti &quot;may not have been following protocol.&quot; Seeking to distance himself from the fallout, Trump also struck a more conciliatory tone Tuesday. However, Trump said there was no plan for a &quot;pullback,&quot; and he has rejected calls to sack his loyal Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. In Minneapolis, 39-year-old community activist Jennifer Arnold told AFP little has changed since Trump promised to ease tensions in the city. &quot;The Trump administration is saying that they&#39;re going to change tactics ... but we are not experiencing anything different on the ground, people are still being snatched off the streets,&quot; said Arnold. Immigrant politician attacked&nbsp;The political battle could soon move to Congress, where Democrats are threatening to hold up authorization for swaths of US government funding if reforms are not made to rein in the sprawling military-style immigration agencies. Meanwhile, the president of the Roman Catholic bishops&#39; conference in the United States called on priests to offer a time of prayer on Wednesday following the fatal shootings in Minneapolis. Trump&#39;s focus on Minnesota is linked to a probe into alleged corruption by Somali immigrants in the state, which he and right-wing allies have amplified as an example of what they say is a fight against criminal immigrants. The president has made a particular target of Somali-born congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whom he routinely insults in speeches and says should be sent back to Somalia. In the latest sign of a deteriorating political climate, a man sprayed Omar with an unknown liquid while she was giving a speech late Tuesday, before being tackled by security. The suspect, 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, was arrested on suspicion of assault. CNN reported that the liquid was likely apple cider vinegar, citing a law enforcement source. Speaking to reporters in Minneapolis on Wednesday evening, Omar Trump&#39;s attacks against her helped fuel the incident. &quot;I wouldn&#39;t be where I am at today, having to pay for security, having the government to think about providing me security if Donald Trump wasn&#39;t in office, and if he wasn&#39;t so obsessed with me,&quot; Omar said. She added, however, that such intimidation &quot;hasn&#39;t worked thus far, and it&#39;s not going to work in the future.&quot;

Americas

The officers have been on leave, a move US officials said was 'standard protocol,' since Saturday, when Alex Pretti was shot multiple times after being forced to the ground by camouflaged officers in a scuffle captured on video.

Trump battles Minneapolis shooting fallout as agents put on leave

MINNEAPOLIS: US Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar was targeted during a speech late Tuesday by a man who sprayed an unidentified liquid at her from a syringe before being tackled by security guards, according to an AFP journalist at the scene. The man was led out of the premises as Omar continued her speech, saying, &quot;We will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw on us.&quot; The man was taken into custody by Minneapolis police, her office said. The incident took place during a town hall in the US city of Minneapolis, where two American citizens were killed this month in a violent anti-immigration crackdown with thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents provoking growing unrest. Omar had just finished calling for the Trump administration to reverse its current course when the attack occurred. &quot;ICE cannot be reformed; it cannot be rehabilitated. We must abolish ICE for good,&quot; Omar said, to applause. &quot;And (Department of Homeland Security) Secretary Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment.&quot; After Omar uttered those words, a man sprang up from the front row, made a remark, and sprayed the congresswoman, as security leapt to grab him. Omar raised a fist and stepped toward the attacker before returning to the podium. After uttering a few expletives and against her team&#39;s vocal concerns that she should not continue, the congresswoman took the microphone. &quot;Here&#39;s the reality that people like this ugly man don&#39;t understand: We are Minnesota strong. And we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw on us,&quot; Omar said. Earlier Tuesday, Trump blasted Omar and Somalia during a speech in Iowa, saying the Mogadishu-born congresswoman &quot;comes from a country that&#39;s a disaster.&quot; Trump has ordered 143 strikes against Somalia in his second term, according to US think tank New America, and has pulled back diplomatic relations, including recently stopping humanitarian aid.

Man led out of the premises as Omar continued her speech, saying, 'We will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw' at us; man taken into custody by Minneapolis police.

