‘Fed Up’: Fox’s Bill Melugin Reports on ‘Extreme Frustration’ Internally Over DHS Messaging on Alex Pretti Shooting

Olivier Douliery/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images)

Immigration enforcement officials are reportedly furious about the messaging from Homeland Security officials in the wake of the shooting death of Alex Pretti at the hands of border patrol agents.

In a post to X late Sunday, Fox News congressional correspondent Bill Melugin — citing “more than half a dozen federal sources involved in immigration enforcement” — reported deep internal skepticism about DHS’s handling of the shooting.

“They have grown increasingly uneasy & frustrated w/ some of the claims & narratives DHS pushed in the aftermath of the shooting,” Melugin reported. “Specifically, I’m told there is extreme frustration with DHS officials going on TV and putting out statements claiming that Alex Pretti was intending to conduct a ‘massacre’ of federal agents or wanted to carry out ‘maximum damage,’ even after numerous videos appeared to show those claims were inaccurate. While they say it was a terrible decision to show up with a gun and inject himself into a federal law enforcement operation, there is no indication Pretti was there to murder law enforcement, as videos appear to show he never drew his holstered firearm. These sources say this messaging from DHS officials has been catastrophic from a PR and morale perspective, as it is eroding trust and credibility – comparing it to when Democrats falsely claimed the border was closed or that Haitians were being whipped at the border.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in a Saturday news conference, said, “It looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and kill law enforcement. And Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, in a separate news conference, said, “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Melugin’s sources — whom he describes as all being in “support of the mass deportation agenda” from President Donald Trump’s administration — are furious at comments such as those from top officials.

“These sources say this messaging from DHS officials has been catastrophic from a PR and morale perspective, as it is eroding trust and credibility – comparing it to when Democrats falsely claimed the border was closed or that Haitians were being whipped at the border,” Melugin wrote. “Some of these sources have described DHS’ response to the shooting as ‘a case study on how not to do crisis PR’ one said they are so ‘fed up’ that they wish they could retire, another said ‘DHS is making the situation worse,’ and another added that ‘DHS is wrong’ and ‘we are losing this war, we are losing the base and the narrative.'”

DHS responded to Melugin’s report with a statement.

“We have seen a highly coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement,” DHS said. “This individual committed a federal crime while armed as he obstructed an active law enforcement operation. As with any situation that is evolving, we work to give swift, accurate information to the American people as more information becomes available.”

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