DHS Is Reviewing Body Cam Footage of Alex Pretti Shooting. If Only We Could Trust That Video.

As horrified Americans pored over the details of the footage of the Border Patrol killing of American citizen, Minneapolis resident and ICU nurse Alex Pretti this weekend, it was immediately notable that at least a few of the immigration agents and Border Patrol foot soldiers in the footage appeared to be wearing body cameras. This is not something that can be taken for granted, given that although the use of body cameras has become near universal for local police forces, their use has been resisted at the federal level for agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol. Funding for the body camera program was slashed by the Trump administration, and the number of employees working in body cam footage oversight was reduced to a skeleton crew. Nevertheless, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to NBC News on Monday that some of the agents present during the killing of Alex Pretti were indeed wearing operational body cameras, and that it was reviewing that footage.

Agent-worn videos of the incident also exist “from multiple angles” according to an unnamed DHS spokesperson–potentially chief liar Tricia McLaughlin. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has likewise said that “every video will be analyzed, everything will be looked at” as part of the investigation into Pretti’s death … which is odd, considering that she didn’t need to see any of that information or evidence before she IMMEDIATELY called the nurse a “domestic terrorist” in the hours after the shooting. But suddenly, we now need to turn over every stone carefully before rushing to any conclusions, yeah? Could this be why Donald Trump is now afraid to say Pretti’s name, 48 hours later, and is going on Truth Social benders about “fake polls” as he worries about his support collapsing even more?

Lest we somehow forget, beyond the obvious fact that we cannot trust the federal government or DHS to conduct a real investigation of these materials, we also can’t trust, in the slightest, any video footage from those body cams that the agency makes publicly available, because they’ve already proven that they have no hesitation about manipulating images. It was only THREE DAYS AGO that the Trump administration took the just-shared photo of Minnesota activist Nekima Levy Armstrong and then digitally altered it/employed AI tools to make it look like Armstrong was sobbing, in addition to darkening her skin tone. They did this even though the original photo had already been released, not even caring that observers paying attention would realize that the administration was trying to craft the narrative around Armstrong’s arrest with a fake image meant to sate the sadistic desires of their racist voter base. To the rest of us, the immediate threat to civil liberties was obvious: What happens when the White House or Trump admin agencies start releasing fake photos of American citizens without the original photo being available? How will we know when any photo put out by the White House is an AI forgery? The only way to be safe is to assume that literally everything shared by the administration is fake.

Just a reminder that ICE claimed Marimar Martinez brandished a weapon too.

Then they shot her five times.

She survived, and body cam footage showed they lied.

They’re lying about Alex Pretti too.

He was witnessing. He was trying to help a woman.

They killed him for it.

— Kelly (@broadwaybabyto.bsky.social) Jan 24, 2026 at 4:56 PM

And that certainly goes for any body cam footage from these Border Patrol agents who killed Alex Pretti in cold blood on a subzero Minneapolis street. Who knows how far they would dare to fabricate evidence, when they’re already proven their willingness to do so? Would they edit a gun into or out of someone’s hand? Would they change the audio of the body cam recording to edit out incriminating dialogue from the Border Patrol agents? Would they simply edit the footage in a deceptive manner? Again, the Trump administration demonstrated its willingness to lie with digital tools in relatively low-stakes cases related to Minnesota only a couple of days prior to Pretti’s killing. What will they be willing to do in a case that has captured national attention and rage?

There’s nothing that the administration could possibly do, at this point, short of perhaps surrendering the cameras to Minneapolis law enforcement, that would make those videos acceptable pieces of evidence. When someone tells you that they can’t be trusted, you have no choice but to listen.

Keep scrolling for more great stories.