US congresswoman Omar sprayed by unknown substance during speech

MINNEAPOLIS: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would &quot;de-escalate a little bit&quot; in Minneapolis after the fatal shootings of two civilians fueled a storm of criticism over his signature immigration crackdown. Trump&#39;s &quot;border czar&quot; Tom Homan met with officials in the city as the Republican attempted damage control after the killing by immigration agents of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday. The president also admitted that Gregory Bovino, a hardline Border Patrol commander who is now expected to leave Minneapolis, was &quot;a pretty out-there kind of a guy&quot; whose presence may not have helped the situation. &quot;We&#39;re going to de-escalate a little bit,&quot; Trump told Fox News after days of tensions following the shooting of Pretti, while adding that it was not a &quot;pullback.&quot; Trump said that Homan &mdash; the top US border security official, who brings a less confrontational communication style &mdash; met with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Tuesday. The US president told reporters that he rejected the &quot;assassin&quot; label used by a top aide to describe protester Pretti. &quot;I want a very honorable and honest investigation,&quot; he said. Yet Trump did not hold back from criticizing Pretti for carrying a licensed firearm that was taken off him before he was shot. &quot;I don&#39;t like that he had a gun, I don&#39;t like that he had two fully loaded magazines,&quot; the president said. &#39;Pretty out there&#39;&nbsp;Mayor Frey said in a statement after meeting Homan that he discussed the &quot;serious negative impacts this operation has had on Minneapolis,&quot; and that the city &quot;will not enforce federal immigration laws.&quot; Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Walz said he called for &quot;impartial investigations&quot; into shootings by federal agents in the city as well as a &quot;significant reduction&quot; in federal forces in the state. Pretti&#39;s death has sparked outrage across the country. Democratic former president Joe Biden on Tuesday said the situation &quot;betrays our most basic values as Americans.&quot; Ex-presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have also spoken out. Pretti, shot multiple times after being knocked to the ground, was the second US citizen killed by immigration officers in Minneapolis this month, turning the city into ground zero of national tensions over Trump&#39;s mass deportation policies. Protester Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot by an agent at point-blank range in her car on January 7. The killings capped months of escalating violence in which masked, unidentified, and heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents have grabbed people suspected of violating immigration laws off the streets. Despite multiple videos showing that Pretti posed no threat, top officials initially claimed he had been intending to kill federal agents. Trump backed his under-fire Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem, who described Pretti as a &quot;domestic terrorist,&quot; saying she would not step down and was doing a &quot;very good job.&quot; But he was less supportive of Bovino, a Border Patrol official famed for reveling in aggressive, televised immigration crackdowns who had also played up the narrative that Pretti had posed a threat. &quot;Bovino&#39;s very good, but he&#39;s a pretty out there kind of a guy. And in some cases, that&#39;s good, maybe it wasn&#39;t good here,&quot; Trump told Fox. &#39;Sickened&#39;&nbsp;Concern over the violence and the attempt to blame Pretti for his death quickly spread to Washington. Republican Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that agents involved in the shooting should be put on administrative leave, later adding that the heads of ICE, Border Patrol and Citizenship and Immigration Services would testify before US Congress next month. US Centrist Democratic Senator John Fetterman said &quot;grossly incompetent&quot; Noem should be fired. The turmoil could even result in a fresh US government shutdown, with Democrats threatening to block approval of routine spending bills up for votes in the Senate later this week. &quot;The whole community is just sickened by all this,&quot; said 68-year-old retiree Stephen McLaughlin in Minneapolis. &quot;The aim of the government is to terrorize citizens; it&#39;s really frightening.&quot;

US president admits Bovino, hardline Border Patrol commander now expected to leave Minneapolis, was "a pretty out-there kind of a guy" whose presence may not have helped the situation; turmoil can result in a fresh US government shutdown, with Democrats threatening to block approval of routine spending bills up for votes in the Senate later this week.



