Lawmakers ask why the agent who shot and killed Alex Pretti is still on the job

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has a formal use-of-force policy, which states that when CBP agents use deadly force, “the officer/agent shall … be placed on Administrative Leave.”

So it came as something of a surprise when Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino held a press conference the day after federal immigration officers shot and killed Alex Pretti and said that those who pulled the trigger are still on the job.

When a reporter asked specifically whether those agents are “working right now,” Bovino replied, “All agents that were involved in that scene are working, not in Minneapolis, but in other locations.”

A day later, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, expressed incredulity about the decision to leave Pretti’s shooter in the field. The congressman’s written statement read:

It defies common sense — and is completely inexcusable — that the agent who killed Alex Pretti Saturday is already back in the field terrorizing our communities and believing — as Greg Bovino has so wrongly asserted — that he is the victim. Clearly, no investigation took place and longstanding Department policy was completely ignored.

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Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

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