The NPR Politics Podcast - Internal review contradicts Trump administration on Alex Pretti shooting

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

An initial internal review into federal immigration officers’ fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last weekend contradicts the description of the incident by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. We discuss President Trump’s shifting messages on immigration policy and how his administration’s efforts to restrict legal immigration pathways are changing the political environment. This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, immigration policy correspondent Ximena Bustillo, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.This podcast was produced by Bria Suggs and Lexie Schapitl, and edited by Rachel Baye.Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Data Bricks, the data and AI company. Are your AI agents working? Most aren't reliable for business. You need AI that's accurate. Agent Bricks, AI agents grounded in your data and built for your goals. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast for Wednesday, January 28th, 2026. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Jimenez-Bustillo, and I cover immigration policy.

And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And we are recording this at 1152 a.m. Immediately after Alex Prettie was shot and killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis, top government officials labeled him a domestic terrorist on a mission to kill law enforcement. That was immediately contradicted by bystander video and court testimony. Now, Customs and Border Protection has done its own initial internal review and its description matches the videos seen across social media. But bears the little resemblance to what had been the official line. Jimena, you got your hands on this review. Tell us more about it and what it said happened. So this was a review that had to be delivered to congressional committees because DHS labeled Preddy's death of death in custody. And so that's why we got this review so quickly. You know, essentially it was conducted by DHS's own employee conduct review teams. And what it says is that Border Patrol officers were actually at first confronted by two women who were blowing their whistles like we've seen other observers do. You know,

the whistles are assigned to other people in the neighborhoods that immigration officers and agents are there. And essentially, officers ordered the two women to move out of the roadway. We see this matchup with videos of, you know, some of the agents approaching the women and kind of shoving them out of the road and into the sidewalk. That is then when the officers encountered Alex Prattie, who is the 37-year-old U.S. citizen that was killed. And we are lucky to have you here today on this pod because on Saturday you were there when Homeland Security Secretary Kristine Ome held a briefing and addressed the shooting. Just how different is what's in this review from what you heard from the Homeland Security

Secretary over the weekend. Right. So Noam quickly organized a press conference at the FEMA headquarters, but most of the time was spent talking about this shooting. Here's what she told us. This individual went and impeded their law enforcement operations, attacked those officers, had a weapon on him and multiple dozens of rounds of ammunition, wishing to inflict harm on these officers coming, brandishing like that, and impeding their work that they were doing. Now, both Noam and the CBP report say that officers, were out initially doing a specific arrest. Now, I asked to know him if that's what they were doing, if they had this target, then why did they deviate their attention off target to the civilians? And here's what she told me.

This individual impeded the law enforcement officers and attacked them. State the facts as they unfolded on the street today. We were doing a targeted operation against an illegal criminal, and this individual came with a weapon and doesn't. thousands of rounds of ammunition and attacked them. Now, this was contradicted in the agency's own initial review. Right. There is no brandishing mentioned in that review. Right. And remember that the report also says that the officers were originally dealing with

these two other women. And it's not until after they shove those women out of the way that they even notice Preti. And then that quickly escalates. Then there's a struggle to detain Prattie. During that struggle, agents shout that Prettie has a gun, and then approximately five seconds later, the first agent discharges his gun. Another agent also fires shots. So this report seems to say that agents didn't even know he had a gun, nor his intent, when they first came across him. And as we've later learned, Prattie had a permit to carry that gun. Yeah, it strikes me that the administration really went with their usual playbook of doubling down. Here's Nome again at that same press conference that you were at.

When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism. This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts. Domestic terrorism, that is not the facts, as ultimately described by her own department.

And I guess we should say this was an initial internal review by the agency responsible for the shooting. This is not an independent investigation at this point. Right. And, you know, they do say in the report, more information could come out. There could be more details that sort of changes. This review was based on body camera footage of agents who were. on the scene when this happened, likely some initial interviews with some of those agents as well. And so we could see additional details come to light, but to start, this contradicts what that narrative had initially very quickly been. Domenico, I have to ask when there is such a

dramatic disconnect like this, what does that do to the credibility of the administration going forward? Yeah, I think it has a lot of consequences for the administration's credibility and whether people believe them or the people at the helm in this administration going forward. You know, Christy Noem is head of Department of Homeland Security and been a face of a lot of this. You know, she's really getting a lot of criticism from moderate Republicans now saying that she's not up to the job. I mean, you had Tom Tillis, a senator from North Carolina, who albeit is retiring, and that seems to give people more guts to speak out. And he had said that she should be out of a job. Lisa Murkowski, Republican Senator from Alaska, said she wouldn't support.

