Updated at 5:13 p.m.
Vermont politicians from both sides of the aisle are condemning the violence of federal immigration agents following the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis man. Gov. Phil Scott joined a small handful of Republican governors criticizing Trump’s immigration crackdown — calling on the president to deescalate operations.
“Enough. … it’s not acceptable for American citizens to be killed by federal agents for exercising their God-given and constitutional rights to protest their government,” Republican Gov. Phil Scott said in a statement Sunday.
On Saturday, federal agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who was protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good in the city.
Though Scott’s statement followed Pretti’s killing, he did not specify if he was referring to that incident or others in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, the Vermont Democratic Party had more pointed words, saying it was “outraged” by Pretti’s killing in a statement Sunday.
In the wake of Pretti’s killing, video analyses by national media have contradicted the claims of federal officials, who asserted that officers shot Pretti in self-defense after he approached officers with a firearm.
Video footage shows that Pretti approached the officers holding his phone — not a gun.
In videos of the scene, half a dozen officers pushed Pretti, then wrestled him to the ground. Pretti had a semiautomatic pistol on him, which officials said he was licensed to carry. And videos show that officers took away his gun before fatally shooting him. Pretti was a U.S. citizen with no criminal record, according to the Minneapolis police chief.
“This is yet another unacceptable use of lethal force by federal agents,” said Lachlan Francis, chair of the Vermont Democratic Party.
“Renée Good and Alex Pretti were killed in the streets by their own government. The founders of our country gave us First and Second Amendment rights to protect against a tyrannical government — now President Trump and the jackbooted thugs at DHS and ICE are arguing that exercising those rights is grounds for execution,” Francis said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security called its crackdown in Minneapolis the largest immigration operation in the department’s history earlier this month, marking a significant escalation since first targeting Somali immigrants in December.
In his statement, Scott called on Trump to change course in Minnesota.
“The President should pause these operations, de-escalate the situation, and reset the federal government’s focus on truly criminal illegal immigrants. In the absence of Presidential action, Congress and the Courts must step up to restore constitutionality,” he said.
Lt. Gov John Rodgers, also a Republican, echoed Scott and issued a similar statement Sunday. “Everyone’s constitutional rights must be protected. Not one more American should die at the hands of federal government agents. Not a single one,” Rodgers said
The two most recent killings of U.S. citizens in Minnesota are far from the first instances of federal agents shooting civilians.
The day after Good was killed in Minneapolis, immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon — an incident the FBI says it has no video footage of. In September, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez in Chicago. Since July, Immigration agents have fired at or into civilian vehicles at least 13 times, leaving at least eight shot and two dead, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Pretti’s killing, though, comes at an important political moment for the Trump administration.
A government shutdown now looms in the wake of Pretti’s killing as U.S. senators are considering a bill that would increase funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The bill cleared the House floor last week, but Republican Senators are now divided over the bill, with some demanding investigations of Pretti’s death.
U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., voted against the funding package. Both U.S. senators from Vermont, Peter Welch, D-Vt, and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, announced their opposition to the bill Monday.
Vermont’s Republican governor drew criticism in Montpelier last week for not being outspoken enough against the Trump administration. Scott has, though, denied Trump’s requests to use the National Guard multiple times. He rejected the president’s requests to send the Vermont National Guard to Washington, D.C., in August and to have the troops do clerical work for ICE. Last fall he also called Trump’s use of the Guard unconstitutional.
On Sunday, Scott had stronger words: “At best, these federal immigration operations are a complete failure of coordination of acceptable public safety and law enforcement practices, training, and leadership,” Scott said in the statement. “At worst, it’s a deliberate federal intimidation and incitement of American citizens that’s resulting in the murder of Americans. Again, enough is enough.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Sen. Bernie Sanders’ party affiliation, and due to an editing error, the story inaccurately described how Alex Pretti was disarmed.
