Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., indicated the stakes are high for the U.S. after the latest deadly shooting by immigration officers on Saturday.
A Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, who worked as an intensive care nurse at a Veterans Affairs hospital.
“What we are seeing here is a momentous pivotal moment for the United States, and I cannot underscore enough how precipitous this moment is,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN.
Department of Homeland Security officials have called Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who intended to shoot immigration agents. While he was carrying a gun, videos of the incident show he wasn’t brandishing it at officers, and law enforcement confirmed he had a permit.
It marked the third shooting by a federal agent in Minnesota alone this month and the second deadly one. Similar shootings have taken place in other cities during Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Ocasio-Cortez also warned about the administration’s earlier indications about invoking the Insurrection Act, with the White House press secretary singling out Democratic officials.
“If we do not do something now, I do not know what can happen afterwards,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “We have to contain this chaos. This administration is declaring an openness and a justification for violence against American citizens based on their organizing, based on their political affiliation and they are using the guise of DHS to do it. We have to draw a line in the sand now across sectors, politically, economically, in our media, and more.”
She was among the Democrats in the House who urged their counterparts in the Senate to block an appropriations bill that includes DHS agencies like ICE and Border Patrol.
If enough Democratic senators vote against the funding, then the federal government will shut down on Friday. That’s after lawmakers agreed to end the previous shutdown in November with short-term funding.
On Saturday, Trump blamed the shooting on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey because they demanded that immigration agents leave the city.
“The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric!” he wrote on social media.
That suggests Trump may invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the military to Minnesota. Last week, two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska and specializes in arctic operations, were given prepare-to-deploy orders.