Letters from an American - January 27, 2026

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Get full access to Letters from an American at heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

January 27, 26. The murder of Alex Preddy in Minneapolis on Saturday morning at the hands of federal agents has put wind in the sales of those trying to rein in the Trump administration. At the same time, it has sent the administration scrambling to regain its course. Popular outcry over the killing of a beloved ICU nurse for the VA and popular organization over the general violence of federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Border Patrol, have unleashed pent-up fury over the actions of the Trump administration. The outpouring has reached as far as spaces like a sub-reddit devoted to videos of people playing cats like bongos, as Drew Harwell and Scott Nover of the Washington Post noted. The anger has been so overwhelming that it has changed the course of

national politics. Preti's killing is thrown into doubt the passage of a funding package that includes the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS. Seven Democrats in the House voted in favor of the measure, which also includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, the Labor Department, and so on. The bill is one of the 12 appropriations bills that must pass Congress by the end of the month to fund the government. Part of their argument for voting

in favor of the bill, even with funding for DHS, is that the Republicans' July 2025, one big, beautiful bill act poured so much money into DHS that it can function until September 30th, 2029. So until Saturday, the measure was expected to have enough Democratic votes to pass through the Senate. The killing changed the equation. On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, issued a statement saying, Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding is included.

Representative Tom Swazi, a Democrat of New York, publicly apologized for his vote for the bill. I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis, he posted on social media. I hear the anger from my constituents, and I take responsibility for that. I have long been critical of ICE's unlawful behavior, and I must do a better job demonstrating that. He called for Trump to pull federal agents out of Minneapolis. Senate Democrats want the Republicans to take DHS funding out of the larger bill and pass it

to prevent a government shutdown. But such a change would require unanimous consent in the Senate, and Republicans there are refusing to do it. In the House, the Far Right Freedom Caucus has written to Trump to ask that he refused to allow Democrats to strip DHS funding out to pass other appropriations separately. We cannot support giving Democrats the ability to control the funding of our Department of Homeland Security. they wrote. Meanwhile, news about the actions of federal agents is unlikely to garner them more support. People, a widely read popular magazine that has devoted more of its pages to politics lately than in the

past, has been publishing stories of those who died in ICE custody last year, at least 32, including Geraldo Lunas Campos, whose death in ICE custody in Texas has been ruled a homicide. It told readers about five-year-old Liam Canejo Ramos, detained by ICE after being used as bait to capture relatives, and of Wael Tarabishi, who died of a rare genetic disease 30 days after his father, Wales' primary caregiver, was detained by ICE at a routine check-in at an ice facility in Dallas. news broke today that federal agents deported a five-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras, a country where she had never been before being sent there with her mother. The agents did not permit either to have access to a lawyer or a hearing before a judge. An immigration attorney tried to find them, but agents allegedly told the attorney the mother and child weren't in their database. The two were being held at a hotel rather than a detention center,

a choice some advocates suspect was designed to keep them from being included in such a database. Today, Jeffrey Winter and Priscilla Alvarez of CNN broke the story that ICE agents have been collecting the personal information of protesters in Minneapolis. They reported that officials asked federal agents sent to Minneapolis to capture all images, license plates, identifications, and general information on hotels, agitators, protesters, et cetera, so we can capture it all in one consolidated form. A form titled Intel Collection Non-Arrests enabled agents to fill in protesters' personal information. This information supports the statement of Trump's border.

are, a fancy term for an advisor, Tom Holman on the Fox News Channel earlier this month. We're going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeding an assault. We're going to make them famous, Homan said. We're going to put their face on TV. We're going to let their employers, in their neighborhoods, in their schools, know who these people are. Before a Border Patrol agent shot Renee Good, He captured her face and license plate on camera. And in Maine, a protester recorded an agent responding to her question of why he was recording her license plate. We have a nice little database, he answered.

And now you are considered a domestic terrorist. This information also seems to reflect Trump's 2025 National Security Presidential Memorandum, nspm 7, that suggests anyone about. objecting to the administration's policies is a domestic terrorist. After the main incident, DHS Assistant Secretary Trisha McLaughlin told CNN, there is no database of domestic terrorists run by DHS. We do, of course, monitor and investigate and refer all threats, assaults, and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement.

obstructing and assaulting law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime. She reiterated today that there is no DHS database. Sources told Winter and Alvarez that federal agents had documented details about Preddy before Saturday. About a week before his death, Prattie stopped his car to observe federal agents chasing a family on foot, shouted, and blew away. missile. Five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back breaking a rib before they released him. Medical records confirm Preddy was treated for the injury. It is not clear if the agents on Saturday recognized him. Federal agents are causing trouble on the international stage two. Today, a federal agent tried to force his way into the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis.