her again. And, you know, of course, you're having a moderate Democrat saying similar things. So we've seen, you know, some consequences here for some of the folks in this administration. But, you know, ultimately, it starts with the president and the tone that he has set out for how he wants these deportations to take place. And right now, they're feeling the political backlash. Jimena, more political backlash, I guess, some oversight might actually start happening from Congress, which is something that has largely been absent this past year. Right. This week we very quickly saw a slew of congressional oversight hearings suddenly get put on the calendar. So we're going to see the heads of border protection as well as immigration and customs enforcement and USCIS, the Citizenship and Immigration Service that handles legal migration processes be brought for oversight hearings in the House and Senate back to back in about two weeks.

And then Nome herself was called into Senate judiciary. And granted, that hearing won't be for another five weeks. But, you know, it is notable that there is a push for oversight coming from Republicans. You know, Republicans lead these committees right now. Democrats have said that they've been requesting, you know, these leaders to come before them. They have no reason to do that for a Democrat request. but they do if it's the chair of an oversight committee that is a Republican that has the power. And so this increased pressure and probably, you know, some of the threats of a potential government shutdown at the end of the week, you know, is really showing Republicans further their split on immigration and use their congressional oversight power.

And Domenico, perhaps not a coincidence then that we have seen something of a tonal shift from President Trump this week. He was in Iowa yesterday talking about the economy, but he also did an interview with Fox News while he was there. And this came up. What stood out to you? Yeah, I thought it was notable that on this trip to Iowa, he spoke to Will Kane on Fox News. And he had some pretty tough words for Greg Bovino, who had been in the face of immigration enforcement. He called him a pretty out there kind of guy, you know, which I think tells you a little something about how Trump saw how he was being. perceived Bovino and that that has been hurting him politically, Trump. You know, of course he wants to pivot back to the protesters and say that they're quote unquote paid insurrectionist, paid agitators. There's that. He wants to try to make that argument.

But right now they're behind the eight ball when it comes to the messaging on immigration. There's far less of a discussion about the border and people and fewer, if no people crossing the border illegally and more about these deportation tactics. And I thought that was interesting from his speech yesterday in Iowa that there was nothing on Minnesota. He didn't talk anything about ICE enforcement actions. Lots on immigration, though. Trump still wants to be able to shoehorn immigration as his best issue. It just isn't his best issue right now.

So I do want to ask both of you. We know that Greg Bovino has been moved out of Minneapolis. We know that Tom Homan, President Trump's borders are, is going. going in, in theory, to calm the waters somewhat, according to the president. But do we know if this is a messaging shift or a policy shift? There is no reason to believe that this is a policy shift. You know, everyone still has, you know, their commanding jobs for now. Secretary Nome is still Secretary of Homeland Security, Stephen Miller, who is the deputy chief of staff and is

been known to be the one orchestrating and leading a lot of the policy here is still deputy chief of staff. Tom Holman, White House Borders are, he's now on the ground in Minneapolis as well, clearly leading some of the charge here. There is still going to be a mass deportation agenda. You know, that has not changed. On the ground, court records show that there are 3,000 immigration officers in Minneapolis. So any sort of scale back won't take much, right? Remove 1,000, remove 2,000. You still have increased enforcement.

That's notwithstanding what's happening in the rest of America with increased enforcements in states like Maine. You know, we're seeing the cut back of more temporary protected statuses. And folks are getting detained. Refugees in Minneapolis and across the country are getting reviewed and sent to immigration and customs enforcement for a pipeline to deportation. So the policy stays the same. All right, we're going to take a quick break and we'll have more in a moment.

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And we're back. In addition to efforts to curb illegal immigration, the Trump administration has also been making it harder to legally immigrate to the United States. Hima, you spent some time going to naturalization ceremonies, where immigrants officially become United States citizens. What have you heard from the people hitting this milestone? You know, I met such a range of different people so excited to finally become U.S. citizens. Some had barely started the process last year, so it took them a few months to get through it. Others had been in the country for a really long time.

And they all had different reasons for doing it. So one person I spoke to was Ashley Lazama Moreno. She's from Honduras, but has lived in the United States since she was 18 months old. And she told me she actually just turned 30 this month two days before her naturalization ceremony. I just feel, I feel happy, you know. I feel at peace. I feel like I've always felt like I belonged to her, but there was something missing. And I feel like this was the key that was missing.

