The recent slaying of an ICU nurse in Minnesota by federal immigration agents has opened a rift at the highest levels of U.S. President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, as public outrage and bipartisan criticism over the killing has snowballed.
According to reports, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller—both key players in the ongoing immigration crackdown—have traded blame over the operation and their subsequent statements.
Highlights
- The killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents sparked a deep division within Trump's MAGA movement and bipartisan outrage.
- Videos showed Pretti was holding only a phone and was disarmed when agents shot him at least 10 times, including in the back.
- Multiple officials labeled Pretti a domestic terrorist or assassin despite evidence contradicting initial claims.
- The shooting sparked political fallout, including a Border Patrol official's removal and threats of impeachment against Noem.
- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller blamed each other for handling of the incident and its narrative.
Kristi Noem has been criticised for labeling Alex Pretti a ‘domestic terrorist’
In the hours after Alex Pretti, 37, was gunned down by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents on Saturday, Noem branded him a “domestic terrorist”—a label she had also pinned to Renee Nicole Good after her shooting death at the hands of an immigration agent in the same city less than three weeks earlier.
Miller, meanwhile, took to social media to call Pretti an “assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.”
Both responses came after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the CBP—issued a statement claiming Pretti intended to cause “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement” officers.
But multiple videos of the incident quickly spread online, making it clear that Pretti was only ever holding a cell phone, never brandished the gun he was legally carrying, and had been disarmed by the time he was shot in the back.
Subsequent reports suggest he was shot at least 10 times by two agents.
Initial statements from Trump and other leading officials insisted Pretti shouldn’t have been carrying a gun, drawing rebuke from gun rights groups, which have long been closely aligned with the MAGA movement.
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As public backlash grew and Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in demanding an investigation, Noem—who has been nicknamed “ICE Barbie”—tried to distance herself from the most incendiary framing.
According to Axios, Noem told an intermediary, “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” referring to Miller.
Miller,who is reportedly privately referred to by Trump as “Weird Stephen,” responded by pushing responsibility back toward Noem’s department, saying that early White House comments were based on information sent to Washington through CBP.
Stephen Miller is considered a key architect of Trumps immigration enforcement policy
According to a statement from Miller provided to CNN, the White House had given “clear guidance” on additional personnel sent to Minnesota being used “for conducting fugitive operations and to create a physical barrier between arrest teams and disruptors.”
He added that officials were “evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol.”
The dispute is playing out against a broader credibility problem for the administration. A Reuters review of six incidents in recent months reported that top immigration officials issued rapid, aggressive public accounts after violent encounters that were later contradicted by video or other evidence—a pattern a former DHS press secretary called an effort to “control a narrative from the very start.”
The federal government’s own preliminary timeline on Pretti has also narrowed the gap between rhetoric and documentation.
The Associated Press reported that a statement sent to members of Congress, based on a preliminary review, said Pretti resisted as officers tried to take him into custody, that an agent repeatedly yelled “He’s got a gun!” and two federal officers fired—but it did not say Pretti brandished a weapon.
The political fallout has already produced changes on the ground, with senior Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino—whose image has been compared to that of a Nazi paramilitary commander—apparently removed from his “commander at large” role, relocated from the city, and locked out of his social media accounts.
Noem, meanwhile, is facing pressure in Washington, with House Democratic leaders reported to have threatened impeachment proceedings against her unless Trump removes her.
For Trump’s immigration hawks, the stakes are bigger than one personnel fight. Noem’s reported defense that she was following orders pushes responsibility up the chain. Miller’s counter that DHS owned the operation and fed the White House the first facts, meanwhile, leaves Noem holding the bag.
Until investigators release fuller evidence, the fight inside Trump’s immigration camp is no longer just about messaging—it is about who takes the blame for a hardline crackdown that appears to be slipping out of the administration’s control, and whether it tears open deeper fissures within the MAGA movement.