AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Key Senate Democrats say they will risk a partial government shutdown and not vote for a spending package that includes funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. This comes after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a U.S. citizen, in Minneapolis yesterday. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the killing, quote, "appalling." Tina Smith is a Democratic senator from Minnesota, and she joins us now. Good morning, and thanks for being with us.
TINA SMITH: Good morning.
RASCOE: So you call the decision not to vote to fund ICE, quote, "a great place to start." What are you hearing from your Democratic colleagues?
SMITH: My Democratic colleagues are just so appalled at what they are seeing happening in Minnesota. And I can tell you it is so surreal here, the fear and the anger and the - it really does feel, in many ways, a bit like a war zone. And that image - the image of Alex Pretti being shot in the back by ICE agents when all he was trying to do was to help a woman who had been shoved down by them - is spreading across the country, just as these other images of what's been happening to people in Minnesota are spreading. And I think increasingly, folks are looking at this and saying, this cannot stand. We cannot in any way support this, and in fact, we have to take all of the power that we have to try to stop it.
RASCOE: Well, talk to me about that because, obviously, there was a full government shutdown last year over health care subsidies. But those health care subsidies were not extended, even though it was the longest government shutdown in history. Have you had any conversations with Republican colleagues about how withholding this vote - or, like, what you could get...
SMITH: Yeah.
RASCOE: ...If you withhold this vote?
SMITH: Well, so I had outreach to several of my Republican colleagues last night, as they, too, are seeing these - you know, this - the videos, the eyewitness videos of what happened here in south Minneapolis. And clearly, what we need to do is to establish - put some sort of guardrails, some sort of accountability around this lawless agency. And that, I think, has to be at the top of our conversation.
RASCOE: Are Republicans open to that that you're talking to?
SMITH: Well, we will see. I mean, I hope so. I don't see how they could continue to allow this lawless activity to continue in our country. And I think people who see it wonder, can this not happen in, you know, Kansas City or the places with the largest immigrant populations in our country, Texas and Florida? This is, I think, not something that is just unique to Minnesota. So this is the discussion. This is the argument that I think we're going to need to bring when we get back to Washington next week.
RASCOE: Is there anything more that you've learned about what happened in yesterday's shooting?
SMITH: Well, a couple of things that are really striking to me - the first is that our state investigators had to get a warrant to have access to the evidence of the shooting of Alex Pretti, and even then, the federal agents refused to give them access to the evidence. So this looks very much like another cover-up, as we see that they are having the Department of Homeland Security say, we're going to be handling the investigation. Not even the FBI will be involved in the investigation of what happened to Alex Pretti. So this is the - I think just further evidence of what looks to me like a giant cover-up and a refusal to take accountability for what happened.
RASCOE: Well, I mean, state and local investigators have filed a lawsuit against federal officials to prevent...
SMITH: Yes.
RASCOE: ...The destruction of evidence in Pretti's killing. And as you said, investigators still haven't been - you know, state investigators have not been allowed to access that evidence. Is a lawsuit enough?
SMITH: Well, think about this for just a minute. Think about what we are saying. We're saying that as of this morning, the federal government is refusing to abide by a federal court judge's order. So, I mean, the way that our democracy works is that the federal government - ultimately, politicians have to give to the law, and yet they are refusing to do that here. So I have to believe that they are going to ultimately follow what the judges are saying and abide by the law because that's the whole basis of how our country works.
RASCOE: I mean, are you concerned, though, about this now - this conflict that you're having between state and local investigators and federal officials? I mean, to have them coming head-to-head like this is a concern in this country, especially with the history of this country and states in going...
SMITH: Yes.
RASCOE: ...Against the federal government.
SMITH: Well, yes. Of course, it's deeply concerning, and that's why I think it is so important that all of us continue to speak out and to shine a light on this. And we know that what the federal government is doing, what ICE is doing, are - is deeply unpopular. And that gives me hope.
RASCOE: That's Minnesota Senator Tina Smith. Thank you so much.
SMITH: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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