Gov. Kathy Hochul Sunday said that federal Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should resign, be fired or impeached for what she said was a deliberate pattern of violence that culminated in another fatal shooting of a protester by federal agents Saturday in Minneapolis.
Hochul also promised to hold Noem and other federal officials accountable once they leave office.
At the end of a briefing on the state’s preparations for a huge winter storm Sunday, Hochul read a prepared statement denouncing the violence associated with the federal government’s surge of immigration officers into the state of Minnesota to find and deport people who are in America illegally.
The federal effort has been met with widespread protest, as it was in a Minneapolis neighborhood Saturday. A protester named Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, who was shot to death by federal agents after they forced him onto the sidewalk and removed his legal weapon. It’s the second fatal shooting by federal agents during their Minnesota operation.
“The federal government claims the killing was justified. This nurse with nothing more than his cell phone in his hand, that he was trying to kill them — that’s their story,” said Hochul. “But anyone who’s seen this horrific video, multiple videos, knows that this is a shameless, boldface lie. This is not a threat that needed to be neutralized. It was a civilian exercising the free right to protest.”
“Don’t stop believing what your eyes tell you,” she added.
Hochul called the actions of federal agents cruelty that “shocks the conscience of every human being with a heart.”
She called on federal Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign, or to be fired by the President or impeached and removed by Congress. The governor warned that New York and other states will take action.
“Make no mistake – when these people who have abused the power entrusted to them by their offices are finally out of power, states, including New York, will hold them accountable,” the Governor said, promising to provide details “in the upcoming days.”
Story by Dave Bullard/WRVO/New York Public News Network
Image: Governor Kathy Hochul speaks at a winter storm briefing in Albany, NY on Sunday, January 25, 2026. (Mike Groll/Office of the Governor)