By Melissa Nann Burke, mburke@detroitnews.com
The Democratic candidates for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat are united in condemning what they deem abuses of power by federal immigration agents, but they are split on how to rein them in after another person was fatally shot Saturday in Minneapolis.
One candidate, Abdul El-Sayed of Ann Arbor, wants to entirely abolish the entity of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), likening it to a paramilitary force operating beyond the law that can’t be reformed.
“It’s like having black mold in your house. Once it’s there ― it’s not saying you don’t want a house. It’s just saying you don’t want that house,” El-Sayed said. “And this has gotten so far away from any sort of rational approach to immigration enforcement that I think it needs to be done away with.”
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak said ICE has “gone rogue” and needs an overhaul, while the focus of U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham has been calling for accountability and forcing the agency’s boss, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, from office via impeachment ― a long shot in the Republican-controlled Congress.
“Congress: Not one more penny until we get the same oversight and accountability we demand from every law enforcement agency,” McMorrow wrote Saturday on social media after the 37-year-old man was killed.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a Saturday statement that federal officers were conducting an operation as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached and “violently resisted” officers who tried to disarm him, the Associated Press reported.
The man’s parents identified him as Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at the Veterans Administration.
Several bystander videos of the shooting emerged soon after. Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand, but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.
The officer who shot the man is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said.
The shooting occurred as Minneapolis has continued to see daily protests following the shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good when an ICE officer fired into her vehicle multiple times on Jan. 7.
Rogers weighs in
The presumptive Republican nominee, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake Township, has defended the immigration enforcement crackdown under President Donald Trump and blasted his Democratic opponents in an ad last week for their opposition to the border wall and to boosting the number of immigration agents.
But Rogers, a former FBI agent, also said it’s “absolute malpractice” for Democratic political leaders in Minnesota to paint federal agents in Minneapolis as thugs who are “disappearing” people, saying that encourages “bad behavior” toward federal law enforcement.
“Do you want murderers and rapists and child predators in jail, are actually out of the country, or you want them roaming around your streets?” Rogers said on a Breitbart podcast. “That’s what this comes down to.”
Rogers has also called Good’s killing a “horrible tragedy” and said it should be investigated.
“I think any police shooting should always be investigated. That’s standard procedure,” he told The Detroit News earlier this month. “But the best way to avoid this is to not disobey a police officer in the legal function of their duties. … This isn’t fun and games. These guys want to go home to their families at the end of the day.”
The debate over ICE’s aggressive tactics in local communities has quickly become a contentious issue in this year’s midterm election campaigns, as polling shows voters around the country expressing unease with agents’ use of force against protesters, wearing masks and arresting, injuring or killing U.S. citizens. ICE has countered that its agents also have been met with violent behavior.
Illegal immigration “was a winning issue in 2024 for the Trump campaign and other Republicans because Americans are concerned about border security and unrestricted illegal immigration. That is a real concern for Americans. But so are their constitutional rights,” said consultant Adrian Hemond, a Democrat and CEO of the firm Grassroots Midwest.
“The Trump administration is speed running ― turning one of their strongest issues into one of their worst issues. It’s taken about a year. It’s wild to see an issue move that fast.”
Vice President JD Vance said during a Thursday visit to Minneapolis that the Trump administration wanted to “turn down the chaos” a lot in the area after clashes between agents and protesters, saying most of the problems were from a few “far-left agitators” harassing ICE officers.
Vance called on city and state leaders in Minnesota to allow police to better cooperate with federal officers to keep enforcement efforts more targeted to violent criminals. He also said federal agents who “violate the law” would face disciplinary action, but that they would not be “judged in the court of public opinion,” according to the Washington Post.
El-Sayed seeks abolishment
El-Sayed, the former health director for Wayne County, traveled to Minneapolis in mid-January and described the Upper Midwest city as traumatized, besieged and “constantly looking over its shoulder.”
He maintained that ICE has proven that it’s beyond repair because agents have been equipped with heavy weaponry and face masks and told they’re protected by immunity for their actions. He challenged his fellow Democrats to “take on the immorality of this.”
“The express reasoning for having ICE is to keep people safe in their homes and in their communities. If ICE is shooting 37-year-old moms in the face, clearly it is not meeting its responsibility. In fact, it has become the thing from which people need to be kept safe,” El-Sayed told The Detroit News.
