There comes a point when lying feels like swallowing a sharp-edged rock. If you lack a conscience, your ability to choke the lie down, to not gag, to endure the pain as that deceit descends your gullet, improves.
Republican lawmakers and conservative voters across the country find themselves, in the wake of a second U.S. citizen’s senseless death at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents in Minnesota, with a jagged rock in their mouths and a decision: Do you swallow this lie or spit it out? Do you still have a conscience, or not?
There are early signs that some Republicans might view the killing of Alex Pretti, 37, as a bridge too far. Among them is Republican New York Rep. Andrew Garbarino, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, who released a statement Jan. 24 calling for testimony from the heads of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: “I take my oversight duties for the department seriously, and Congress has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect.”
That’s good, but many more need to start asking questions.
Video of Alex Pretti’s death contradicts all Trump administration claims
A picture of Alex Pretti is left at a makeshift memorial in the area where Pretti was shot dead a day earlier by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 25, 2026. On January 24, federal agents shot dead US citizen Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, while scuffling with him on an icy roadway, less than three weeks after an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good, also 37, in her car. His killing sparked new protests and impassioned demands by local leaders for the Trump administration to end its operation in the city.
Pretti, 37, was an ICU nurse who cared for veterans. There’s a video of him reciting a Final Salute ceremony over the flag-covered body of a veteran who had just died in the hospital, then pushing the gurney on the man’s walk of honor.
On Jan. 24, Pretti was using his phone to record the agent’s activity in Minneapolis. A bystander video shows him trying to help a woman who was pushed by agents. He was then pepper-sprayed by the agents.
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A crowd of agents tackled him. One agent appeared to remove a gun from around Pretti’s right hip. At no point is there any indication that Pretti, a lawful gun owner with a carry permit, had the gun in his hand or was using it to threaten agents. Remember, he had been hit with a chemical agent and appeared face down on the ground.
As the agent who removed the gun leaves the scrum, at least one agent opens fire while Pretti appears to be on his knees and restrained. A New York Times video analysis found “at least 10 shots appear to have been fired within five seconds.”
Lies, lies and more lies about Pretti being gunned down
It’s unclear whether Pretti’s body had even been removed from the scene before officials from the Department of Homeland Security were labeling him a domestic terrorist.
Greg Bovino, the Lilliputian head of Border Patrol, said: “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
President Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser Stephen Miller described Pretti in a social media post as “an assassin.”
There’s the lie. There’s the jagged rock.
Democrats can’t defeat Trump’s violent overreach alone
Nothing in the multiple videos of the shooting lines up with the Trump administration’s claims. It looks like a pack of poorly trained goons pounced on a legal observer who was holding nothing but a camera, showing no sign of aggression, and within seconds shot and killed him on an icy Minneapolis street. That was followed by Orwellian propaganda defaming the victim.
People on the left – along with a rising tide of independents – are appalled by this tragedy and pushing back hard on what is obviously overreach by an administration thirsty for fascism. But it’s going to be hard for us to defeat this madness alone.
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Pretti’s death, on the heels of the ICE killing of 37-year-old mother Renee Good in Minneapolis, coupled with all the lies that have followed, put conservatives of good conscience at a crossroads: Do you swallow this latest rock, or do you cast it aside and help us?
The latest federal shooting in Minnesota is too much for some in GOP
People pay their respects during a candlelight vigil for Alex Pretti after he was shot and killed earlier in the day on Jan. 24, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Federal agents shot and killed Pretti amid a scuffle to arrest him. The Trump administration has sent a reported 3,000 federal agents into the area, with more on the way, as they make a push to arrest undocumented immigrants in the region.
Thankfully, there are early signs that the brutality of federal agents and the administration’s encouragement of it might be reanimating GOP consciences.
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Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, said Jan. 24 that ICE’s “credibility is at stake” and there should be a “full joint federal and state investigation” following the shooting.
GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky told Fox News on Jan. 25 that if “there’s a chance of losing more innocent lives or whatever, then maybe go to another city.” I’m not sure the “or whatever” reveals much of a conscience, but in this fight, I’ll take it.
Former Trump official decries ‘lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty’
ChongLy Thao is detained after ICE agents and other law enforcement officers conducted an immigration raid at his home, days after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Jan. 18, 2026.
Former Trump loyalist and Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, from Georgia, noted on social media that MAGA folks would have lost their minds if a Trump supporter was similarly gunned down by federal agents under a Democratic president: “Legally carrying a firearm is not the same as brandishing a firearm. I support American’s 1st and 4th amendment rights. There is nothing wrong with legally peacefully protesting and videoing.”
John Mitnick, who Trump appointed to serve as DHS general counsel during his first term, wrote on social media: “I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty. Impeach and remove Trump—now.”
That is what America needs right now, and we need to hear it from Republican lawmakers and voters alike. The outrage over the killing of a nurse, and a mother, and the nabbing of a 5-year-old boy in a bunny hat, and the strong-arm tactics and brutality we’re seeing from masked federal agents across the country, can’t come only from Democrats and independents.
Conservatives of good conscience, we need you right now
Many on the left will laugh at me for suggesting there are still “conservatives with a conscience” in the age of Trump. I don’t buy that. In fact, I know it’s a gross over-generalization.
So after what we witnessed in Minneapolis – where agents of the Trump administration quite literally killed a good guy with a gun, then spun sick lies to smear a man devoted to helping others – conservatives of good conscience need to spit out that rock of a lie Trump wants them to swallow and speak up. There’s no choking this one down.
We need your help.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alex Pretti and the pile of lies Trump wants you to believe | Opinion
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