Pretti Killing Becomes Issue in WI Governor’s Race

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany has said his campaign is aiming to raise $40 million for the 2026 gubernatorial race. Tiffany delivers a speech at his launch event in Wausau in September. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Wisconsin politicians are responding to the shooting of Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse from Green Bay who was killed Saturday by U.S. Border Patrol agents. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the frontrunner in the Republican gubernatorial primary, said Monday he hadn’t seen widely circulated video of the shooting.

Pretti’s death prompted protests across the country including in Green Bay, his  hometown. Gov. Tony Evers  joined a lawsuit challenging the presence of federal immigration agents in the Twin Cities. Other Wisconsin politicians issued a variety of statements reacting to the shooting.

U.S. Rep. Tony Wied, whose district includes Green Bay, called the shooting in Minneapolis a “tragedy” in a statement Monday. Pretti was a graduate of Green Bay’s Preble High School.

“While we await a thorough investigation, I encourage my colleagues to tone down their rhetoric, which has put both law enforcement officers and the public at risk,” Wied said. “We can disagree on the issue but we must do so in a constructive and peaceful manner. Assaulting and impeding federal law enforcement is illegal and a recipe for disaster. As a country, we need to lower the temperature and allow law enforcement to do their jobs.”

Video of the moments leading up to the shooting, which shows Pretti being pinned down by a group of immigration agents before being shot in the back, does not support Trump administration claims that he tried to assault or impede the agents.

Tiffany, who is running for governor, said he had not seen the video of the shooting at a Monday press conference, more than 48 hours after the shooting occurred and as video of the shooting has circulated on social media and in major news outlets. Tiffany also called for “full investigation” of the shooting by the state and federal government.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Tiffany also said people have the right to carry legally registered concealed guns but should consider potential consequences. Pretti was a licensed gun owner, who according to a CNN analysis of bystander video had his gun removed from him before officers shot him.

“The problem is not the Second Amendment. If I saw a quote accurately this morning… it sounds like (Pretti’s) father had some discussion with him recently, saying, ‘Be careful when you go to something like this, make sure that you don’t get caught up in the chaos,” he said. “And unfortunately, he did.”

Democrats, including some who are running for governor, criticized Tiffany.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Devin Remiker called Tiffany’s claim not to have seen the video “a pathetic excuse from a pathetic man.”

“Tom Tiffany is, at best, a clueless coward and at worst a liar. Either way, he’s unfit to serve as governor of Wisconsin,” Remiker said.

“You haven’t watched the video yet? Let me sum it up for you,” former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes said in a social media post. “Trump’s ICE needlessly killed a US citizen without justification.”

Other Democratic candidates had a variety of responses including calling for immigration agents  to vacate Minnesota and calling for the elimination of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  . ICE is responsible for enforcing immigration laws in the United States’s interior, while Border Patrol is supposed to do so near the country’s border, though according to USA Today, the two agencies have become increasingly hard to tell apart under the Trump administration.

State Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) called for the abolishment of ICE after the shooting.

“ICE under Trump is incompatible with a free society. The Trump regime is making every single one of us less safe and less free. They are destroying public safety. They refuse to respect our constitution, our law, or our rights,” Roys said in a statement. “The organized, violent actions of ICE have left us with no other choice but to disarm, dismantle, and prosecute ICE.”

State Rep. Francesca Hong (D-Madison), who joined protests according to social media posts, said “Wisconsin stands with everyone resisting ICE in Minnesota” and called ICE an “enforcer of fascism that must be abolished and those responsible for the executions prosecuted.” Last week at a candidate forum with all of the Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Hong said that “abolishing ICE is a meaningful policy.”

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said that the country needs to “stop pretending that large-scale immigration enforcement operations” in the Midwest are about public safety.

“People — regardless of immigration status or how federal authorities choose to define them — are in danger when ICE operates this way in our neighborhoods,” Crowley said. “At the same time, I echo Gov. Walz and Minnesota officials in urging people not to respond to violence with violence.”

Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who previously had proposed banning ICE from certain sites in Wisconsin, said that “a government that puts its own citizens in harm’s way has failed its most basic responsibility. And I will never look away when the government gets this wrong. We have a choice about who we are and what we stand for: safety without cruelty, accountability without fear, and dignity for every human being.”

Missy Hughes, the former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO, said that “the lawless and deadly ICE invasion of Minneapolis is unAmerican — and Donald Trump is responsible for it.”

Joel Brennan, the former Department of Administration secretary, said he “recoiled in horror” watching the video of the recent fatal shooting and mourns for Pretti. He called for the “occupation” to end in American cities.

U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden has repeatedly claimed that the protests against ICE in Minneapolis are equivalent to an “insurrection.” He said on Monday in a Facebook post that he does not “celebrate the death of any American citizen” and the “deaths are tragic, and they never should have happened.”

But Van Orden blamed Democrats for “fueling hostility toward federal law enforcement.”

“When elected leaders and their allies normalize interference with officers doing their jobs, the outcome is entirely predictable and tragic,” Van Orden said.

Van Orden went on to compare Democratic leaders who have demanded that ICE and Border Patrol agents leave Minneapolis to Civil War Confederates.

“History has seen this before. In 1861, Confederates in the South demanded that federal troops abandon Fort Sumter. They framed it as de-escalation and local control. In reality, it was a rejection of federal authority and the rule of law. What began as political rhetoric and demands to remove federal presence quickly turned into open conflict, with deadly consequences for the nation,” Van Orden said. “As with any officer-involved shooting, this incident is under investigation. I fully support that process and will be closely following its findings. My support for federal law enforcement, and the rule of law they uphold, remains unwavering.”

CNN reported Monday that Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been at the center of the Trump administration immigration enforcement across the country, is leaving Minneapolis and DHS has suspended his access to his social media accounts. Trump is sending border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take charge of immigration enforcement  operations there.

Rebecca Cooke, who is challenging Van Orden in 2026, said in a social media post that Pretti’s  killing represents “a federal agency out of control. ICE needs to vacate Minnesota and leave our neighbors alone. This is not a policy disagreement, this is a moral imperative.”

Wisconsin politicians react to Pretti shooting. U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany says he hasn’t seen video was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.