A Homeland Security Investigations officer had part of his finger bitten off by rioters in Minneapolis after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot a man during a federal operation Saturday morning.
The deceased, 37-year-old Alex Pretti, was killed during what a Department of Homeland Security statement described as a targeted enforcement operation at 9:05 a.m. local time, sparking violent unrest and widespread property damage, according to the Daily Caller. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin posted photos on X showing the injured officer, the severed finger and two alleged assailants, underscoring the escalating hostility toward federal law enforcement.
In Minneapolis, these rioters attacked our law enforcement officer and one of them bit off our HSI officers finger, McLaughlin wrote, adding, He will lose his finger. She later confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that a Customs and Border Protection agent also suffered a bitten finger, though less severely, and said no photograph of that injury was available.
Democrats swiftly condemned the shooting, with Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar denouncing it as an execution. Party leaders also demanded President Donald Trump halt the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations that had been deployed in the city.
City Journal reported in November 2025 that welfare fraud in Minnesota helped fund the Somalia-based radical Islamic terrorist group al-Shabaab. Trump responded by ending Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in the state on Nov. 22, after federal officials estimated in December that the fraud had cost at least $9 billion and described it as industrial-scale fraud, according to CBS News Minnesota.
ICE subsequently deployed hundreds of agents to the Minneapolis area to focus on illegal immigrants from Somalia following those revelations. Even as federal authorities moved to restore law and order, Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told local station WCCO in a Dec. 7 interview that city police would refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, highlighting a widening rift between local Democratic officials and national security efforts.
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