DHS grapples with PR nightmare after Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis
Who's accountable for the results?
The Department of Homeland Security is in the midst of a public relations crisis as officials fight internally over how to explain and respond to Border Patrol‘s shooting of protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend.
The behind-the-scenes and public finger-pointing between the White House, political officials at the Department of Homeland Security, and career law enforcement officials at U.S Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the past several days caps months of infighting across the department, which the Washington Examiner previously reported on in October 2025 and last week.
Three sources said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is worried about keeping her job amid the fallout, much of which centers on how she and Border Patrol’s now-demoted Commander of At-Large Operations, Greg Bovino, described the incident in its immediate aftermath.
“This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon, and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing like that, and impeding their work they were doing,” Noem said during a press conference on Saturday, hours after the shooting. “Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism.”
Noem’s decision to reach a rhetorical verdict on Pretti’s conduct before an investigation had been completed infuriated many people and prompted some Republican lawmakers to call up Trump and push the White House to address not only the situation in Minneapolis, but also how the DHS was talking about it.
Sources within the DHS criticized Noem because her description of Pretti did not add up with what multiple videos of the incident showed: a man filming law enforcement who was approached by law enforcement and eventually shot in the head. It is not clear when police knew that he was armed or if they knew before shooting him, as multiple agents attempted to detain him during a physical altercation.
“The Secretary definitely could have handled it better,” a senior federal law enforcement official wrote in an email. “I understand her wanting to support the agent but [she] should have waited for details before speaking as she did.”
Bovino, who was removed from his role atop the interior operation assisting ICE on Monday, told CNN’s Dana Bash a day earlier that the Border …
Who's accountable for the results?
The Department of Homeland Security is in the midst of a public relations crisis as officials fight internally over how to explain and respond to Border Patrol‘s shooting of protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend.
The behind-the-scenes and public finger-pointing between the White House, political officials at the Department of Homeland Security, and career law enforcement officials at U.S Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the past several days caps months of infighting across the department, which the Washington Examiner previously reported on in October 2025 and last week.
Three sources said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is worried about keeping her job amid the fallout, much of which centers on how she and Border Patrol’s now-demoted Commander of At-Large Operations, Greg Bovino, described the incident in its immediate aftermath.
“This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon, and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing like that, and impeding their work they were doing,” Noem said during a press conference on Saturday, hours after the shooting. “Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism.”
Noem’s decision to reach a rhetorical verdict on Pretti’s conduct before an investigation had been completed infuriated many people and prompted some Republican lawmakers to call up Trump and push the White House to address not only the situation in Minneapolis, but also how the DHS was talking about it.
Sources within the DHS criticized Noem because her description of Pretti did not add up with what multiple videos of the incident showed: a man filming law enforcement who was approached by law enforcement and eventually shot in the head. It is not clear when police knew that he was armed or if they knew before shooting him, as multiple agents attempted to detain him during a physical altercation.
“The Secretary definitely could have handled it better,” a senior federal law enforcement official wrote in an email. “I understand her wanting to support the agent but [she] should have waited for details before speaking as she did.”
Bovino, who was removed from his role atop the interior operation assisting ICE on Monday, told CNN’s Dana Bash a day earlier that the Border …
DHS grapples with PR nightmare after Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis
Who's accountable for the results?
The Department of Homeland Security is in the midst of a public relations crisis as officials fight internally over how to explain and respond to Border Patrol‘s shooting of protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend.
The behind-the-scenes and public finger-pointing between the White House, political officials at the Department of Homeland Security, and career law enforcement officials at U.S Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the past several days caps months of infighting across the department, which the Washington Examiner previously reported on in October 2025 and last week.
Three sources said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is worried about keeping her job amid the fallout, much of which centers on how she and Border Patrol’s now-demoted Commander of At-Large Operations, Greg Bovino, described the incident in its immediate aftermath.
“This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon, and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing like that, and impeding their work they were doing,” Noem said during a press conference on Saturday, hours after the shooting. “Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism.”
Noem’s decision to reach a rhetorical verdict on Pretti’s conduct before an investigation had been completed infuriated many people and prompted some Republican lawmakers to call up Trump and push the White House to address not only the situation in Minneapolis, but also how the DHS was talking about it.
Sources within the DHS criticized Noem because her description of Pretti did not add up with what multiple videos of the incident showed: a man filming law enforcement who was approached by law enforcement and eventually shot in the head. It is not clear when police knew that he was armed or if they knew before shooting him, as multiple agents attempted to detain him during a physical altercation.
“The Secretary definitely could have handled it better,” a senior federal law enforcement official wrote in an email. “I understand her wanting to support the agent but [she] should have waited for details before speaking as she did.”
Bovino, who was removed from his role atop the interior operation assisting ICE on Monday, told CNN’s Dana Bash a day earlier that the Border …
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