Rand Paul Promises to Push for Apologies to Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s Families Ahead of Hearing With ICE Director

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he believes acting ICE Director Todd Lyons owes an apology to the families of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two citizens shot and killed last month by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

Paul joined CBS Mornings on Wednesday ahead of a Thursday Senate hearing that both he and Lyons will be participating in. Vladimir Duthiers noted that Lyons refused an opportunity to apologize over Good and Pretti during a hearing this week, something Paul made clear he’ll push back on if the same holds true for their time together.

“You do believe that the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were mistakes. Yesterday in that House hearing, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, he refused to apologize to those families. Will you push back if that’s his response?” Duthiers asked.

“Absolutely, because one of their responses is, ‘oh, it’s in the middle of an investigation, we’re not going to comment.’ Well, we have at least four members of the administration who commented immediately. Within hours of the video being posted, within hours of the shooting, they had drawn conclusions,” Paul said.

Administration officials have faced backlash over immediate responses to the shootings, particularly Pretti. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for instance, claimed Pretti brandished a gun during an altercation with Border Patrol officials. Pretti was armed, but video contradicted Noem’s early conclusion.

ICE and immigration agencies, Paul argued, have lost “public trust” in the wake of the two shootings. He argued the public at large is confused about what kind of escalation tactics federal immigration agents are following.

“Now weeks later, with everybody having seen the video, they’re going to say, ‘oh, we’re not going to draw conclusions,'” the senator said. “No, they need to draw better conclusions. They need to be more judicious and they need to be more fair-minded in their thinking, because no one in the public seeing those videos is believing what they’re saying.”

Watch above via CBS.

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