Pictures of Alex Pretti sitting outside his home in Minneapolis on January 26, 2026. Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, died Jan. 25 after being shot multiple times during a brief standoff with Border Patrol agents in south Minneapolis. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined during a U.S. House hearing Tuesday to apologize to the families of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, victims of fatal shootings by immigration agents in Minneapolis last month.
Senior Trump administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, had said both Minneapolis residents were involved in “domestic terrorism.” Good was a poet and mother of three and Pretti was an intensive care unit nurse.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons disagreed when asked by California Democrat Eric Swalwell whether he would apologize for that characterization.
“I will not speak to any ongoing investigation,” Lyons said.
Lawmakers on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee sharply criticized Lyons, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow during Tuesday’s hearing following the fatal shootings of Good on Jan. 7 and Pretti on Jan. 24. The deportation campaign in Minneapolis began more than two months ago.
After the shootings, Democrats pushed for policy changes to the budget proposal that funds the agency for fiscal year 2026, securing bipartisan agreement on the measure.
If lawmakers don’t reach an agreement by Friday, much of DHS will run out of funding. Under provisions in last year’s Republican tax cuts and spending bill, funding for immigration enforcement remains intact.
Scott called the thousands of protesters and legal observers in Minnesota “paid agitators.” There is no evidence of this.
Noem, whose impeachment Democrats are pushing for, was not at the hearing.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, acknowledged that the country was at a “tipping point” and called the deaths of Good and Pretti “unacceptable and preventable.”
But he otherwise largely defended federal immigration enforcement and the Trump administration’s enforcement tactics.
The committee’s top Democrat, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said the Trump administration is using DHS as a weapon against Americans.
Body cameras, masks and roving patrols
Democrats questioned Scott and Lyons about a handful of policy proposals Democrats are pushing for in the DHS budget bill.
Democrats’ proposals include introducing body cameras for immigration officers and requiring those officers to show identification and not wear masks.
Thompson asked Lyons how many body cameras ICE officers had. Noem announced earlier this month that DHS would send body cameras to all ICE officers across the country.
Lyons said about 3,000 ICE officers currently have body cameras, with another 6,000 cameras on the way.
Scott said about 10,000 of 20,000 Border Patrol agents have body cameras.
Democratic Rep. Tim Kennedy of New York asked Lyons whether he would commit to ordering ICE agents to stop wearing face coverings and masks during enforcement actions.
“No,” Lyons said.
Kennedy then asked Lyons if he believed Noem should resign in lightweight of the fatal shootings of Good and Pretti.
“I’m not going to comment on that,” Lyons said.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, a former committee chairman who is retiring next year, said some of the roving patrols should be kept at the southern border and not in residential areas.
“I called for de-escalation after the two deaths and the two shootings,” McCaul said. “I believe that these walking patrols should be conducted at the border and not in major cities across the United States.”
Democrats are also calling for an end to roving patrols in the US interior
McCaul added that federal immigration agents “are not trained to control crowds.”
“They are trained to surgically penetrate, penetrate and remove these dangerous, violent criminals from the United States of America,” he said.
Judgment Day, Klan claimed
There were some heated arguments between Democrats and government officials at the hearing.
Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, who is facing federal charges after a confrontation with immigration agents at a Newark detention center where she attempted to conduct an unannounced inspection visit, asked Lyons if he considered himself a religious person.
Lyons said that was the case, and McIver asked him how he thought “Doomsday would work for you with so much blood on your hands.”
“I’m not going to delve into that question,” Lyons said.
She asked Lyons if he thought he was going “to hell.”
Garbarino quickly stopped her questions.
Democratic Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois criticized the officials before her and called for abolishing ICE.
“I have as much respect for you as I did for the last few white men who put on masks to terrorize communities of color. I have no respect for the heirs of the Klanhood and the Slave Patrol,” she said. “Those activities were criminal and so were yours.”
