Noem refuses to backpedal on calling Alex Pretti a domestic terrorist - Courthouse News

WASHINGTON (CN) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem refused on Tuesday to retract her statement branding a U.S. citizen killed in Minneapolis earlier this year as a “domestic terrorist” in the moments after he was shot by federal immigration agents.

Instead, the Trump administration official charged with overseeing the president’s aggressive deportation agenda told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee the circumstances surrounding Alex Pretti’s death were “chaotic” and claimed she was relying on information from federal law enforcement on the ground in Minnesota.

Noem’s appearance comes as her agency faces a budget bottleneck after lawmakers last month failed to reach a deal to fund homeland security programs. The delay was largely due to Democrats who demanded sweeping reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol after the killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year.

And as she sat before members of the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning, the DHS secretary faced sharp questions about her agency’s handling of the shootings — and her comments inaccurately referring to at least one of the Minnesota victims as a domestic terrorist.

Border Patrol agents in January shot and killed Alex Pretti, 37, at a protest against ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. DHS initially accused Pretti, an ICU nurse who was carrying a legal handgun, of brandishing a weapon against federal agents.

In the hours after Pretti’s death, Noem herself claimed that Pretti was committed to bringing “violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence.”

“That is the definition of domestic terrorism,” the DHS secretary said at the time.

There’s no evidence that Pretti was a domestic terrorist, and the Trump administration quickly stopped referring to him as one. But speaking to senators, Noem refused to admit she had made a mistake.

“I was getting reports from the ground, from agents at the scene,” she told Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. “I would say that it was a chaotic scene.”

Noem added that while Pretti’s death was a “tragic loss of life,” the situation facing federal agents in Minneapolis was “unprecedented.” She repeated the Trump administration’s longstanding claim that DHS is targeting the “worst of the worst” with its sweeping immigration enforcement operation.

Durbin was unconvinced that the secretary’s comments about Pretti were the result of a chaotic situation. “You believed calling the victims of that violence domestic terrorists is a way to calm the scene?” he chided Noem. “Is it so hard to say you were wrong?”

Noem replied she strived to “provide factual information” but would not apologize for or retract her comments.

The DHS secretary later refused a second time to walk back her characterization of Pretti under questioning from Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, a Republican. She told the lawmaker she had not, in fact, referred to the slain Minnesota man as a “domestic terrorist” but rather that she’d said his shooting “appeared to be domestic terrorism.”

“I think it would be safe to say you got some pushback on that,” Kennedy responded.

In her testimony to the Judiciary Committee, Noem claimed ICE officers and other federal immigration agents faced “a serious and escalating threat” as a result of what she framed as “deliberate mischaracterizations” of their work and operations. And she slammed Senate Democrats for shuttering her agency, accusing them of holding the department hostage.

“The latest Democrat-led shutdown of DHS is reckless, and it undermines American national security,” she said.

Democrats, however, were equally critical of Noem’s leadership. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar pushed the secretary on the DHS immigration surge in her state and the killings of Pretti and Renee Good, shot and killed in her car by ICE agents in January. The lawmaker also asked Noem to respond to reports that off-duty Minnesota police officers had been stopped by federal law enforcement, which she suggested was racial profiling.

Noem did not comment. “When you only talk about these situations … you don’t talk about the good work [ICE agents] do to protect people from being victimized by people in this country who want to commit violent crimes,” she told the Minnesota Democrat.

The DHS secretary also told lawmakers that federal agents were within their legal rights to use administrative warrants signed by ICE officials to enter people’s homes, rather than the agency’s longstanding practice of securing judicial warrants to conduct such searches. Noem claimed administrative warrants were the “proper legal tool” for immigration enforcement operations and said both Congress and the Supreme Court had affirmed that stance.

DHS last spring issued a memo authorizing federal agents to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant. Immigration advocates have long instructed people not to open their doors for immigration officers who do not present a warrant signed by a judge.

Senators, meanwhile, grilled Noem not only on her handling of immigration enforcement but also reports that DHS spent hundreds of millions of dollars on aircraft and advertising campaigns prominently featuring the homeland security secretary.

Asked by Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about reports that her agency spent roughly $300 million on a pair of Gulfstream luxury jets and a Boeing 737 airliner, Noem claimed the purchases had been authorized by Congress — the private jets, she said, would be used for “long-range command and control” missions; and the 737 would be refurbished for deportations.

“What kind of deportations justify being flown out of the country in a luxury jet with accommodations like this?” Whitehouse responded.

Noem also faced tough questions from Kennedy, who needled the DHS secretary about a roughly $220 million ad buy her agency oversaw, which he said featured her “prominently.” She told the Louisiana Republican she did not oversee the process for hiring contractors to produce the advertisements but DHS “went through the legal process” and President Donald Trump knew the agency was making them.

Noem added that the ads DHS produced were “effective.”

“They were effective for your name recognition,” Kennedy retorted. The senator argued the ad buys put the president in a “terribly awkward spot,” pointing to reports that one of the contractors DHS selected for the job was run by the husband of Tricia McLaughlin, the former agency spokesperson.

And the DHS secretary also appeared to sidestep a demand from Delaware Secretary Chris Coons, who asked that she rule out sending federal immigration agents to polling places during November’s midterm elections. Trump himself has suggested that Republicans should “take over” elections in certain states — he’s long supported claims of widespread election fraud.

Noem told Coons there were “no plans” to send agents to the polls but said it had been “proven” people here illegally had voted in past elections.

“States are responsible for running their elections and we’re giving them tools and mitigation efforts they can utilize to make sure they maintain the integrity of those elections,” the secretary told Coons.

As Noem went under the Senate microscope Tuesday, congressional Democrats appeared no closer to etching a deal with Republicans and the White House to fund DHS. The Trump administration this week sent a new offer to Democratic leadership, but they panned the proposal as “ridiculous.”

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