The former leader of the Liberal Democrats has said that “American politics is fast losing touch with the truth" after the second fatal shooting of a US citizen at the hands of ICE officers.
Speaking on his podcast, A Mucky Business, Tim Farron MP said: “The authorities are using lethal force to suppress protest, and then creating – in the words of one of Trump’s aides during his first administration - "alternative facts” - to justify it.”
It comes after two senior members of Trump’s administration alleged that Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse who was shot multiple times by an ICE officer, was a “domestic terrorist”.
Farron described the incident as the "appalling and unnecessary taking of a man's life".
Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, said Pretti had committed “the definition of domestic terrorism,” whilst the President’s Chief of Staff claimed that he had “tried to assassinate law enforcement".
Video footage of Pretti’s death shows him filming officers on his phone. One angle appears to show an ICE agent removing a gun from Pretti’s side, after the nurse has been pushed to the ground. Minneapolis police insist that Pretti was licensed to carry a handgun.
Thousands of Minnesotans have taken to the streets in below-freezing temperatures to protest ICE’s presence. According to The Hill, around seven thousand local businesses closed in solidarity with the protests.
The Trump administration has said it is “reviewing” the incident.
Tim Farron has urged prayer for “an outbreak of truth in politics”.
“Let’s pray that we will take truth-telling seriously in our own lives,” he said, “and for those in authority to encounter the truth, in Jesus Christ, and to rule with wisdom and justice.”