A veteran immigration officer and special agent blasted President Donald Trump’s administration for “causing chaos” and “costing lives” in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Oscar Hagelsieb, 52, who voted for Trump three times and spent 25 years with the Department of Homeland Security before retiring in 2023, told The New York Times he was angry the administration was sending federal agents into situations that endangered both law enforcement and civilians.
“They’re causing chaos, and unfortunately it’s costing lives,” he said of the administration.
ICE agents in Minneapolis have shot three people in as many weeks, killing two U.S. citizens—Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, both 37—and wounding a Venezuelan man.
Immediately after both deaths, administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, branded Good and Pretti “domestic terrorists” and claimed they had set out to kill law enforcement officers, despite video evidence to the contrary.
But even DHS agents are frustrated by the rush to smear the deceased, the Times reported.
One current D.H.S. agent told the Times 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.”
Many also said Trump’s mass-deportation effort—which has included indiscriminate street sweeps—was counterproductive given the training received by the ICE and Border Patrol agents participating in the campaign.
Most ICE agents do not have specialized training to deal with the crowds that have begun disrupting and filming their operations, a response to both indiscriminate street sweeps and anger directed at agents in the wake of this month’s shootings, according to the Times.
Border Patrol agents, meanwhile, typically spend most of their time at the border—where there are fewer constitutional protections—and are used to deploying more aggressive tactics there. They’re not equipped to operate so extensively within cities, several officials said.
“We lost all trust,” a current ICE official told the Times. “I’m not sure I can see how we exist three years from now.”
It doesn’t help that ICE special agents have been taken off complex criminal investigations—including sex crimes against children, drug smuggling, and terrorism—to track down undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of whom have not been convicted of crimes.
“It’s like a local police department pulling a homicide investigator to conduct an operation against jaywalkers,” Hagelsieb said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to DHS for comment.
Much of the safety-related frustration expressed by the Times’ sources could be traced back to Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s demand that agents arrest 3,000 immigrants per day.
Previous administrations took a more targeted approach, including spending several days conducting surveillance and identifying the safest way to make an arrest.
Thanks to Miller’s arrest quota, there’s no time for that type of careful preparation, according to the Times.
The long hours, unrealistic arrest demands, and public backlash are wearing on agents, who are worried about public perception and long-term recruiting prospects, sources said. They’re also worried that Democrats will shut down ICE in response to the public outrage.
Paul Perez, who heads the Border Patrol union, nevertheless told the Times that morale remained “high,” and that agents were only worried about having their identities revealed.
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