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After the unjust death of Alex Pretti at the hands of the Department of Homeland Security agents last weekend, the President, his stooges, and right-wing media all pounced on the irrelevant fact that Pretti was armed (he never touched his gun or used it to threaten). Before the dust had even settled on the incident, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristin Noem called Alex Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” What she neglected to include was that he was a registered gun owner and had papers to conceal carry legally. He was practicing responsible gun ownership, per Minnesota’s laws.
And yet, even POTUS said:
“I don’t like that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines. That’s a lot of bad stuff. And despite that, I’d say that’s... very unfortunate….
You know, you can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns. You just can’t.”
Our Director at American Value Coalition, Napp Nazworth, compiled an important tweet thread last week, highlighting the hypocrisy of Republicans’ evolving stance on the 2nd Amendment. Here are a few of the links included in his coverage:
FBI Director Kash Patel contradicted the Constitutional right to bear arms in this media appearance:
DHS Director Kristin Noem mischaracterized the incident, smearing Petti. He did have ID and kept his gun concealed, not even reaching for it when attacks by agents:
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Napp reminded readers of the many armed protesters at the January 6th rally in January 2021, along with at many other right wing-led protests, and how they were hailed as “heroes” and “patriotic protesters” by the President at the time…
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Notably, Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent seemed to disregard the rights of American citizens this week, on tape:
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Another laughable contradiction from the right-wing media this week was their seeming amnesia of the Kyle Rittenhouse incident in 2020. He was hailed a 2A hero, while Pretti was labeled a domestic terrorist:
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It’s important and necessary to keep track of these obvious contradictions from the administration. We still have free speech, and we must use it to speak the truth. Two quotes from one of my favorite books (Animal Farm) by George Orwell come to mind regarding these contradictions:
1.) They might think: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
2.) Our response: "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
What Else We’re Reading
New York Times: “What MAGA Sees in the Minnesota Mirror”
The administration’s slander of Pretti may have been even worse. Gregory Bovino, then still serving in Minnesota in his capacity as Border Patrol commander at large, said Pretti (who had a valid firearms permit and was carrying a gun but did not appear to touch it, much less brandish it) looked like he was attempting “to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Noem accused him, too, of “domestic terrorism,” and Stephen Miller called him “an assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents.” Vance reposted Miller’s slanderous accusation.
Again, none of those claims were supported by any meaningful evidence.
The Dispatch: “The Cost of Silence”
Dante put his cowards and opportunists—those who refused to take a stand in life—in the vestibule of his inferno: It isn’t Hell proper, but you can see the rest of the underworld from there. The cowards and opportunists in the United States in 2026 stand at a precipice, too, and have brought our country to the verge of something awful and unspeakable. We got here one step at a time—let us hope that we remember the way back.
Fox News: “NY Post, WSJ, NY Times and Washington Post align against Trump admin over ICE operation in Minneapolis”
Major newspaper editorial boards all appeared to be in agreement following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent, calling out the Trump administration’s response and demanding de-escalation…"It’s time to de-escalate in Minneapolis, Mr. President…because these enforcement tactics won’t turn the tide, instead they are backfiring."
Christianity Today: “Authority is a Responsibility, Not an Excuse”
Let’s even say, for the sake of argument, that Trump came in with a mandate for a restrictionist immigration stance.
You can say all that and still say this: What the federal government is doing in Minnesota is intolerable. It is chaotic, reckless, and overbearing. It is a misuse of authority, an incompetent and authoritarian means even insofar as it pursues a democratically invited end…
It requires higher standards, not slapdash work and slipshod ethics. Authority is a duty, not a license. Federal immigration agents have authority to act in Minnesota: That does not justify the way these agents are acting. Their authority makes this heavy-handed bedlam all the more intolerable.
The inextricable link between authority and responsibility is a fundamental principle of good governance, an assumption of our constitutional order. But more than that, it is a note that echoes through Scripture
…So too those who govern. So too those who police. To demand far better of federal immigration agents than what we’ve seen in Minnesota neither ignores real hazards they face, nor debases their authority, nor even necessarily questions the politics that now direct them. It merely demands they wield their power with justice and restraint—and requires an accounting when they fail.
CATO Institute: “In Minnesota, ICE Is Assaulting the Constitutional Rights of Citizens”
It can be hard to get some Americans interested in the well-documented problem of ICE and Border Patrol abuse, perhaps because they assume that the rights being trampled are “only” those of non-citizens rather than people like them (although every modern justice on the Supreme Court, including Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Antonin Scalia, has taken the view that non-citizens on American soil do have important constitutional rights that are vital to protect).
It is crucial to grasp, though, that ICE and Border Patrol also routinely violate the rights of US citizens, both the naturalized kind and those born right here. With the Minnesota campaign of recent weeks, these assaults on citizens’ rights appear to be multiplying rapidly.
***Final Note: Please join our friends at the National Latino Evangelical Coalition in demanding change!
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