Trump's Immigration Crackdown Under Fire After Video Disproves Federal Shooting Claims

What began as a show of strength on immigration is fast turning into a crisis over truth, accountability and the use of deadly force. As U.S. President Donald Trump's latest immigration crackdown intensifies, a growing death toll – and a string of videos that appear to contradict official accounts – is fuelling anger on the streets and scrutiny in Washington.

The fatal shooting of a man in Minneapolis on Saturday has become the latest flashpoint. It is one of five shootings this month involving federal agents on immigration operations, and comes on top of at least six immigrant deaths in detention since the start of the year – an unusually rapid pace that has alarmed rights groups and lawmakers alike.

The Trump administration is dramatically ramping up immigration enforcement, with $170 billion budgeted for immigration agencies through September 2029, a historic sum. Minneapolis has become the focus of the Republican president's crackdown this month, with some 3,000 agents deployed. Thousands of protesters took to the streets despite sub-zero temperatures on Friday to voice opposition and demand that he withdraw the agents, which Minnesota officials have called an occupation.

Trump has argued the militarised operations are necessary to remove criminals from the U.S., but many of those arrested were picked up solely for possible civil immigration violations – the legal equivalent to a traffic violation.

Trump Immigration Crackdown Questioned After Videos From Minnesota Shootings

The man killed in Minneapolis on Saturday was a U.S. citizen, identified in news reports as 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a registered nurse and lawfully permitted gun owner. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said a Border Patrol agent fired at the man, who, it claimed, resisted agents' attempts to disarm him. Local leaders have challenged that account – and now video evidence is adding to the doubts.

In bystander videos verified by Reuters, agents are seen pepper spraying Pretti and other protesters as he films them with his cellphone. No weapon is visible. After multiple agents wrestle him to the ground, one draws his weapon and multiple shots can be heard.

The shooting followed the death of Minnesota woman Renee Good earlier this month, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer Jonathan Ross fired into her vehicle. Within hours, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Good a 'domestic terrorist' who tried to ram the ICE officer with her car, although the department has not presented evidence of a link to terrorism. Video shows Ross fired as Good's car moved past him.

For many in Minneapolis, those clips have become emblematic of what they see as a pattern: highly charged official statements casting suspects as violent threats, then visual evidence that raises serious questions about whether lethal force was justified.

Trump Immigration Crackdown Linked To Surging Shootings And Detention Deaths

The bloodshed is not confined to Minnesota. Federal agents have been involved in three other shootings this month during immigration actions.

The day after Good's death, a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan man and woman in Portland, Oregon, after what DHS called "a targeted vehicle stop." DHS said the driver, Venezuelan immigrant Luis Nino-Moncada, attempted to run over the agents before the agent fired, wounding Nino-Moncada and his passenger, a Venezuelan woman.

The Justice Department later charged Nino-Moncada with assaulting an officer. His passenger, Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, pleaded guilty this week to entering the U.S. illegally in 2023.

On January 15, an ICE agent shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg in Minneapolis after DHS said he fled authorities. DHS said at the time that Sosa-Celis, a Venezuelan immigrant, and two other men hit an officer with a snow shovel and broom handle, prompting the shooting. But court documents unsealed this week told a different story.

An FBI affidavit said the ICE officers had scanned a license plate registered with a different person suspected of an immigration violation, leading them to chase the wrong person before the alleged assault and shooting.

Alongside these confrontations on city streets, deaths in detention have climbed. At least six people have died in ICE detention centers since the start of 2026, following at least 30 deaths in ICE custody last year, a two-decade high.

The death of Cuban immigrant Geraldo Lunas Campos has received the most scrutiny after federal authorities provided shifting accounts of what happened. ICE initially said Lunas died on January 3 at a Trump-era detention camp on the grounds of a U.S. military base in Texas after experiencing 'medical distress.'

After the Washington Post reported the death would likely be classified as a homicide by the El Paso County medical examiner, DHS issued a new statement saying Lunas tried to commit suicide and then resisted security officers and died. The medical examiner released a report this week that found the death was a homicide due to 'asphyxia due to neck and torso compression,' the Post reported.

On January 14, two other immigrant detainees died: a Nicaraguan man found unresponsive in the military base site, called East Camp Montana, and a Mexican man found unresponsive in a Georgia detention center, according to ICE.

Both deaths remain under investigation, but ICE said the Nicaraguan man, Victor Manuel Diaz, was presumed to have committed suicide. The other deaths occurred in Houston, Philadelphia, and Indio, California, ICE said.

Trump increased immigration detention to record levels, with 69,000 held as of early January, according to ICE statistics. Some 43% of the detainees picked up by ICE had no criminal charge or conviction, the figures showed.

Taken together, the shootings, disputed narratives and rising death toll are turning Trump's hard-line stance on immigration into a test not only of border security policy, but of the basic standards of oversight and truth-telling in American law enforcement.