As Max Barrack of the New York Times notes, international law forbids federal agents from entering a consulate or embassy without permission from the consul or the ambassador. An employee blocked the agent. Videos show an employee saying, this is the Ecuadorian consulate. You're not allowed to enter. The agent responds,

If you touch me, I'll grab you. The Associated Press reports that Ecuadorian, Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs has filed a protest with the U.S. Embassy. This morning, news broke that ICE agents from the Homeland Security Investigations Unit would join other federal agents working at the Olympic Games in Milan, Italy, in February. According to Brian Mann of NPR, Homeland Security officials have worked at past Olympic Games, but this time many Italians objected. The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, told reporters,

this is a militia that kills, a militia that enters into the homes of people, signing their own permission slips. It is clear they are not welcome in Milan, without a doubt. Italy's foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, tried to reassure concerned Italians, saying, it's not like these are the ice people on the streets of Minneapolis. It's not like the SS are about to arrive. Former Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte remained skeptical,

calling out ICE for street violence and killings in the U.S. As for letting ICE agents into Italy, he said, we cannot allow this. The administration appears to be floundering as it tries to respond to the popular outrage. While DHS has announced it has taken on the investigations of the killings of both good and pretty itself, FBI director Cash Patel yesterday told a right-wing podcaster that the FBI will be investigating the signal chats of those organized in Minneapolis

to observe and record federal agents to see if they have endangered federal agents. Aram Rostin of The Guardian reported that podcaster Benny Johnson suggested the chats were coordinated infrastructure, adding that he would like for the feds to take a crack at trying to get rid of this infrastructure the way they approached the mob or cartels or other terrorist networks, right? Mark Caputo and Brittany Gibson of Axios reported today that sources in the White House told them the administration knows the situation in Minnesota is a mess and is looking for a way to calm the fury without leaving the state. We can't lose Minneapolis because if we do,

we lose Chicago and Los Angeles, one advisor explained, we're not going to let the people who lost the presidential election over immigration dictate to us on immigration. Mariana Sotomayor of the Washington Post reported today that House Democrats plan to open an investigation into Nome as part of a push to impeach her. Such an outcome would be a long shot, but they want to make Republicans take a stand,

either for or against the administration's policies, something most Republicans want to avoid. Justin Papp of CNBC reported that the Democrats will impeach Nome if Trump doesn't fire her. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Democratic leaders said in a statement. As two Republican senators also called for Nome to resign, her supporters in the White House today

tried to deflect blame for the outrageous story that federal agents acted in self-defense when they killed Pretty, for he intended to massacre them. Officials told Caputo of Axios that White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, was behind the White House lies. Through an intermediary, Nome passed to Caputo the statement,

Everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen. For their part, Miller's team tried to put the blame on federal agents, including Bovino, claiming the agents had said Prattie had a gun. A source told Caputo that Miller heard gun and knew what the narrative would be. Preddy came to massacre cops. Miller called Pretty an assassin on social media. Vice President J.D. Vance reposted the statement, and Nome used the same language in front of the press. Trump made it clear tonight that the crisis in Minneapolis is not going to make him stop his attacks on either immigrants or Minnesota Democrats.

At a speech in Iowa, he called those arrested by federal agents in Minnesota, hardened, vicious, horrible criminals. He called out Minnesota Representative Elon Omar, a frequent target of his, saying of her Somali birthplace, she comes from a country that's a disaster. It's not even a country. It barely has a government. They're good at one thing, pirates. But they don't get to do that anymore because they get the same treatment from us as the drug

dealers get. Boom, boom, boom. Omar appeared tonight at a town hall in Minneapolis and said, We must abolish ICE for good, and Secretary Christine Noam must resign or face impeachment. As she spoke, a man rushed her and sprayed her with liquid from a syringe before security grabbed him and rushed him out, as Omar herself advanced toward the man.

I'm okay, Omar later posted. I'm a survivor so that he's a survivor so that, this small agitator isn't going to intimidate me from doing my work. I don't let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota Strong. Former President Joe Biden also weighed in on events in Minneapolis today. This morning, he posted on social media, What has unfolded in Minneapolis this past month betrays our most basic values as Americans. We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights.

We are not a nation that tramples the Fourth Amendment and tolerates our neighbors being terrorized. The people of Minnesota have stood strong, helping community members in unimaginable circumstances, speaking out against injustice when they see it, and holding our government accountable to the people. Minnesotans have reminded us all what it is to be American, and they have suffered enough at the hands of this administration. Violence and terror have no place in the United States of America, especially when it's our own government targeting American citizens. No single person can destroy what America stands for and believes in, not even a president. If we, all of America, stand up and speak out. We know who we are.

It's time to show the world. More importantly, it's time to show ourselves. Now, justice requires full, fair, and transparent. investigations into the deaths of the two Americans who lost their lives in the city they called home. Jill and I are sending strength to the families and communities who love Alex Pretty and Renee Good, as we all mourn their senseless deaths. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions,

dead in Massachusetts recorded with music composed by Michael Moss Thank you.