As the White House worked to “de-escalate” tensions in Minneapolis Tuesday, a man sprayed Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with a syringe of unknown liquid at a town hall meeting, where she called for curbing the Trump administration’s anti-immigration crackdown.The White House is also evaluating whether the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who gunned down a nurse failed to follow “clear guidance” to “create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors,” deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told AFP. “We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,” Miller said in a statement.At the town hall Tuesday night, Omar had just spoken about the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and demanded that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem “resign or face impeachment,” when a man sprang up from the front row, made a remark and sprayed the lawmaker, as security leapt to grab him. Omar raised a fist and stepped toward the attacker before returning to the podium to say: “Here’s the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand: We are Minnesota strong. And we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw on us.”Omar is a frequent target of President Donald Trump — who continues to defend Noem despite her oversight of federal immigration agents who shot and killed two US citizens this month, saying Noem would not step down and was doing a “very good job.”But after days of protests following 37-year-old Alex Pretti’s death, Trump told Fox News “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” while adding that it was not a “pullback.”Trump also admitted that Gregory Bovino, a hardline Border Patrol commander who is now expected to leave Minneapolis, was “a pretty out-there kind of a guy” whose presence may not have helped the situation, and sent top US border security official Tom Homan to meet with officials in the city.Trump told reporters that he rejected the “assassin” label used by a top aide to describe the 37-year-old nurse, adding that he wants “a very honorable and honest investigation.” But he criticized Pretti for carrying the licensed firearm that was taken off him before he was shot.”I don’t like that he had a gun, I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines,” the president said.- ‘Pretty out there’ -After meeting with Homan Tuesday, Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement they discussed the “serious negative impacts this operation has had on Minneapolis,” and the city “will not enforce federal immigration laws.”Just weeks after federal immigration agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis, Pretti’s death sparked national outrage and added to a litany of complaints of abusive tactics.Good, a mother of three, was shot by an agent at point blank range in her car on January 7.The killings capped months of escalating violence in which masked, unidentified, and heavily armed ICE and border patrol agents have grabbed people they accuse of violations off the streets.Despite multiple videos showing that Pretti posed no threat, Bovino and Noem initially claimed Pretti had intent to kill federal agents, calling him a “domestic terrorist.”- ‘Incompetent’ -Republican Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that agents involved in the shooting should be put on administrative leave, later adding that the immigration enforcement leaders would testify before the Congress next month. Centrist Democratic Senator John Fetterman said “grossly incompetent” Noem should be fired.The turmoil could even result in a fresh US government shutdown, with Democrats calling for broad reforms to federal immigration operations at DHS and threatening to block approval of it funding, as part of the spending bills that go up for votes in the Senate later this week.The judicial branch also pushed back on Trump’s actions in Minneapolis Tuesday, when a US judge blocked the deportation of a five-year-old boy and his father who were detained last week in another incident that went viral. Liam Conejo Ramos — wearing a fluffy blue hat and his school backpack — was photographed being detained by a federal agent, who school officials said was using the preschool student as “bait” to draw out his family, who are asylum seekers from Ecuador.At a protest at the Minnesota State Capitol Tuesday, veteran Brian Furgen, 55, told AFP that Americans need immigration and customs enforcement agents who “know how to do the job without harming the community, without killing people, without hurting people, without imprisoning people that are law abiding.””That’s what they are doing here, that’s ridiculous.”burs-dk/sms/sla/jgc

When Alex Pretti was gunned down by federal agents on an icy Minneapolis street, Fabiola listened in horror as the gunshots rang out on her block.It wasn’t long before the 30-something was poring over videos of the scene, trying to piece together events.”When I saw the images, I was disgusted,” she told AFP, declining to share her full name for fear of reprisal.”How can the government make a domestic terrorist out of him?” she said, outraged. “There is clear evidence of what happened. They are lying.”On Saturday, 37-year-old Pretti became the second Minneapolis resident to be killed by immigration enforcement officers in less than three weeks — enraging locals who are still grieving the slaying of Renee Good at the hands of federal agents.Earlier this month, the agent who shot and killed 37-year-old Good was at the driver’s side door as she was driving away when he opened fire, according to several videos.Similarly, footage of Pretti shows him approaching federal officers with his phone, not a weapon, as Trump administration officials quickly suggested after he was killed.Even after being beaten on the ground and surrounded by agents, Pretti did not appear to be trying to grab his handgun — for which he had a permit, police have confirmed.At the sidewalk memorial near where the shooting occurred two signs amid the flowers and candles capture the feelings of many visitors who braved the polar cold to pay their respects: “Believe your eyes, not the lies,” reads one. “Trump is a murderer,” declares the other.”They will never admit that they are just hunting people and killing people,” Fabiola said. “They are the criminals.” – ‘Terrorizing citizens’ -“The whole community is just sickened by all this,” said Stephen McLaughlin, who came to pay his respects.The 68-year-old retired prosecutor said US President Donald Trump “clearly thinks he’s above the law” and has militarized immigration enforcement.”Trump clearly said in 2016 that he could commit murder on Fifth Avenue (in New York) and get away with it. What we’re seeing today is just the logical conclusion of that reasoning,” McLaughlin said.”The aim of the government is to terrorize citizens, it’s really frightening,” he added. Even fellow Republicans are voicing outrage in the wake of the Trump administration’s hasty and harsh characterization of Pretti’s death, as the 79-year-old Republican appears to be shifting messaging.The president made phone calls to local Democratic leaders, and pledged to reduce the 3,000 federal agents deployed to Minneapolis in recent weeks. An unspecified number of the federal agents are expected to leave the city soon.And Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who was seen hurling tear gas cannisters at protesters and dressed in a long coat that many compared to Nazi garb, has been reassigned away from the northern city.But local residents worry that’s not enough to keep Minneapolis safe.For starters, Trump has not disavowed the methods that federal immigration agents have relied on, and the Department of Homeland Security remains the lead agency on the investigation into Pretti’s death. “I have zero confidence in them,” McLaughlin told AFP. “To obtain an independent investigation, the people have to demand it by taking to the streets.” He’s not alone. Jay Taylor touches a whistle he wears around his neck to signal the presence of federal agents as he makes a pledge.”We’re going to kick them out of the city. We’re going to win, because we’re standing for the truth,” the 44-year-old told AFP.The recent tragedies and public outpouring of emotion reminded him of the reaction to George Floyd’s spring 2020 murder by a police officer in Minneapolis.”This time, it happened during winter, so there’s not as many people in the streets,” Taylor said. “Trump got lucky with that one.”