The president of the United States, , promised this Tuesday to the journalists who were waiting for him as he left Washington for Des Moines (Iowa), where he plans to give a speech, that “a very honest and honest investigation” will be carried out on , a 37-year-old American nurse who was then shot a dozen times in the back by a group of federal agents.
When the news broke, Trump did not seem as patient with the conclusions of that investigation that he now promises. He called him a “gunman” and posted a message on his social network with the image of the weapon that Pretti was allegedly legally carrying at that time (and which, according to the videos of the event, the agents took from him before the shooting began). In the following hours, several members of his Administration called the nurse, who had no criminal record, a “murderer” and “domestic terrorist,” lied when accusing him of brandishing the weapon, and assured that he was ready to “cause a massacre.”
This Tuesday, after three days in which the president of the United States has softened his speech and has made decisions as , the face of the most violent tactics of the operation of three thousand agents deployed in Minneapolis, Trump once again insisted on the fact that Pretti carried his gun that day. “You can’t go around with a weapon,” he said, before defining what happened as “a very unfortunate incident.”
Trump also stated that he is “analyzing the situation.” Clearly aware of the image crisis caused by the second death of a white American in Minneapolis, after that of the poet, who was killed by an ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agent, the president added: “I love everyone. I love all our people. I love their family. [por la de Pretti]. And it is a very sad situation.”
The Republican made these statements on a transition day for Operation Metro Surge, the phenomenal anti-immigration deployment that has taken over the Twin Cities: Minneapolis and St. Paul (3.7 million inhabitants in total). This Tuesday is the first day that Tom Homan, czar of the Southern border of the White House, assumed command, a man with a certainly tough profile, but also more political than Bovino.
About 150 protesters gathered the cold night before, under a light snowfall, to say goodbye to him in the place where they believed he was going to spend his last night on the outskirts of Minneapolis, one of those roadside hotels of the large American chains that standardize the landscape of the vast country. They showed up to ruin his rest, armed with whistles, pots, drums, and loudspeakers blaring loudly. heavy metal. A cordon of about 30 police officers guarded the entrance to the hotel and repeatedly charged the crowd.
An hour and a half after the beginning of the protest, one of those agents announced over a loudspeaker that from that moment on it became an “illegal assembly,” and recited the charges with which those who were arrested would be accused. As officers began pushing through the crowd, they arrested about a half-dozen people.
While all this was happening, Trump was meeting in the White House with the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, who has done the unspeakable since her appointment to embody the ruthless campaign against irregular immigration with which her boss aspires to fulfill the promise, made during the campaign, of carrying out the largest deportation in history. It was a two-hour meeting in the Oval Office, held when criticism was mounting against Noem’s management. In his brief meeting with the press in the White House gardens, Trump denied this Tuesday that she was going to leave office. “He is doing a very good job,” he added.
Minneapolis, for its part, woke up pending Homan’s agenda. He met the Democratic governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, who was a candidate for vice president alongside Kamala Harris and that is why he has also become one of the favorite targets of the Republican Administration.
Walz’s office issued a statement that spoke of the agreement between the two on “the need for continued dialogue.” Also, about the priorities of the state authorities: a rapid reduction of the federal forces present in the State, cessation of harassment of a territory governed by Democrats and impartial investigations into the deaths of Pretti and Good, which they also ran to blame from the White House when an ICE agent shot her dead three times.
Homan also planned a meeting with the mayor, Jacob Frey, who had confirmed the day before that “some agents” would leave with Bovino; it is not clear how many, or which ones. The head of the Border Patrol also takes with him the image of toughness that he wanted to project and that was underlined by a uniform, a haircut and some forms of paramilitary echoes.
In the morning, the chief federal judge of Minnesota, Patrick Schiltz, had ordered him to appear to explain why he has not obeyed the numerous court orders regarding the actions of the feared immigration police in Minnesota.
“This court’s patience has run out,” Schilz writes in his brief order, issued Monday night. If Lyons does not appear, the judge could hold him in contempt of court for all the times the feds prevented him from appearing before the judge to request bail in Minneapolis. Lyons and his team have accumulated numerous orders from magistrates that oblige them to offer the assistance guaranteed by law.
