As a rare storm blanketed the Texas state capital in picturesque frost on Monday, Texas Republicans joined a chorus of criticisms against the Department of Homeland Security, its Secretary Kristi Noem, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency terrorizing American cities in President Donald Trump’s second term.
In short, Hell has frozen over.
This past weekend, an intensive care unit nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital named Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis. Like Renee Good, who was gunned down weeks earlier, he was a 37-year-old American citizen. In the hours after videos of Pretti’s extrajudicial killing began circulating online, Trump adviser Stephen Miller claimed without evidence that Pretti was “a would-be assassin who tried to murder federal law enforcement.” Noem, also without evidence, said he “committed an act of domestic terrorism.”
The president referred to Pretti as a “gunman” and, on Truth Social, wrote “LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB!”
Pretti had a permit allowing him to carry a concealed firearm. While he had a gun holstered on his hip, video footage showed he was not holding it — and agents disarmed him before shooting him multiple times. He was holding only a phone when he approached officers.
It was the second time this month that Americans saw the Trump administration contradict video evidence of murders that citizens could watch with their own eyes. And, coupled with the killing of Keith Porter in Los Angeles and multiple other shootings last year, it marked a sea change.
While some Democrats have taken up calls to “Abolish ICE” and others have been peppered with criticisms of acting without enough urgency in response to the agency’s deadly and unconstitutional rampage on Minneapolis, Republicans have remained remarkably silent.
Then on Sunday, as Texas Tribune first reported, Rep. Michael McCaul and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz became the first Texas Republicans to call for an investigation into the actions of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.
“I am troubled by the events that have unfolded in Minneapolis,” McCaul posted to X Sunday afternoon. “As an attorney and former federal prosecutor, I believe a thorough investigation is necessary — both to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain Americans’ confidence in our justice system.”
In an episode of Cruz’s podcast “Verdict,” he said: “There needs to be an investigation.” Cruz flatly contradicted the administration’s previous claims about both Pretti and Good, whom he acknowledged, “from all appearances are not violent criminals.”
“What I think the administration could do better is the tone with which they’re describing this,” Cruz said. “Escalating the rhetoric doesn’t help, and it actually loses credibility.”
A 5-Year-Old Disappeared in Austin. A Mom Shot Dead in Minneapolis. How Much More Violence Will It Take to ‘Abolish ICE’?
In a viral post on Instagram, 5-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos smiles brightly in front of iconic Austin street art. She’s wearing purple sneakers with pink laces.…
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy wrote on X that “ICE should not leave Minnesota” but that “carrying a gun & magazines is not an invitation for cops to shoot you.”
Others went harder.
Former state senator and former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, also known as the Republican who authored Texas’ Concealed Handgun Law, wrote a fiery op-ed for the Houston Chronicle, calling official comments from Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, Miller, Noem, and the rest of the administration “outright lies — lies made even in the face of multiple videos that tell a completely different story.”
“If I brandish my handgun in the presence of a peace officer, I expect to get shot. If it remains untouched in my holster, I don’t expect to get shot. Until Saturday in Minneapolis that was a pretty simple concept. What happened?” Patterson asked. “Did the victim, Alex Pretti, draw or attempt to draw his weapon? As videos indicate, was he already disarmed before a federal border patrol officer fatally shot him multiple times in the back?”
“ICE is needed, but not this ICE,” Patterson wrote in his rebuke. “This ICE and its leadership need to go — now.”
One of the more surprising contributions on Monday morning came from one of Trump’s most loyal allies, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
In an appearance on conservative radio host Mark Davis’ show Monday morning, Abbott said immigration officials should “get back to what they wanted to do to begin with — and that is to remove people from the country who are here illegally.”
“In general, we need to have respect for law enforcement officers in the country. ICE, they are law enforcement officers,” he added. “So they, being the White House, need to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that that respect is going to be reinstilled. And that’s not an easy task, especially under the current circumstances.”
Abbott — who also blamed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the bulk of the unrest — said he believed the administration was working on a “game plan” for federal immigration authorities to “go about their job in a more structured way to make sure that they are going to be able to remove these people, but without causing all the kinds of problems and fighting in communities that they are experiencing right now.”
The tepid condemnation was met with raised eyebrows, including by progressive political strategist and content creator Olivia Julianna, who posted on X, “Do you know how badly you have to fuck up to have GREG ABBOTT say you fucked up!?”
But Abbott certainly wasn’t alone.
Former Vice President Mike Pence called the shooting “tragic” and said a “full and transparent investigation of this officer involved shooting must take place immediately.” Even Republican Chris Madel pulled out of the Minnesota governor’s race in a video posted to X, writing that he “cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state.”
