Gov. Sherrill says impeachment of U.S. homeland security chief ‘has to happen immediately’

by Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor

Gov. Mikie Sherrill on Monday called for Congress to “immediately” impeach U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the wake of the fatal shooting of a Minnesota man by a border patrol agent.

The comments from New Jersey’s Democratic governor, who took office last week, come one day after Nevada Sen. U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D) called for Noem’s impeachment.

“I think that has to happen immediately,” Sherrill said in an interview with WNYC. “There needs to be a stand-down from duty, because all of these agents are acting completely outside the scope of their duties. It’s dangerous, and it should not be acceptable to anyone — Democrat, Republican alike, should all be calling for this to end immediately.”

Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse from Minneapolis, was shot dead Saturday during an altercation with federal immigration agents, marking the second fatal shooting by agents this month in Minneapolis.

The Minnesota city has been flooded with immigration agents as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort.

Noem alleged that Pretti approached agents with a gun to “inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement,” and an agent shot and killed Pretti in an act of self-defense. Videos of the episode appear to show an agent disarming Pretti before another agent shoots him multiple times.

Minneapolis officials have said Pretti was legally allowed to be carrying a firearm.

Sherrill, in her WNYC interview, accused the Trump administration of “wholesale lying to American people, making up stories about the people that this police force is killing on the streets.”

“Make no mistake, if you look at that video, it is hard to escape the understanding that that was a crime committed by that police force,” she said. “There’s no accountability. They are completely backed up by the president’s administration in their wrongdoing in their actions against the American people.”

Immigrant advocates in New Jersey have been pushing the Legislature to pass a package of bills aimed at limiting when local law enforcement and other public officials can cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Sherrill’s predecessor, Phil Murphy, signed one of the bills last week but vetoed two others before leaving office, saying he worried they would conflict with federal law or leave the state open to legal challenges.

The advocates are now hoping the Legislature will advance the two vetoed bills and send them to Sherrill for her signature. It’s unclear whether she supports them.

One of the bills would codify the Immigrant Trust Directive, a state attorney general order from 2018 that restricts state and local cooperation with immigration agents.