Donald Trump has announced changes concerning the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minnesota.
Earlier this month, Renee Nicole Good was tragically shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis after she had dropped her children off at school on January 7.
Despite the Trump administration labeling her as a ‘domestic terrorist’, Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, has been advocating for the removal of ICE officers from the state.
More recently, on January 24, ICU nurse Alex Pretti was also shot and killed by federal agents during protests in Minneapolis.
These fatal incidents have exacerbated tensions in the US, leading the president to announce that his administration plans to ‘de-escalate’ operations in Minnesota.
In a conversation with Fox News, Trump stated: “We’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” clarifying that this was not a ‘pullback’.
“Bottom line, it was terrible. Both of them were terrible.”
Trump addressed the tragic incidents, beginning with the recent one involving Pretti.
“I think the whole thing is terrible,” he remarked. “I don’t like the fact that he was carrying a gun, that was fully loaded, and he had two magazines with him.
“It’s pretty unusual. But nobody knows when they saw the gun, how they saw the gun. Bottom line is that it was terrible.”
Footage has shown that there is no indication Pretti intended to threaten officers with the firearm he was legally permitted to carry.
In the Fox News interview, Trump also spoke about Good’s death, making unusual comments about her and Pretti’s parents.
“Both of them were terrible. The other was terrible too. I’m not sure about his parents, but I know her parents were big Trump fans,” the president continued.
Trump added: “Makes me feel bad anyway, but I guess you could say even worse – they were tremendous Trump people, Trump fans. And their daughter was, I don’t know if you can say radicalized, maybe radicalized, maybe not, I don’t know.
“But I hate to see it, I hate to see it.”
A recent poll examined American opinions regarding ICE in light of recent events. Half of those surveyed felt that Pretti’s death was unjustified, while only 20 percent believed it was justified.
A significant majority of Democrat voters in the poll expressed a desire for ICE to be abolished. Conversely, 21 percent of Republicans felt ICE officers were not being forceful enough.