Republican and Democratic senators found rare common ground during a tense Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing last week, pressing top immigration enforcement officials over the use of force by agents in Minneapolis shortly before the fatal shooting of a civilian.
Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Gary Peters (D-MI) jointly questioned Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott and acting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons about video footage showing Border Patrol agents shoving protesters to the ground in the moments leading up to the shooting and killing of Alex Pretti.
Paul opened the hearing by emphasizing that the government’s authority to use lethal force is tightly constrained and must be reserved for rare, justified situations. He said the goal of the hearing was not to defund immigration enforcement, but to restore public trust after the recent deaths of Renée Good and Pretti had drawn widsespread condemnation across the country.
The senators then played video from the encounter and began walking the officials through it frame by frame. Paul first established what actions the civilians were taking. He asked whether yelling at federal agents justified assault. Both Scott and Lyons answered no. Paul then asked whether filming agents was a crime or an assault. Again, both officials said it was not.
Peters followed up, asking Scott to confirm that Pretti was only holding a phone—and no weapons—at that point in the video. Scott said that was consistent with what he had seen.
The Heads Of CBP And ICE Agree That Actions Of Federal Agents Involved In Alex Pretti’s Death Were ‘Not Appropriate’
As the footage continued, it showed two women arguing with officers before one was brutally shoved to the ground. Paul asked whether it would be appropriate for officers to violently push someone down if they were only yelling. Both Scott and Lyons answered that it would not be appropriate.
Peters then pressed Scott on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policies requiring de-escalation tactics. He asked whether pushing a woman to the ground could be considered de-escalation. Scott responded that it could be, depending on the circumstances, but largely dodged the question by stating he could not judge the specific incident without knowing what happened beforehand.
Paul chimed in, saying the video appeared to show a woman with her back turned, trying to move away, before being shoved into the snow. He said the public overwhelmingly viewed the action as excessive and not de-escalatory. “There were people who said—and they were part of the government, part of DHS, and part of the administration—that yes, the officers were using de-escalation tactics. Nobody believes that. I’m just going to stipulate that,” Paul sternly stated. “I don’t even need your opinion on that. No one in America believes shoving that woman’s head and face in the snow was de-escalation.”
When asked directly by Paul whether it was appropriate to physically throw someone to the ground if their only action was verbal, Scott conceded it was not. Lyons also agreed that it was not appropriate.
The exchange marked an unusual bipartisan moment, with senators from both sides of the aisle pressing federal immigration officials over the same question: whether agents used force appropriately against civilians who were yelling and filming, moments before a fatal shooting that has since sparked national outrage.