Meanwhile, New York Republican U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino and Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, chairs of congressional Homeland Security committees, called on senior immigration enforcement officials to testify in the wake of Pretti’s death. Utah U.S. Sen. John Curtis, Indiana U.S. Sen. Todd Young, North Carolina U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, and Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy all urged investigations. Former U.S. Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene condemned Pretti’s shooting, right-wing commentator Tim Pool questioned Bovino’s version of events, and even conservative Christian broadcaster Erick Erickson called the Trump administration’s response “a bad look.”
Fox News started changing its tune about 36 hours after the shooting, and Joe Rogan, the podcast host who endorsed Trump in 2024, compared ICE to “the Gestapo” in a recent episode.
These are significant shifts.
“However gentle and equivocal the pushback might be, it is growing increasingly conspicuous as congressional Republicans privately discuss how to respond to Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign ahead of the midterm elections,” Politico reported on Monday.
By Tuesday morning, Trump had said border czar Tom Homan was headed to Minnesota to take over the immigration situation, according to CNN. The Atlantic first reported that Bovino is losing his title as “commander” and will return to the border in California, which was confirmed by NBC News.
In Minnesota, Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief district judge, said in a court filing Monday that the “Court’s patience is at an end.” He ordered acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to appear in federal court this Friday to explain why he should not be held in contempt.
“You know, they have criminals. And all I said, ‘Just give us your criminals. And if you give us the criminals, it all goes away.’ They’re there to pick up murderers,” Trump said in an interview Tuesday morning on the radio show “Sid & Friends in the Morning.”
He told the hosts his calls with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were “very good” and “very respectful” and even hinted at a potential compromise.
Over the last year, communities have seen wedding photographers jailed while returning from their honeymoons, journalists detained, priests threatened, and disabled children held for weeks. Neighbors have been taken while driving their kids to cancer treatments and to college.
With images on all news sites and social media apps at all hours — another shooting, another 2-year-old removed despite a court order, a 5-year-old used as bait — the perception of the agency is changing rapidly. A recent YouGov/Economist poll showed that a majority — 58% — of Americans say that ICE’s tactics are too forceful and that 46% of Americans support abolishing ICE now.
“Americans don’t like what they’re seeing right now,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “We believe in federalism and states’ rights and nobody likes feds coming into their state. So what’s the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-U.S. citizen? I don’t think that’s what Americans want.”
Meanwhile, there have been many more condemnations of ICE and calls for Noem’s impeachment from Democrats, including Texans like Congressman Greg Casar, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and Texas House Rep. James Talarico. The latter two faced off on Saturday afternoon before their upcoming primary election for a U.S. Senate seat, hours after Pretti was killed, which injected a sense of urgency into their responses.
Crockett called ICE a “rogue organization” that’s violating American rights. “We need to clean house from top to bottom,” she said, adding that she had already signed on to legislation to impeach Noem filed by U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, of Illinois.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Democrats are threatening to allow a partial government shutdown next week, holding hostage a DHS funding bill to rein in the agency.
“This is the fifth-highest funded military force in the entire world, and what are they doing?” asked Crockett. “They’re killing people in the middle of the street.”
“They are supposed to do immigration and customs enforcement,” she added. “Not going after U.S. citizens. Not going after people who are documented.”
For his part, Talarico said it was “time to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that actually is going to focus on public safety.” He added that ICE agents who abuse their power should be both unmasked and prosecuted.
Both made it clear that the agency requires reform and “a crackdown” — whatever that looks like.
“We should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies,” Talarico said.
Before this weekend, calls to abolish ICE had appeared in headlines by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, on pins worn by celebrities at the Golden Globes, and in posts online by everyone from gun-violence prevention advocate Cameron Kasky to neo-conservative Never Trumper Bill Kristol (who served in senior positions in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations). The Verge even reported this week that anti-ICE discussions were happening all over Reddit, from r/Military and cat subreddits to er, adult ones.
However, there’s still a contingent of Trump loyalists who appear unmoved by the deaths of American citizens in recent weeks.
“Americans voted for the enforcement of our laws & strong foreign policy to counter the increasingly dangerous world we face,” said Sen. John Cornyn in a post on X. Cornyn has yet to receive Trump’s endorsement in his upcoming Republican primary for U.S. Senate against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The winner of that contest will face either Crockett or Talarico in the general election.
“Shutting down @DHSgov or @ICEgov solves nothing,” Cornyn added. “We must fund DHS so the men & women tasked with enforcing our laws and keeping our homeland safe & secure can continue doing their jobs.”