adminOn January 24, 2026, federal Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti during a confrontation on Nicollet Avenue, a grim moment captured on bystander video that immediately raised more questions than answers. The footage circulating online appears to show Pretti filming agents with his phone and attempting to help a woman who had been shoved and pepper-sprayed before he was wrestled to the ground and shot.
From the start the official narrative and what the videos show have diverged sharply; homeland officials quickly characterized the encounter as an armed assault on agents, while multiple videos and witness accounts indicate Pretti had a phone in his hand and was acting to shield another person. His grieving parents and coworkers insist he was trying to help, not harm, and that the rush to label him a “gunman” smells like political cover for an operation that has long been heavy-handed.
This did not happen in a vacuum. The shooting came amid the administration’s Operation Metro Surge, a sweeping deployment of immigration agents to Minneapolis that has already frayed local relations and inflamed tensions across the city. When federal officers are operating en masse in our towns, Americans — and their elected local leaders — deserve to know why and how those agents are being supervised.
Conservatives who believe in the rule of law should be as outraged about unaccountable federal power as anyone else. We support lawful immigration enforcement, but supporting the rule of law means demanding transparency when a U.S. citizen dies in an encounter with federal agents—especially when video evidence appears to contradict the first public statements from DHS. The American people deserve both safe borders and accountable enforcement.
Local officials have already pushed back; courts ordered preservation of evidence and Minnesota authorities have accused federal personnel of obstructing local investigators at the scene. That is not politics, it is basic oversight—if federal agents enter a city to conduct arrests they must still answer to the law and respect local processes, not act like an occupying force immune from scrutiny.
We also can’t ignore the civil liberties at stake: eyewitnesses and the Minneapolis police chief say Pretti was a lawful gun owner with a permit and that open carry is legal in Minnesota with the proper licensing. Citizens filming and documenting public policing is a First Amendment check on power; taking someone’s life while those rights are being exercised demands a full, transparent accounting. Conservatives should defend both the right to bear arms and the right to see government actions with our own eyes.
This moment calls for sober, determined action: a thorough independent investigation, release of all footage and forensic evidence, accountability for wrongdoing, and reforms to ensure federal enforcement operates within the law and with restraint. Patriotic Americans — whether they lean right or left — must insist on justice for Alex Pretti and on an honest, evidence-based debate about how we secure our borders without trampling the rights of citizens.