And it's finally here. And that sense of, you know, feeling at peace and security came up a lot when I was talking to folks. Another person was David Demart. He's from Canada and has been in the U.S. since 2001. Well, first of all, I had been here for a long time on a green card and I figured it was time. I wanted to be able to vote in federal elections and I got a little bit concerned about the current situation for people who were not citizens yet. And I suppose that's not an unreasonable concern given what we've been seeing. Right. And, you know, what we have seen out of the last year of the Trump administration is just a tightening more on the citizenship process. So, you know, tougher citizenship tests. You know, there's ongoing discussion about whether or not the use of public benefits should be taken into consideration when approving citizenship. about 39 countries currently have their citizenship applications stalled.

And so while we don't have data from 2025 yet to see whether naturalizations went up or down, there is a broader assumption that this year they might go down just because of these broader limitations. Anecdotally, I am already hearing of naturalization ceremonies in the D.C. area as well as across the country, already getting canceled. And when I asked, you know, the Department of Homeland Security about this, they said that they were going to, you know, take their time reviewing applications. Essentially, they were going to be a little bit slower. They are going to review a lot closer.

Bringing that idea of additional scrutiny into the process. You know, it's interesting because getting U.S. citizenship is really hard. It takes a long time. And I think for a lot of people, they figured once they get citizenship, then there are. American and that there's no going back. There's no turning back. And for a lot of people, it's a huge relief because they feel like all that work and effort and sacrifice that they've made for themselves or their families has paid off. And I don't think a lot of people ever really thought about citizenship potentially being stripped from people. And it seems that the

Trump administration is certainly pushing to find ways to denaturalize people that they don't want here. Yeah, President Trump has certainly been touting the idea of denaturalization. Yeah, it's definitely been discussed. And, you know, this is in the vein of, you know, this administration is not just going after illegal immigration. It is going after legal pathways to migrate to the country as well. And so denaturalization is one avenue they have to do that. And to be clear, you know, denaturalization is very difficult to do is, you know, something that has a very high bar for the administration to prove. But we are still seeing the administration take other steps to limit legal migration. You know, again, putting a lot more limits on the refugee program. They are pausing asylum. They are canceling

temporary protected status, leaving people without work permits and the legal ability to be in the United States. And so that really does bring into question, like, who does this? the administration want to bring in? What is it saying about what it means to be an American? We've noticed and had this conversation into last year, but we're really going to see it this year. Well, I think that the Trump administration is trying to redefine who is American, what that means to be American. You know, this idea, going back to really the 2015, 2016 Republican presidential campaign, we heard, you know, a real takedown of the idea that the country is a melting pot. you know, this idea that people come from all over. It's a country of immigrants. It's a patchwork quilt. You know, all of those metaphors that had been used to sort of tout what America means.

Trump is really trying to set out and say, no, no, no, this is what America is. And if you're not willing to assimilate to his previously held belief and idea as to what American means, then he doesn't want you here. Harsh rhetoric towards immigrants has been a, you know, a key part of President Trump's messaging going back a very long time. One person who recently has been getting a lot of his ire is Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. He mentioned her just yesterday in his speech in Iowa. Then last night, she faced an attack. Somebody came up to her at a town hall meeting while she was speaking and sprayed her from a syringe with with a substance. that smelled very bad in the room. It was this alarming moment. The person was tackled, and he was arrested on possible assault charges. Domenico, I just, I wonder if you could speak to the political environment that is, this stew that is brewing here. Well, we've talked for a long time about what can spur people who might be on the edges to do things that are pretty extreme. And, you know, I mean, both sides are sort of pointing the finger at each other with who has the most violent extreme rhetoric. But clearly, Trump's rhetoric has been something, you know, to say that immigrants who are here are causing problems, people who've come from other countries that he doesn't like, are problematic people. And, you know, that's the kind of thing that experts warn. could push people who are at the fringes to do kind of extreme things like we saw yesterday.

And we should say that we are still learning about the suspect. We don't have a lot of details about precisely what was going on there at that town hall meeting. But this is just this toxic political environment. Hemena, I wonder as you were speaking with people who are taking this hopeful step of becoming United States citizens what they make of this time in the country? You know, I think the words safety and civic engagement came out a lot. You know, people finally felt a level of safety and protection. And then at the same time, a lot of people talked about being excited to vote in federal elections. And, you know, finally being able to cast that ballot because, you know, if you're not a citizen, you cannot vote.

And, you know, they know that. and so they're excited to finally be able to do that ahead of the midterms this year. All right, let's leave it there for today. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Hima Bustione. I cover immigration policy. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast. This message comes from Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe.

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