Naturally, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Representative Thomas Massie, and a handful of other congressional Republicans who regularly dare to defy Trump spoke out against the administration after Pretti was killed.
But now a growing number of Republicans are joining them in publicly pushing back against the tactics used by federal immigration agents, even if they still support the Trump administration’s broader mass-deportation goals. And Republicans have signaled that they are open to negotiating with Democrats on the issue to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “Obviously this is an inflection point, an opportunity to evaluate and to really assess the policies and the procedures” of the Trump administration in Minnesota.
One of the first GOP lawmakers to speak out was Thom Tillis, North Carolina’s outgoing GOP senator. On Sunday he issued a statement calling for a “thorough and impartial investigation” of Pretti’s shooting.
“Any administration official who rushes to judgment and tries to shut down an investigation before it begins are doing an incredible disservice to the nation and to President Trump’s legacy,” he said.
His call for an investigation was echoed by Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, who is facing a Trump-backed primary challenger:
Two very conservative members of the House GOP, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota and Michael McCaul of Texas, also demanded a “thorough investigation.”
On Monday afternoon Senator John Curtis joined the calls for an investigation and said he’ll be “working with a bipartisan group of senators to demand real oversight and transparency.” He also criticized Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem by name, saying, “I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence.”
Tillis went even further on Tuesday, becoming the first Republican to say Noem should be fired. “What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” he said. “She needs to go.”
Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat who sometimes sides with Republicans, had previously called on Trump to fire Noem. “She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy,” he said on Tuesday. “DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.
On the day of Pretti’s shooting, Representative Andrew Garbarino of New York, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, asked the leaders of ICE, U.S. Customs and Borders Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to testify before the committee. Though he did not explicitly criticize immigration agents or even mention Minneapolis, he noted in a statement that “Congress has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect.” The hearing is set for February 10.
Senator Rand Paul, chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent letters on Monday to three top officials at ICE and Customs and Border Protection requesting that they testify at a February 12 hearing. “Congress has an obligation to conduct oversight of … tax dollars and ensure the funding is used to accomplish the mission, provide proper support for our law enforcement, and, most importantly, protect the American people,” he said.
By Wednesday, even Josh Hawley, one of Trump’s closest Senate allies, said the immigration crackdown had become a public safety risk, according to Punchbowl.
“We’re at a situation where this just isn’t safe,” Hawley said. “It’s not safe for anybody. It’s not safe for bystanders. It’s not safe for law enforcement.”
Other Republican elected officials are privately raising their concerns with the Trump administration. The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump started softening his tone on Minnesota after Senator Lindsey Graham told him he needed to shift focus from the shootings. “Graham told the president that the grisly visuals on TV needed to be changed, saying that they were overshadowing the success of other aspects of his immigration agenda, according to a person familiar with the call,” the report said.