Trump says will 'de-escalate' in Minneapolis after shooting backlash

MINNEAPOLIS: President Donald Trump sent his top border enforcer to Minneapolis on Monday and struck a conciliatory note in a bid to tamp down nationwide outrage over the <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/second-death-in-minneapolis-crackdown-heaps-pressure-on-trump" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">second</a>&nbsp;killing of a US citizen protesting militarized&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/fury-grows-over-fiveyearolds-detention-in-us-immigration-crackdown" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">immigration</a>&nbsp;raids this month. The White House was scrambling as video of the latest shooting went viral, prompting street protests, criticism from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/obama-clinton-say-killings-by-agents-should-be-wakeup-call-for-us" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">former presidents</a>&nbsp;Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and, increasingly, from within Trump&#39;s Republican Party. Trump said that Tom Homan, his point man for border security, &quot;will report directly to me.&quot; Homan&#39;s new role appears to be an acknowledgement that the administration has run into political damage, with polls showing a majority of Americans disapprove of the often-brutal crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. In a marked change of tone, Trump said he held a &quot;very good&quot; talk with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat whom he has repeatedly blamed for allowing illegal immigration and corruption. He also said he had called Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, another Democrat. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that &quot;nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed.&quot; She also expressed sorrow for the death of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who was gunned down Saturday at point-blank range by immigration officers while protesting in Minneapolis. Earlier, top Trump officials had branded Pretti, 37, a &quot;domestic terrorist.&quot; In yet another indication of a pivot, US media reported that controversial Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was leaving Minneapolis. However, there was no sign of Trump retreating from the broader, hardline policy of sending heavily armed, masked and unidentified ICE agents into Democratic-run cities to track down people breaking immigration laws &mdash; actions that Bovino has relished in leading. There remain &quot;hundreds of thousands&quot; of &quot;the worst illegal aliens&quot; left to deport, Leavitt said. Ground zero&nbsp;Reducing illegal immigration is popular and helped Trump win the 2024 election. However, daily videos of violent encounters between suspects and masked agents, as well as multiple reports of people being targeted on flimsy evidence, have helped send Trump&#39;s approval ratings plummeting. Minneapolis has become ground zero in the turmoil. A huge rally took place despite the bitter cold on Friday to protest the raids and the shooting dead by an ICE agent of protester Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, on Jan. 7. Like Pretti, she had been shot at close range and was a US citizen. After Pretti was killed, more rallies erupted on the weekend in Minneapolis, New York, and other major cities. Opening a new front in the crisis, a federal judge in Minneapolis heard arguments Monday on whether the deployment of federal officers violates the state of Minnesota&#39;s sovereignty. In a separate hearing, a judge was considering a request to force federal officials to preserve evidence in the killing of Pretti, saying she would rule quickly. Adding to pressure in Congress, Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the US government unless immigration enforcement agencies are reformed. Republican pushback&nbsp;Trump&#39;s initial reaction to Pretti&#39;s killing was to suggest that he approached with the intent to shoot at the police. Pretti had a pistol with him at the time, but never removed it from its holster and had apparently already been disarmed when he was shot multiple times at point-blank range. He was licensed to carry a weapon. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Sunday accused Trump of pushing a &quot;flat-out insane&quot; narrative. Monday&#39;s shift in White House messaging came as Republicans &mdash; who only rarely criticize their 79-year-old party leader in public &mdash; began to express alarm. One of the most prominent cautions came from House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, who signaled Sunday that federal agents should withdraw from Minneapolis &mdash; an intervention that would normally be unheard of from a figure considered one of Trump&#39;s staunchest loyalists. Republican Chris Madel sent shockwaves when he dropped out of the running for Minnesota&#39;s upcoming governor race to replace Walz, saying he could not remain a member of a party inflicting &quot;retribution on the citizens of our state.&quot; Even Texas Governor Greg Abbott, one of Trump&#39;s most dependable supporters, called for the federal authorities &quot;to recalibrate.&quot;

White House press secretary says 'nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed''; adds there remain 'hundreds of thousands' of 'the worst illegal aliens' left to deport.

