Week of Jan. 29, 2026

From the editor’s desk

In the five days since Alex Pretti was killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis, Nevada politicians have released statements that pretty much fall along party lines—with Democrats condemning ICE’s use of force directly, and Republicans referring to it softly and indirectly. Here’s a timeline of how the messaging has rolled out.

Day 1—Jan. 24, the day Pretti was shot: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D) released a statement calling for ICE funding to be withheld “until we have guardrails in place to curtail these abuses of power and ensure more accountability and transparency.” She also voiced a common concern about ICE not doing what it says it set out to do:

The abuses of power we are seeing from ICE in Minneapolis and across the country are un-American and cannot be normalized. No one wants criminals in our country, but that’s not who this administration is going after. They’re targeting law-abiding immigrants who just want to support their families and live the American Dream. They’re going after immigrants who have asylum or other forms of legal protections to be in our country. They’re going after U.S. citizens who disagree with their tactics — and in less than a month, two of our fellow Americans in Minneapolis have been killed as a result.

Enough is enough. We need to rein in ICE’s out of control conduct.

Nevada’s other U.S. senator, Catherine Cortez Masto (D), released a statement saying she would not support the next Homeland Security funding bill. Her reasoning:

The Trump Administration and Kristi Noem are putting undertrained, combative federal agents on the streets with no accountability. They are oppressing Americans and are at odds with local law enforcement. This is clearly not about keeping Americans safe, it’s brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants.

(Earlier today, Congress and the president agreed on an apparent budget deal to fund the government through Sept. 30—with the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, which would receive just two weeks of funding, while Democrats and Republicans work out the specifics.)

Day 2—Jan. 25: Rosen released another statement calling for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem:

She’s either too incompetent to rein in the agency under her purview, or she endorses the blatant constitutional violations being committed.

Two days later, House Democrats threatened to begin impeachment proceedings against Noem if Trump does not fire her first. Newsweek posted a list of the more than 160 Dems sponsoring the impeachment effort. Nevada congressmembers Steven Horsford, Susie Lee and Dina Titus are among them.

Day 3, Jan. 26: Aaron Ford (D), Nevada’s attorney general and a candidate for governor, released a brief statement saying, in part, “ICE’s federal overreach has gone too far.” He criticized President Trump for having let ICE conflicts become “needlessly violent” and called out Nevada’s top official for his silence (as of Monday): “It’s shameful that our governor, Joe Lombardo, refuses to speak out or stand up to President Trump. That’s not leadership.”

On the same day, the Nevada State Democratic Party also called out Lombardo for not having condemned the escalating violence.

Day 4, Jan. 27—Rep. Mark Amodei’s (R) statement was softer on ICE. It read, in part, “A pivot to ICE’s core mission in Minnesota is needed.”

That sure makes sense, but what he said next does not: 

Prioritizing the most dangerous criminal aliens and focusing enforcement on individuals who have gone through due process and have final orders of removal is the stated core mission.

That statement itself is clear and sound, and yes, that is the agency’s core mission—on paper—but it’s not the on-paper mission that needs to change. It’s the terrorizing of ordinary people, immigrants and citizens alike. Not to mention the mind-blowing irony of detaining of members of the Oglala Sioux, Navajo Nation and other Indigenous tribes in the name of “immigration enforcement.” 

Just to be ultra-crystal-clear here, “terrorizing” is my word, not Amodei’s. He only gives an indirect nod to the notion that ICE may be using excessive force by saying that he’s encouraged to see border czar Tom Holman being swapped into Minneapolis for Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino.

After Amodei was done not calling a spade a spade, he spread the blame around to ICE’s critics:

That said, there is another player in the room who has not been exemplary, and that is the local agitators and politicians who have encouraged the continued interference with immigration enforcement operations. They share equal responsibility for creating a warzone mentality on the ground.

Day 5, Jan. 28—After Democratic groups spent most of the week pointing out that Gov. Joe Lombardo so far had been silent, he released a statement yesterday. He did not condemn the agency’s use of force directly. He did point out, correctly, that rushing to judgement is ill-advised, and went so far as to hint that, possibly, we may have a problem on our hands—with a little requisite back-patting of Trump sprinkled in:

As a career law enforcement officer, I know better than to draw conclusions related to law enforcement action without having all the facts at my disposal and I encourage all Americans to attempt to do the same. I was pleased to see President Trump’s call for a thorough and unbiased review of all the evidence in these cases and believe that if anyone is found to have violated the law regardless of the circumstances surrounding their involvement, they are held to account and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We all share a commitment and responsibility to make America a safer place.

In related news, Bruce Springsteen has already released a protest song, “Streets of Minneapolis,” and there’s another round of No Kings protests scheduled for Saturday, March 28. Indivisible Northern Nevada has promised to release more details on its Instagram and Facebook pages.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor