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Minnesota leaders are pushing the federal government for more access to evidence in the killing of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents during the federal surge last month. 

Democratic U.S. Sens. Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar sent a letter Thursday to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to allow state investigators to access evidence in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti as he observed federal agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. 

In the letter, Klobuchar and Smith say there needs to be a “thorough, objective and impartial investigation” that includes local authorities and state investigators. 

“The administration’s decision raises serious questions about its objectivity, particularly after administration officials have made statements, including calling Mr. Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist,’ that prejudged the matter and conflicted with videos and other evidence that has already become public,” according to the letter. 

The senators urged Bondi to reverse her decision to exclude state investigators from the case. The FBI notified the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension this week that they had made a 

The federal government has also refused to collaborate with the BCA in the investigation into the killing of Minneapolis resident Renee Macklin Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7.  

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has also

 pressed the federal government for more access to evidence

 in Pretti’s killing as well as the wounding of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in a separate incident. This week, her office accused the federal government of “attempts to hide evidence” and demanded they produce it by March 3. 

“We are prepared to take further legal action should the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice fail to meet our deadline and continue to obstruct our investigations,” Moriarty said in a statement. 

The BCA is conducting its own investigation of Pretti’s killing and urges anyone with information to contact the agency. The state of Minnesota also sued 

the federal government to get access to evidence

The push to get more evidence comes as during a federal government shutdown triggered by Senate Democrats’ refusal to fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security without some reforms for ICE. 

“My view of this is that we need to take this department, ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, we need to tear it down to the studs and start over,” Smith said. “There is a rottenness to this agency that can't be solved by some simple guardrails around their behavior, but we have to start somewhere, and I’m looking to minimize the harm that can be done.”

Minnesota Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar said they’ve been able to hold their caucus together on 10 demands to reform the agency, including limits on masking and a requirement that agents wear identification. 

“As Democrats, we are united in this effort to say that this agency ultimately is behaving in an unlawful way,” Omar said. “Without it being brought in, there is no way that we can, with any conscience, say it is okay for you to continue to have money.” 

The so-called “big, beautiful bill” passed this summer already 

for border security and immigration enforcement over four years. 

Politics and Government News

Immigration enforcement in Minnesota

The latest on ICE in Minnesota

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti

Jon Collins

Author

Minnesota leaders are pushing the federal government for more access to evidence in the killing of Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents during the federal surge last month. 


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Minnesota senators press feds to share evidence in Pretti killing

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