Trump attempts to pivot in face of Minneapolis killing backlash

MINNEAPOLIS: The Trump administration faced intensifying pressure Sunday over its mass immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, after federal agents shot dead a second US citizen, and graphic cell phone footage again contradicted officials&#39; immediate description of the incident. Federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, early Saturday while scuffling with him on an icy roadway in the Midwestern city, less than three weeks after an immigration officer fired on Renee Good, also 37, killing her in her car. President Donald Trump&#39;s administration quickly claimed that Pretti had intended to harm the federal agents &mdash; as it did after Good&#39;s death &mdash; pointing to a pistol it said was discovered on him. However, video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing around 10 shots at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with chemical irritant and thrown to the ground. The video further inflamed ongoing protests in Minneapolis against the presence of federal agents, with around 1,000 people participating in a demonstration Sunday. After top officials described Pretti as an &quot;assassin&quot; who had assaulted the agents, Pretti&#39;s parents issued a statement Saturday condemning the administration&#39;s &quot;sickening lies&quot; about their son. Asked Sunday what she would say to Pretti&#39;s parents, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: &quot;Just that I&#39;m grieved for them.&quot; &quot;I truly am. I can&#39;t even imagine losing a child,&quot; she told Fox News show &quot;The Sunday Briefing.&quot; She said more clarity would come as an investigation progresses. US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking to NBC&#39;s &quot;Meet the Press,&quot; also said an investigation was necessary to get a full understanding of the killing. Asked if agents had already removed the pistol from Pretti when they fired on him, Blanche said: &quot;I do not know. And nobody else knows, either. That&#39;s why we&#39;re doing an investigation.&quot; &#39;Joint&#39; probe Their comments came after multiple senators from Trump&#39;s Republican Party called for a thorough probe into the killing, and for cooperation with local authorities. &quot;There must be a full joint federal and state investigation,&quot; Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said. The Trump administration controversially excluded local investigators from a probe into Good&#39;s killing. Minnesota&#39;s Democratic Governor Tim Walz posed a question directly to the president during a press briefing Sunday, asking: &quot;What&#39;s the plan, Donald Trump?&quot; &quot;What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?&quot; Thousands of federal immigration agents have been deployed to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on alleged fraud by Somali immigrants. Trump has repeatedly amplified the racially tinged accusations, including on Sunday when he posted on his Truth Social platform: &quot;Minnesota is a Criminal COVER UP of the massive Financial Fraud that has gone on!&quot; The city, known for its bitterly cold winters, has one of the country&#39;s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back against Trump&#39;s claim, telling reporters &quot;it&#39;s not about fraud, because if he sent people who understand forensic accounting, we&#39;d be having a different conversation. But he&#39;s sending armed masked men.&quot; Court orderSince &quot;Operation Metro Surge&quot; began, many residents have carried whistles to notify others of the presence of immigration agents, while sometimes violent skirmishes have broken out between the officers and protesters. Local authorities have sued the federal government seeking a court order to suspend the operation, with a first hearing set for Monday. Recent polling has shown voters increasingly upset with Trump&#39;s domestic immigration operations, as videos of masked agents seizing people off sidewalks -- including children -- and dramatic stories of US citizens being detained proliferate. Barack and Michelle Obama on Sunday forcefully condemned Pretti&#39;s killing, saying in a statement it should be a &quot;wake-up call&quot; that core US values &quot;are increasingly under assault.&quot; The former president and first lady blasted Trump and his government as seeming &quot;eager to escalate the situation.&quot;

Pressure mounts on Trump after a second US citizen was killed during Minneapolis immigration raids, as video contradicts official accounts, sparking bipartisan calls for investigations, legal action, and criticism from local leaders

Articles tagged with "Minneapolis immigration raids"

Trump battles Minneapolis shooting fallout as agents put on leave

US congresswoman Omar sprayed by unknown substance during speech

Trump says will 'de-escalate' in Minneapolis after shooting backlash

Trump attempts to pivot in face of Minneapolis killing backlash

Second death in Minneapolis crackdown heaps pressure on Trump