(MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA) — Federal agents fatally shot a man Saturday morning at West 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis during what the Department of Homeland Security described as a “targeted operation” tied to a large-scale immigration crackdown.
Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said federal officers were conducting the operation at approximately 9:05 a.m. against an individual wanted for violent assault when, she alleged, an “individual approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.”
“The officers attempted to disarm the suspect but the armed suspect violently resisted. This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement,” McLaughlin said.
Local officials identified the person killed as a 37-year-old male resident. The man’s name appeared inconsistently in reports, and some accounts identified him as Alex Pretti.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the man appeared to be a U.S. citizen and a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”
Saturday’s shooting drew immediate scrutiny because it was reported as the second fatal shooting involving federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis this month. A resident, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, died on January 7.
Federal officials have framed the broader Minneapolis enforcement push as a public-safety operation. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, in a January 19 press release about the ongoing actions, said, “We have arrested over 10,000 criminal illegal aliens who were killing Americans, hurting children and reigning terror in Minneapolis because [officials] refuse to protect their own people. our brave DHS law enforcement have arrested 3,000 criminal illegal aliens including vicious murderers, rapists, child pedophiles, and incredibly dangerous individuals.”
DHS has described the Minneapolis deployment as “Operation Metro Surge,” an effort that officials tied to immigration enforcement. ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons described it as the agency’s “largest immigration operation ever.”
Officials said Metro Surge involved nearly 2,000 federal agents deployed to the Minneapolis area. The federal presence has fueled political friction in Minnesota and intensified community concerns in the city.
Governor Tim Walz on Saturday demanded that the President “pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota” immediately. The statement came as Minneapolis absorbed another fatal shooting tied to federal operations and as questions continued about the scope of the crackdown.
USCIS has linked a separate initiative to the same broader effort, emphasizing administrative checks that can feed enforcement referrals. In a January 9 release, the agency announced Operation PARRIS, short for Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening.
“The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have launched Operation PARRIS in Minnesota, a sweeping initiative reexamining thousands of refugee cases through new background checks and intensive verification of refugee claims,” USCIS said.
Officials described Operation PARRIS as targeting approximately 5,600 refugees in Minnesota who have not yet obtained green cards, re-examining their claims for alleged fraud. The description placed the program within USCIS’s benefits and verification work, even as the wider crackdown has centered on arrests by federal law enforcement.
The month’s reported casualty pattern added to the attention on Minneapolis. As of January 24, the crackdown resulted in two fatal shootings — Good and the man killed Saturday — and at least one non-fatal shooting involving Julio Cesar Sosa-Celia on Jan 14.
DHS has characterized the January 24 incident as involving an armed threat. Local officials, meanwhile, highlighted that the man appeared to have legal status to possess and carry a firearm, underscoring the early uncertainty around what happened at the intersection.
Federal authorities said the encounter unfolded quickly. McLaughlin’s account asserted that officers tried to disarm the person they confronted, and that the person “violently resisted.”
Minneapolis officials did not publicly detail Saturday how the interaction began or how long it lasted. Authorities also did not publicly reconcile Saturday the differing characterizations: a federal account centered on an armed threat, and a local account that described a permitted gun owner.
The shootings came amid an immigration crackdown that federal officials have described as unusually large for a single U.S. city. Officials have pointed to both the scale of law enforcement deployment under Metro Surge and the breadth of USCIS’s refugee re-verification effort under PARRIS.
The breadth has sharpened a local governance debate over the federal role in Minneapolis. Walz’s demand for withdrawal signaled the intensity of the dispute as the operations continued through January.
Community impacts have spread beyond official statements and law enforcement activity. Legal advocacy groups reported that Somali and Hmong communities in Minneapolis have been particularly affected by Operation PARRIS.
Those groups reported that dozens of refugees have been arrested at their homes or workplaces and transferred to detention centers as far away as Texas. Officials did not provide Saturday a public accounting of how many people were taken into custody or where they were held.
The enforcement activity has also triggered regular demonstrations. On Saturday, hundreds of protesters gathered at the site of the shooting, facing federal agents who deployed flash-bangs and batons to disperse the crowd.
The protests added another layer of tension to the law enforcement footprint across the Twin Cities. Some local businesses and schools reported disruptions, with some shifting to remote learning because of federal checkpoints and Metro Surge raids.
Residents described a heightened sense of uncertainty as the month unfolded, with enforcement activity affecting daily routines. Reports of checkpoints and raids contributed to decisions by schools and businesses to alter schedules and operations.
Officials have separated the different components of the federal effort in their public descriptions, even as they unfolded in the same region. Metro Surge has been described as an enforcement deployment, while PARRIS has been presented by USCIS as a vetting and verification initiative tied to refugee cases.
The distinction matters because USCIS typically handles immigration benefits and status processes, while immigration enforcement and arrests are led by law enforcement agencies. Federal officials have cast both as part of a broader strategy in Minnesota.
USCIS described PARRIS as a “sweeping initiative” reexamining refugee cases, with “new background checks and intensive verification of refugee claims.” The agency also said the effort focused on refugees in Minnesota who had not yet obtained green cards.
DHS has presented Metro Surge as an overarching operation. Officials described it as a major deployment into Minneapolis, with Lyons calling it the agency’s “largest immigration operation ever.”
Saturday’s shooting raised fresh questions about the rules governing the operation and how encounters unfold on city streets. The death also added urgency to calls from state leaders and community groups for limits on federal activity.
Federal authorities have not publicly provided a detailed narrative timeline of Saturday’s encounter beyond McLaughlin’s account. Local officials have not publicly detailed what their investigators have confirmed about the moment shots were fired.
DHS has circulated information about Saturday’s shooting through official DHS text alerts and the press pool on January 24, 2026. DHS also published broader information about Metro Surge through its newsroom materials, including a January 19 press release.
Public documentation about the operations has come primarily through federal agency statements. DHS newsroom materials described Metro Surge and the department’s framing of the crackdown, while USCIS newsroom materials described Operation PARRIS and its stated purpose.
DHS’s publicly available newsroom material on Metro Surge appeared under the agency’s general newsroom portal, including an item labeled as an Operation Metro Surge release, [DHS newsroom materials]. USCIS has posted its PARRIS announcement through its newsroom, [USCIS newsroom materials].
The department’s account of Saturday’s shooting rested on its assertion that officers faced an armed person during a “targeted operation.” McLaughlin’s description also stated the operation targeted an individual wanted for violent assault.
O’Hara’s statement that the man appeared to be a U.S. citizen and a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry” added complexity to the public picture. The name inconsistency in reports also reflected the early stage of information as officials worked to identify the person killed.
The January timeline has been punctuated by repeated violent incidents tied to the federal crackdown. Good died on January 7, and Sosa-Celia was reported to have been shot on Jan 14.
USCIS announced Operation PARRIS on January 9. Noem’s press release about ongoing enforcement actions followed on January 19, before Saturday’s fatal shooting.
By Saturday afternoon, the latest shooting at West 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue had become the most recent flashpoint, drawing hundreds of protesters to the site. Federal agents used flash-bangs and batons to disperse the crowd as Minneapolis confronted another death in a month already marked by two fatal shootings tied to federal immigration enforcement.
Federal Agents Strike Minneapolis, Immigration Crackdown, Fatally Shot
Federal agents fatally shot a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026, during a large-scale enforcement push called Operation Metro Surge. While DHS claims the suspect was armed and dangerous, local police identified him as a U.S. citizen with a valid firearm permit. The incident has intensified political friction, leading Governor Tim Walz to demand the withdrawal of federal personnel from Minnesota.
