Morale inside federal law enforcement agencies charged with enforcing the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown is “plummeting,” with officers describing exhaustion, aggressive arrest targets and growing hostility from the public, according to multiple reports.
Personnel at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol, both under the Department of Homeland Security, said they broadly back deporting undocumented migrants but have become increasingly “disillusioned” with how the operation is being carried out by senior leadership.
More than 20 current and former immigration officials spoke to The New York Times about internal dissatisfaction following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by a federal agent in Minneapolis. The killing marked the second time in recent weeks that a U.S. citizen died during an encounter involving a federal agent, amid clashes between officers and protesters fueled by public outrage over the Minneapolis incident.
“You’re not addressing the problem by throwing a 500-pound gorilla into these inner cities,” said Oscar Hagelsieb, a former immigration officer and special agent. “They’re causing chaos, and unfortunately it’s costing lives.”
“It’s completely unfair to the agents who have been put in this position,” he added. “There’s only so much they can handle before bad things start to happen.”
Border Patrol agents, who typically focus on ports of entry, have increasingly been redirected to assist ICE raids and provide backup during protests. Gregory Bovino, a top Border Patrol commander, previously described the practice of making rapid arrests before demonstrators can intervene as “turn and burn.”
Bovino oversaw operations in Chicago where agents fired tear gas into neighborhoods and struck protesters with pepper balls. Those actions were “far outside standard practices in law enforcement,” according to Gil Kerlikowske, who ran Customs and Border Protection during the Obama administration. “Morale is in the dumpster,” Kerlikowske said.
Responding to criticism, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said ICE and Border Patrol officers “get up every morning to try and make our communities safer.”
“The men and women of ICE and Border Patrol are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters,” McLaughlin said in a statement to The Independent. “Like everyone else, our officers just want to go home to our families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop.”
Senior Trump administration officials moved quickly to blame Pretti for the violence, characterizing him as someone who “wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement” before investigators completed their review.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced calls to step down after stating that Pretti had “brandished” a weapon before a Border Patrol officer “fired defensive shots,” a claim later challenged by video footage of the encounter.
Current and former ICE officials who spoke anonymously said they were “unhappy with the sharp rhetoric” coming from the White House and DHS leadership. One agent said he had “always given the benefit of the doubt to the government in these situations,” but no longer believed “any of the statements they put out anymore.”
“We lost all trust,” another current ICE official said. “I’m not sure I can see how we exist three years from now.” Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin also reported “extreme frustration” within the department over “some of the claims & narratives DHS pushed in the aftermath of the shooting.”
NEW: Since yesterday's deadly shooting in MN, I've talked to more than half a dozen federal sources involved immigration enforcement, including several in senior positions, who all tell me they have grown increasingly uneasy & frustrated w/ some of the claims & narratives DHS…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 25, 2026
“These sources say this messaging from DHS officials has been catastrophic from a PR and morale perspective, as it is eroding trust and credibility,” Melugin reported Sunday.
“All of the sources support the mass deportation agenda, but have serious hesitations about the way it is being carried out and the messaging that comes with it,” he added. “Many of the sources have expressed frustration that ICE is routinely blamed for the actions of Border Patrol, a completely separate agency.”
President Donald Trump said border czar Tom Homan had been sent to Minnesota as unrest spread across the state, telling The Wall Street Journal the administration was “looking” and “reviewing” all aspects of the Pretti case.
Pretti worked as an ICU nurse and had previously been employed by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” Michael Pretti, Alex’s father, told the Associated Press. “He felt that doing the protesting was a way to express that, you know, his care for others.”
