The fallout from the fatal weekend shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minnesota is reverberating in Senate races around the country.
Democratic candidates in contested primaries have called for abolishing or overhauling the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the resignation or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, while Republican Senate hopefuls seeking President Donald Trump’s support have largely backed his policies.
Protests over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations have erupted around the nation, with polling pointing to growing support for abolishing ICE and rising disapproval of the president’s handling of immigration. The backlash has also jeopardized the effort to fund the government by Friday night, with Senate Democrats demanding new restrictions on the administration.
The debate hits closest to home in Minnesota, where Pretti’s death marked the second killing this month of a U.S. citizen by a federal immigration agent. Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan have been locked in an increasingly tense Democratic primary in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Tina Smith.
While Craig has pitched herself as a Democrat who’s won tough races in a swing district, Flanagan is running to her left. She has criticized the congresswoman’s 2025 vote for a measure known as the Laken Riley Act, which targeted undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the U.S. Craig has pushed back on those attacks and stressed her support for impeaching Noem.
Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly, who is running for the deep-blue state’s open Senate seat, introduced articles of impeachment against Noem earlier this month, and her office announced Tuesday that more than three-fourths of House Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors. They include Craig and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, one of Kelly’s rivals for the Democratic nomination.
ICE was a focal point of a Senate debate in Illinois this week that also included Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton.
All three expressed opposition to the Trump administration’s handling of the agency, to varying degrees. Stratton said the agency should be abolished and “cannot be reformed.” Krishnamoorthi, who highlighted his own status as an immigrant, said he believed “we have to abolish Trump’s ICE” and called for a slate of legislative reforms for the agency, while Kelly called for building “an agency that people can trust,” saying the Department of Homeland Security has gotten too big.
In Maine, where a recent increase in ICE presence has led to the arrest of more than 200 people, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who is challenging GOP Sen. Susan Collins, addressed the presence of federal agents in a speech to state lawmakers Tuesday.
“Tonight, I say to the people of Maine: We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced,” Mills said. “And to anyone outside these halls, including any federal officials, I say: If you seek to harm Maine people, you will have to go through me first.”
Mills’ leading opponent in the Democratic primary, oyster farmer Graham Platner, has criticized her over a delay in the enactment of state legislation that limits local law enforcement’s collaboration with federal immigration officials. As the measure, which Mills called “imperfect,” became law without her signature, it won’t take effect until the current legislative session ends.
“It does us no help currently. It won’t even be able to actually be enforced for several more months,” Platner said.
Collins, the only Republican senator seeking reelection this year in a state that Trump lost, has reportedly asked Noem to pause the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota and Maine. But unlike some other Senate Republicans, she has not called for Noem’s ouster.
In Michigan, the three leading Democrats looking to succeed retiring Sen. Gary Peters have also staked out slightly differing stances in the current debate. Rep. Haley Stevens has joined other House Democrats in calling for Noem’s impeachment. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow said in a video this week that lawmakers should deny funding for the Department of Homeland Security and that ICE needed “a complete overhaul.”
Former public health official Abdul El-Sayed, who has tried to position himself as the most progressive candidate in the field, called for ICE to be abolished.
Meanwhile, the two leading Democrats running for Senate in Texas have both blasted the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. In a debate Saturday night just hours after Pretti was shot, state Rep. James Talarico and Rep. Jasmine Crockett called for an overhaul of ICE.
GOP responses
The political calculus of Trump’s immigration crackdown is playing out differently in Republican Senate primaries.
For some candidates, the issue has become another litmus test of their loyalty to a president who demands unyielding allegiance.
In Georgia, where Reps. Mike Collins and Earl L. “Buddy” Carter and former football coach Derek Dooley are competing to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, support for Trump’s policies has not wavered in the aftermath of the Minnesota killings.
While several prominent GOP senators have called for investigations into the weekend shooting, the three Georgia Republicans praised Trump’s handling of the crisis.
“President Trump is addressing an immigration crisis handed to him, and to our entire country, by the reckless open-border policies of the Biden administration,” Dooley said in a statement Tuesday.
Collins said he backed fully funding the Department of Homeland Security “so ICE can continue deporting violent criminal illegal immigrants from our streets.”
Two days after Pretti’s shooting, Carter called for a Minneapolis-style immigration enforcement crackdown in Atlanta.
“Democrats like Jon Ossoff created this crisis with their open-borders policies,” he wrote on social media. “It’s time to send ICE to Atlanta so we can get these criminals off our streets. Arrest them. Deport them. Enforce the law.”
For his part, Ossoff, the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrat, called on his GOP opponents to join the growing list of Republicans seeking an independent probe of the shooting.
Trump has yet to publicly endorse in the Georgia Senate primary, and all three GOP contenders are vying for his support.
That’s also the case in Texas, where Republican Sen. John Cornyn is in the fight of his political life, facing off against Rep. Wesley Hunt and state Attorney General Ken Paxton. All three candidates publicly lauded the president’s approach to border security.
But in Louisiana, where the president spurned GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy in favor of primary challenger Rep. Julia Letlow, reaction to the shootings differed.
Cassidy, who drew Trump’s wrath by voting to convict him at his second impeachment trial, is among the Republicans calling for “a full joint federal and state investigation” into the events surrounding Pretti’s killing.
Letlow expressed sympathy for the families affected by the shooting, adding on social media that “the best way to prevent incidents like this is to follow the law and respect law enforcement.”
Trump, she added, “is making America safer as ICE has arrested over 400,000 criminals.”
The post Fight over ICE takes center stage in contested Senate primaries appeared first on Roll Call.
