Republicans Shift Tone After Killings, Criticizing Trump’s Immigration Push

Republicans Shift Tone After Killings, Criticizing Trump’s Immigration Push

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Demands for independent investigations. Scheduled oversight hearings. Overtures for proposed concessions to avert a government shutdown.
In the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal agent in Minneapolis, Republicans in Congress have starkly shifted their tone on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, offering some of the strongest and most pointed criticism of the administration since the start of President Trump’s second term and conceding that something must change.
Mr. Pretti’s killing over the weekend
had drawn notable pushback from a small but significant group of G.O.P. lawmakers
even before Mr. Trump switched rhetorical gears, distancing himself from his administration’s smears of Mr. Pretti and installing a new commander to oversee his deportation push in Minnesota.
But for a much broader group of Republicans who have been reluctant to challenge Mr. Trump or even gently criticize him, the president’s messaging pivot appeared to have provided license to air grave concerns about what happened in Minneapolis and the backlash it had generated among much of the American public.
The shift could be temporary and may be more of a matter of style over substance. It was not clear whether it would yield any immediate action by Republicans,
who have largely ceded their power to Mr. Trump
and who still solidly back his immigration policy. They have
balked at Democrats’ demands
to drop funding for the Department of Homeland Security bill from a spending package needed to avert a government shutdown on Friday.
Even so, Republicans have toned down the hyperpartisan language typical in the run-up to a shutdown. Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, signaled openness on Tuesday to negotiating with Democrats on policy changes that might draw their votes for the homeland security spending measure, as he called for a full and impartial investigation into Mr. Pretti’s killing, which he described as “an inflection point.”
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