“I called for this in 2018 because you could see how the president was coming to recognize that this could become a paramilitary force that answers only to him to normalize the use of state violence on peaceful streets.”
El-Sayed acknowledged that his abolish-ICE position isn’t the “politically safe” stance in a competitive field.
“But is it safe for our country when you’ve got armed thugs running around with rifles and checking people’s paperwork? No,” El-Sayed said.
“So anybody who tells you that their political convenience is more important than moral clarity about this issue, I question what kind of morals they’re operating under in the first place.”
Stevens moves to impeach Noem
El-Sayed criticized Stevens for taking a House vote expressing “gratitude” to ICE agents last June, describing her vote as “just the dumbest bull—-.” The broader resolution at issue condemned the June 1 antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado.
Stevens defended her vote.
“I take antisemitic violence very seriously, and I will always vote to condemn it,” Stevens told The News. “There was a cynical line in the resolution meant to divide us, but I refuse to be divided on calling out antisemitism.”
Stevens and McMorrow both contended that the best approach is to reform ICE, rather than eliminate it, with both emphasizing that Michiganians do want to see immigration laws enforced by the government, but in a sensible, humane way.
“ICE is out of control. These violent and untrained officers must listen to local officials and leave Minneapolis immediately. Their actions are making people less safe every day,” Stevens posted on social media after Saturday’s shooting.
Stevens called ICE a “mismanaged,” lawless federal agency and blamed Noem for “perpetuating chaos” as the congresswoman signed onto a resolution laying out articles of impeachment against Noem drawn up by Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Illinois.
In Michigan’s delegation, Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Shri Thanedar of Detroit have also signed on.
“The Homeland Security secretary has been lying. She has been stonewalling Congress, weaponizing federal power, and all of that has been deeply disturbing and concerning,” Stevens said, adding that Noem hasn’t answered questions from lawmakers about Good’s death or that of a Chicago man who died in a Michigan detention facility.
“I’d like to start with Secretary Noem stepping down and accountability for this agency. We’ve got masked ICE agents running around, terrorizing neighborhoods. I’m hearing from Michiganders all over our state worried that what’s happening in Minneapolis could come here,” she added.
While Stevens disagreed with El-Sayed’s call to abolish ICE, “it’s very clear that we need serious checks on ICE and how it’s operating under the Trump administration with their abuses of power.”
That’s partly why she voted Thursday against fiscal 2026 funding for Noem’s agency, along with all but seven House Democrats. The bill still passed 220-207.
McMorrow favors squeezing ICE’s budget
McMorrow pushed for Democrats in Congress to more strategically wield their government-funding power to force GOP lawmakers to negotiate changes that would return ICE to the job it was created to do.
“The strongest tool that you have in front of you as Democrats and as people who want to reform this agency is the budget,” McMorrow said. “Force the reforms that you want to see in the budget as a contingent to receive the funding that the agency is looking for.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York issued a statement after Saturday’s shooting saying that Senate Democrats would not vote to advance a government funding bill this week if it includes Department of Homeland Security funding. “What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling — and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer said.
Like Stevens, McMorrow said abolishing ICE isn’t the way to go, in part because there needs to be a government agency to enforce immigration laws on the books.
“This agency is out of control, but I’m somebody who believes you fix it from the inside,” she said. “You reform, you overhaul this agency, so that it does the job of keeping our community safe. Because that’s what Michiganders are asking for, and I believe we should be enforcing our laws.”
In the meantime, McMorrow said the Michigan Senate Democrats are discussing how they might respond to ICE’s tactics in the state, including the news last week that an agency memo from last year tells officers that they may enter a person’s home to arrest them without a judicial warrant.
Legislation has already been introduced in Lansing to prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks and require them to wear identification. McMorrow said state lawmakers are also looking at prohibiting entry without a warrant.
“This is new territory for a lot of us. We all believe this is illegal. How are they allowed to do this?” she said.
“That’s what we’re exploring right now for what we are able and allowed to do as a state, or even trying anything that we can to push back. Because, frankly, they’re violating states’ rights by going beyond the state-level protections for privacy and safety and security.”