Like many Americans, Senator Shelley Moore Capito says she has watched videos of protesting ICU nurse Alex Pretti being fatally shot by U.S. immigration enforcement officers and finds them upsetting.
Capito, R-W.Va., said she continues to support federal immigration enforcement but would like to see changes.
“Well, I think the videos and the loss of life is not just sad, it’s very difficult as a nation to see something like this,” Capito said in a briefing with West Virginia reporters.
“I’ve been quoted, and I do believe it’s true: The job of an ICE agent is difficult, and I believe we’ve got to tone the rhetoric. Not just the rhetoric; we’ve got to tone the whole thing down.”
Pretti, 37, was shot multiple times and killed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis during widespread protests against Operation Metro Surge.
New videos have revealed that a week earlier, Pretti was involved in an altercation with agents in which he spat at them and kicked out an S.U.V. taillight before the agents exit the vehicle and push him to the ground, breaking a rib.
On Jan. 7, 37-year-old Renee Good was fatally shot in Minnesota by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. An autopsy found that she suffered three clear gunshot wounds — one to her left forearm, another to her right breast and a third shot that entered the left side of her head near the temple and exited on the right side.
Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota has been one of several major immigration enforcement actions across America this year. The Minneapolis sweeps and protests have been an inflection point.
A new Fox News survey finds a majority disapproves of how the Trump administration is handling immigration — with 59 percent of voters characterizing ICE as “too aggressive,” a 10-point jump since July.
“We need to make sure that they’re figuring out a way to have enforcement of our immigration laws but still have orderly execution of that,” Capito said, noting that an enforcement sweep in Maine is halting and suggesting activities in Minneapolis could draw down.
“I think that the focus should be on removing violent criminals who have already been convicted of crimes, who are here illegally, having them removed from the country,” Capito said.
“I think almost to a person, everybody in this country would agree with that tactic. But it’s gone beyond that, and I think that’s where the problem has been. And I think you’ll see the administration rethinking those decisions.”
The face of the enforcement sweeps, Greg Bovino, has been removed from his role as Border Patrol “commander at large.” The Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, has been sent to Minneapolis to direct operations.
Some of Capito’s Republican colleagues, particularly senators Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, have called for the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she initially claimed that Pretti had been brandishing a gun and attacked immigration enforcement officers.
“I think that there’ll be a full review of everything that’s gone on, and I think probably as part of that will be the secretary’s involvement here,” Capito said on MetroNews Talkline.
“I mean, I know that she’s under fire for some of the comments that she made, and I think that should be part of the story on to, you know, was she getting bad information? Where is this? So I think she’s she’s in a difficult spot right now.”
Conflict over the U.S. Department of Homeland Security threw a wrench into a six-bill federal government funding package that was up for a Senate vote ahead of a possible government shutdown.
Democrats have refused to back the package without major reforms to the Homeland Security and the ongoing immigration enforcement actions led by ICE. Some votes by Democrats are necessary to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate.
The funding package failed to advance on Thursday in a 45-55 vote. Additional votes were possible as negotiations continued.
One proposed approach has been to vote on five of the funding bills while handling Homeland Security with a short-term continuing resolution that would buy more time to negotiate changes to the agency.
Speaking on Talkline prior to today’s vote, Capito said she favors that approach of splitting off DHS funding.
“I think I can accept that. I think that right now, if we can get the five bills done, one of which is Health, Education, Labor, which is the subcommittee that I chair, that would put us in very good position — over 90% of the government being funded,” she said.
Capito concluded, “I think the important thing is to try to– it looks like the President is talking with Senator Schumer to try to reach some kind of a compromise here in the next several days.”