The Second Shooting
Plus: Kristi Noem's transformation of DHS, Stanley Kubrick's Gigolo Joe, and more...
A second shooting in Minneapolis: A U.S. citizen—a 37-year-old ICU nurse named Alex Pretti—was shot and killed by immigration agents in Minneapolis over the weekend.
Pretti's death has become a lightning rod for criticism of the excesses of the Trump administration. Pretti, whom federal government officials have tarred as a "would-be assassin" committing "domestic terrorism", was carrying a firearm (with a permit) at the time he was shot. He had no criminal record.
As "law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault, an individual approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed in an official statement. "The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted….Fearing for his life and the lives and safety of fellow officers, an agent fired defensive shots….The suspect also had 2 magazines and no ID—this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."
But Pretti never drew his weapon (even though the Department of Homeland Security's Kristi Noem says he was "brandishing" it). He appears to have been disarmed before he was shot. Simply carrying a firearm, plus two magazines, should not be regarded as an invitation to be killed in a country that deigns to protect Second Amendment rights. But shot he was.
It is possible that his gun accidentally discharged—it was a Sig Sauer P320, which has a history of doing that—but there's not much to suggest that happened. The video does not appear to indicate that, and it seems unlikely we'll get a full, reliable investigation. "Video footage of Pretti's death shows federal agents using pepper spray on protesters," writes Reason's Robby Soave. "Pretti appears to be recording the altercation with his cell phone. After an agent shoves one of the protesters to the ground, Pretti moves to assist her. Several CBP agents then decide to bring Pretti down. It's conceivable that the agent who shot Pretti had the impression that he was reaching for his weapon—though the first shot clearly went off after another agent disarmed the protester."
The administration has chosen a line and stuck with it. Pretti, in their telling, was a dangerous "assassin" trying to pick off law enforcement. Video of his encounter with immigration agents does not support this portrayal. As Reason's Jacob Sullum points out, "DHS again promises a thorough investigation of a fatal shooting after prejudging the outcome."
An assassin tried to murder federal agents and this is your response. https://t.co/4Gx5UPpc4X
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) January 24, 2026
Interestingly, Trump—possibly attuned to quickly-tanking public opinion—seems like he might be willing to pull back from Minnesota. "I don't like any shooting. I don't like it," Trump told The Wall Street Journal. "But I don't like it when somebody goes into a protest and he's got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn't play good either."
"At some point we will leave," he added. "We've done, they've done a phenomenal job." He added that the officers' actions were under review.
The scene in Minneapolis raises hard questions for those who had previously supported Trump's immigration policy: How many unjust killings by agents of the state must be tolerated in the name of border security?
It's not worth a single needless death like this to remove 1000 or even 10,000 illegal immigrants. https://t.co/xGt2nyOuLY
— Thomas Chatterton Williams (@thomaschattwill) January 25, 2026
And another question is raised by the reckless brutality on full display now. Are agencies like ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) doing what they claim? Are you safer now? Is your money well-spent? Is the government doing what it ought to be?
It seems like the thing that everyone is missing is that mass deportations are not happening. Nothing close.
— Dave Smith (@ComicDaveSmith) January 25, 2026
And, relevant to libertarians in particular: Are gun owners safe in Trump's America?
As rumors circulated that the administration would target Maine's Somali population, "I stopped carrying the 9-mm compact handgun—a Glock 19 equipped with a Holosun red dot—that I keep underneath my shirt most days, in full compliance with Maine's concealed-carry laws," writes Tyler Austin Harper in The Atlantic. "Although it is completely within my rights to carry concealed in my state…the past few weeks have made it apparent that ICE and Border Patrol don't put much store in the law or Constitution." What do we have left when our right to keep and bear arms is winnowed down to something unrecognizable, when our right to film agents of the state is conflated with domestic terrorism?
Scenes from New York: New series on "affording New York" featuring a family of five—the father is a super—who lives on $140,000 dollars a year in Manhattan's Morningside Heights. I am reminded, as I read this, that most of the so-called affordability crisis (housing perhaps exempted) is actually a crisis of budgeting and priorities; when you are legitimately middle-class, yet want to live in one of the priciest cities in the country, you must make tradeoffs that will sometimes feel painful, and you must continuously assess whether you still find those tradeoffs to be worthwhile. People have been doing this for centuries, yet there's a certain breed of champagne socialist that seems to believe that they shouldn't have to, that the state should smooth their way.
QUICK HITS
- "In the year since Noem left her post as South Dakota's governor to lead the Department of Homeland Security, the agency has dramatically transformed in ways that are increasingly visible to the American public," reports The Washington Post. "Homeland Security's sprawling deportation campaign is a marked departure from the agency's focus after its founding in the aftermath of Sept. 11. The department was created to protect the nation against foreign terrorists and work closely with federal and local agencies. Under Noem's leadership, the agency has moved its focus to immigration enforcement—pulling and cutting resources from other operations, like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to carry out the president's mass deportation campaign."
- "China's top general, second only to Xi Jinping, the nation's leader, in the military command, has been put under investigation and accused of 'grave violations of discipline and the law,' the Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday, the most stunning escalation yet in Mr. Xi's purge of the People's Liberation Army elite," reports The New York Times. "The general, Zhang Youxia, is a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Communist Party body that controls China's armed forces. Another member of the commission, Gen. Liu Zhenli, who leads the military's Joint Staff Department, is also under investigation, the Defense Ministry said. Its announcement did not say what either general was alleged to have done wrong." This is all part of Xi's intense escalation toward ensuring all top military officials are loyal to him and him alone.
- "It was the summer of 1990 in Stanley Kubrick's kitchen and I'd just invented the sex robot Gigolo Joe," writes Ian Watson for Bloomberg.
- How to understand Pope Leo and the Augustinian tradition.
- Interesting:
???????????????? Geert Wilders, a major Trump ally, lost half his seats in the last election. This week his party lost another 7 MPs. They walked! Collapse in real time pic.twitter.com/7qyWdWNrUX
— Mariska den Eelden ???????????????? (@eeldenden) January 25, 2026
