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In a fervent critique, Hope Walz, daughter of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, took to TikTok on Saturday to vocalize her condemnation of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), likening the agency to a “horrible Gestapo” and insisting it “cannot be funded.”
The catalyst for Hope’s impassioned remarks was a recent incident involving Border Patrol agents that resulted in the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Expressing her emotions in the video, Hope shared her “profound sadness” and “a lot of anger” over the situation.
“ICE brutally beat and murdered, executed may be a better word, a resident of the Twin Cities,” she stated, highlighting that Pretti was a nurse at the Veterans Hospital. Hope accused ICE of committing this act “in broad daylight” and subsequently misleading the public about the event.
Amplifying her call to action, Hope urged the public to contact their senators, advocating that they oppose any funding for ICE. “This horrible Gestapo, essentially, should not be funded, cannot be funded,” she insisted. “So, call your senators—call all the senators, and tell them not to fund ICE, because it is deplorable at this point.”
“This horrible Gestapo, essentially, should not be funded, cannot be funded,” Hope added. “So, call your senators — call all the senators, and tell them not to fund ICE, because it is deplorable at this point.”
Breitbart News’s AWR Hawkins reported that in a statement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained that Border Patrol agents had been “conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault,” when the man — identified as Pretti, approached them “with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun”:
The statement says agents were “conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.” While conducting the operation, a man approached “U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.”
Officers tried to disarm the man but he “violently resisted.”
NBC News reported that while DHS has stated that “an agent shot Pretti in self-defense after he violently resisted attempts to disarm him,” video footage from eyewitnesses “from various angles appear to contradict elements” of DHS’s “account of events”:
The encounter was recorded by eyewitnesses, and video circulated widely on social media throughout the weekend. DHS has said an agent shot Pretti in self-defense after he violently resisted attempts to disarm him. But eyewitness videos taken from various angles appear to contradict elements of the department’s account of events.
A DHS spokesperson reportedly confirmed to the outlet that “investigators are reviewing body-camera videos from immigration agents” during the recent shooting.
The shooting comes after Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent. Good was accused of having “weaponized her vehicle” against ICE officers.