Scenes reminiscent of civil war are unfolding in the USA where chaos demonstrates the climate of polarization and accumulated social anger. During the recent period, crowds of people in the streets as a sign of outrage over the shooting of the 37-year-old in Minneapolis, tried in every way to pay tribute to the nurse who was found dead from gunfire by federal agents. The domino effect of political reactions escalated the wave of questioning towards Donald Trump’s administration until the Democratic Party threatened a shutdown, while Minnesota’s governor, showing his reaction, demanded the removal of the federal agents responsible for the incident.
The fact is that the death of 37-year-old Alex Preti in Minneapolis from gunfire by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent came just two and a half weeks after the case of Renee Good, the 37-year-old who was killed during an operation in Minneapolis on January 8. In both cases, the government rushed to adopt a version of events that presents the victims as an immediate and deadly threat to the agents. The comparison is not only symbolic, as the actual facts that have come to light so far create the impression of repeating a scenario that already had political costs for the Trump administration.
#BREAKING: New video angle shows struggle before Border Patrol agents open fire. pic.twitter.com/YFC2kCIfAa
— Insider Wire (@InsiderWire) January 24, 2026
Preti’s death creates new political issues, with Second Amendment supporters, even the country’s most powerful gun rights lobby, disagreeing with the fact that simply because Preti carried a weapon gave ICE agents the right to kill him. White House adviser Steven Miller summarized the incident from his side, saying that “a murderer tried to kill federal agents.” However, so far no evidence whatsoever has been presented to support these claims, notes the Wall Street Journal.
With the White House characterizing Preti as a “domestic terrorist” for obstructing Border Patrol work, Republican leaders in the Senate are under pressure to protect Department of Homeland Security funding. The spending bill needs votes from at least seven Democrats to pass, but several moderates have already stated they will oppose it.
Minneapolis: Who was Alex Preti and how was he killed
Alex Preti was an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis Veterans Health Care Center. The moment when heavily armed Border Patrol agents surround the man during an operation has been recorded on video. They spray him with pepper spray and bring him down. Gunshots are heard and then 37-year-old Alex Preti is dead. Videos from various angles flood the internet.
His killing not only provokes outrage from the left but also divides members of the party of the US President Trump himself. Some Republicans are sounding alarm bells about Preti’s killing by federal agents, saying it represents an example of state violation of Americans’ right to bear arms.
The Second Amendment – or the right to bear firearms – has been a core issue for Republicans for decades. “I firmly believe in border security and the deportation of illegal alien criminals and support law enforcement. However, I also firmly support the Second Amendment. Legal gun carrying is not the same as threatening display of a weapon,” said former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was one of Trump’s most ardent supporters before distancing herself from him last year.
The National Rifle Association (NRA), a gun rights lobbying group, protested a US prosecutor’s statement that if someone approaches a federal agent with a weapon, they are likely to be shot.
Trump’s message
In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump called on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to “surrender all illegal alien criminals currently imprisoned in state prisons and correctional facilities in their state along with all illegal criminals with active arrest warrants or known criminal history, for immediate deportation.”
He also emphasized that Walz and Frey, as well as “ALL Democratic governors and mayors of the United States” must “officially cooperate with the Trump administration to enforce our country’s laws, instead of resisting and fueling the flames of division, chaos and violence.”
Trump referred to a series of demands that, he says, are “based on common sense,” with the most notable being the demand for the US Congress to abolish sanctuary cities, which, he claims, are the cause of “all these problems.”
In the US, the term “sanctuary city” has been popular for over a decade to describe places that limit their assistance to federal immigration authorities.
