Flowers are left at a makeshift memorial in the area where Alex Pretti was shot dead a day earlier by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 25, 2026. OCTAVIO JONES / AFP
The Trump administration said Wednesday, January 28, that two immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of a civilian in Minneapolis had been placed on leave, as the president slammed the city's mayor despite a promise to de-escalate the situation.
The officers have been on leave – a move US officials said was "standard protocol" – since Saturday, when Alex Pretti was shot multiple times after being forced to the ground by camouflaged officers in a scuffle captured on video.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he wanted to "de-escalate a little bit" in Minneapolis, the focal point for tensions over his hardline immigration crackdown.
Yet on Wednesday, the 79-year-old Republican attacked the mayor of Minneapolis, saying that his refusal to cooperate with federal authorities on rooting out suspected illegal immigrants was "a very serious violation of the law."
