Utah GOP senator criticizes Trump administration, calls for investigation into Minneapolis shooting

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. John Curtis called Monday for a “transparent, independent investigation” into the killing of a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis at the hands of federal immigration agents.

Curtis, a Republican, said those responsible for the shooting death of Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen and ICU nurse who was protesting against immigration enforcement, “must be held accountable” no matter what position they hold. Pretti was shot and killed on Saturday by a Border Patrol agent. Administration officials alleged Pretti was armed and engaged in “domestic terrorism,” even as videos showed him holding a cellphone, not a weapon.

“Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission,” Curtis said in a statement on Monday. “I disagree with (Department of Homeland Security) Secretary (Kristi) Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence.”

Curtis said he will be working with a bipartisan group of senators “to demand real oversight and transparency,” including testimony from those leading an immigration crackdown in Minnesota, “so trust can be restored and justice served.”

The statement from Curtis came two days after a much more muted response to the shooting in which the freshman senator urged restraint while the facts were still coming out.

Curtis’s latest statement also stands in stark contrast to the views of Sen. Mike Lee, Utah’s other senator, who rejected calls to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security — which houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement — while also comparing Minneapolis to Gotham City and calling for the National Guard to be deployed.

“We’re not defunding ICE,” Lee wrote Sunday evening. “Live with it.”

The rest of Utah’s congressional delegation has been quiet over the weekend in response to the killing of Pretti. All four of Utah’s GOP representatives — Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy, Mike Kenendy, and Burgess Owens — have shied away from publicly addressing the issue. None of them responded to KSL’s requests for comment.

State leaders, meanwhile, did react to what happened. Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, called the incident “very sad, just horrible,” but declined to wade into the specifics of what happened. He also wouldn’t say if he feels the Trump administration needs more oversight than it currently has.

“In everything I’ve ever been involved in that’s been very controversial — and this surely is — it takes two sides. And I think you’ve got to figure it out, and it would be really nice if we could find a way to deescalate it, and I think there’s rhetoric on both sides,” Adams told reporters Monday at the state Capitol. “I really feel like right now, whatever we say, we’re going to spin it up, and I don’t want to spin it up. I want to spin it down.”

Adams said he felt a similar situation wouldn’t happen in Utah, while calling Pretti’s death “not a positive thing.”

“And yet, you know, law enforcement has a really tough job, and I think … there’s two sides to it,” Adams said. “I think rather than, again, trying to spin it up and trying to cause that animosity, somehow we’ve got to be able to say look, this is not right on all sides. Let’s try to get along, find a way to work through it.”

Utah hasn’t been immune to violence at protests. Last summer, Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, was shot and killed by a so-called peacekeeper at a large “No Kings” protest in Salt Lake City. A member of the “peacekeeping” group fired at a man who was carrying an AR-15-style rifle in the demonstration.

The man who fired, Matt Scott Alder, 43, was charged with manslaughter in December.

Regarding the shooting in Minnesota, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, also said she hoped Utah would be spared from the unrest over immigration enforcement, but “there’s a lot of concerns, and families are afraid.”

“We’re prepping, understanding that there’s no control as a state in terms of what the federal government does for that, and that we can exercise all of our tools in our toolbox to make sure that we protect our residents and our citizens in the state of Utah,” Escamilla said.

Escamilla added that the Democratic caucuses on Utah’s Capitol Hill are asking for more oversight of the Trump administration, and for the congressional delegation “to do their job.”