President Donald Trump’s border czar was forced to explain the administration’s response to ICE’s fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen to a room of young conservatives.
Tom Homan, whom Trump charged with doing damage control in Minnesota after the disaster that was “Operation Metro Fury,” was confronted by a Baylor University student on Wednesday about the fatal shooting of 37-year-old VA ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers during a January ICE protest in Minneapolis.
“My question is specifically in response to the administration’s response to the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota,” the student, addressing Homan, began, before describing Pretti’s disarmament and subsequent fatal shooting by a group of surrounding federal agents.
“That is extremely concerning to someone who believes in limited government and who believes in civil liberties,” the student continued. “And the biggest concern of that was, that day, they didn’t even try to investigate what happened. Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller put out tweets saying that this guy was a ‘domestic terrorist’—I believe it was Stephen Miller who said ‘he was trying to do maximum harm to law enforcement.’”
“It reminds me of the George Orwell quote in 1984: ‘The party told you to reject your eyes and ears,’ the student added. “We all saw the video. We all saw what happened. And the administration’s gut response by top officials was to immediately deny any accountability for what happened.”
“Is the administration ever going to take accountability, and are those ICE agents that shot and murdered that man ever going to be held accountable?”
“I can’t speak for Kristi Noem or Stephen, I’ll speak for myself,” Homan, 64, replied, describing how he came to Minneapolis the day after the shooting at Trump’s request.
“I can tell you that the deaths that occurred up there are tragedies and unfortunate. But they’re being investigated. I can assure you that,” he added.
Homan went on to share that he hadn’t even known about the shooting until he was interviewed by CBS News in Los Angeles, where he was shown the video of ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shooting 37-year-old mother Renee Good.
The border czar said he didn’t comment on the video to the outlet at the time, adding that it needed to be investigated.
“I can tell you that when I was up there, I met with the U.S. attorney. And I can tell you that an investigation is ongoing,” Homan said. “I’ve done this my whole career. If someone violated the law, then they need to be held accountable.”
“I’m not involved in the internal investigation myself,” he added. “I stand by that if someone violates the law, they need to be held accountable. And we’ll see what comes out of the investigation.”
Despite Homan’s references to an investigation, authorities have not been forthcoming with details, with DHS only telling NPR earlier this month that the Justice Department was spearheading the investigation into Pretti’s death, while the DOJ declined to comment to the outlet.
In the case of Renee Good, DHS said that “the matter remains under investigation.” Authorities in Minnesota have said that their federal counterparts have done little to indicate that the investigations are progressing.
Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law who studies police accountability, told NPR that federal authorities “appear to be actively preventing the state from investigating.”
“I would go out on a limb and say we’re pretty confident that they’re not investigating these agents for any possible crimes.”
Wednesday’s event at the private Baptist university in Waco, Texas, was closed to the press following a low turnout at the TPUSA event at the University of Georgia earlier this month.
Among the event’s line-up of speakers, aside from Homan, were right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who filled in for Donald Trump Jr. after the president’s son bailed for an undisclosed reason.
The headcount for the event’s attendees was 438, according to the school’s official measure based on scanned tickets.
