Congress is ratcheting up its scrutiny of the killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee on Monday asked Justice Department officials to hand over records about the probe of Pretti’s killing to the panel by Monday, Feb. 2, in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi obtained by CBS News.
Democrats on the panel, including ranking member Rep. Jamie Rasin of Maryland, are also seeking documents about the department’s decision to forgo a civil rights investigation into the immigration agent who shot and killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
The letter accused the Trump administration of blocking local authorities from probing the two killings and failing to adequately investigate the Good shooting, pointing to reports that some federal prosecutors were told to look into Good’s widow.
“Someone affirmatively ordered federal law enforcement to instead investigate Ms. Good’s widow. Someone affirmatively ordered line agents to block state prosecutors from accessing key evidence. Someone is now taking the same actions with regard to the killing of another American citizen,” the letter said.
The Trump administration’s handling of the two shootings — which took place during a surge of immigration agents in Minneapolis — has drawn intense scrutiny.
Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division were told they would not investigate Good’s death, an unusual move for a fatal shooting by an officer. And several federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned amid pressure to look into Good’s widow and treat the case as an assault on a federal officer, CBS News has reported. The department has accused Good of trying to run over an ICE agent with her car.
Pretti’s death is being investigated by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, FBI Director Kash Patel said. Current and former law enforcement officials told CBS News that move is unusual because HSI typically doesn’t investigate shootings by officers.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension withdrew from the Good case earlier this month, saying the Justice Department had prevented state investigators from accessing evidence. And state authorities sued the federal government for allegedly blocking the BCA from accessing the scene of Pretti’s death, leading a judge to bar the Department of Homeland Security from “destroying or altering evidence.”
The House Democrats’ inquiry argued there is a basis for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to investigate the shootings. The letter alleged the Trump administration could be making “efforts to avoid accountability for several federal officers’ deprivation of rights under color of law,” referring to one criminal offense that’s often investigated by the division.
When asked for comment, a Justice Department spokesperson referred CBS News to a statement earlier this month by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, which said, “There is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation.”
In a statement to CBS News last week, an FBI spokesman said: “The facts on the ground do not support a civil rights investigation. FBI continues to investigate the incident as well as the violent criminal actors and those perpetrating illegal activity.”
Other congressional panels have launched their own investigations. As CBS News reported Monday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon to open a civil rights investigation into Good’s death.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, has proposed a new legislative amendment that would require an independent Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to “deploy investigators to conduct investigations into all use of force incidents that have occurred” under the Trump administration’s civil immigration and interior enforcement operations.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has also requested testimony from the heads of ICE, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Paul’s request was endorsed Monday by fellow Republican Sen. John Curtis, a first-term senator from Utah.
Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, also requested testimony from the leaders of the same three agencies.
Paul and Garbarino’s letters did not mention Pretti or Good. But the requests for testimony came as a growing number of Republicans criticized or questioned the Trump administration’s response to Pretti’s death, or pressed for a full investigation.
