John Fetterman‘s wife has come out in defiance of his unwavering support for ICE, branding it ‘cruel and un-American,’ while the senator remains the lone Democrat silent on the shooting of Alex Pretti.
Gisele Barreto Fetterman, 43, the senator’s wife and former Second Lady of Pennsylvania, issued a statement on X after federal agents fatally shot 37-year-old US citizen and ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday.
‘For more than a decade, I lived undocumented in the US. Every day carried the same uncertainty and fear lived in my body – a tight chest, shallow breaths, racing heart,’ Gisele wrote on Sunday.
‘What I thought was my private, chronic dread has now become a shared national wound,’ she added. ‘This now-daily violence is not ‘law and order.’ It is terror inflicted on people who contribute, love and build their lives here.’
‘It’s devastatingly cruel and unAmerican.’
Her statement exposes a deep rift in beliefs, as her husband has repeatedly dismissed her upbringing in Brazil while endorsing Trump’s immigration crackdown and the aggressive use of federal agents nationwide.
Saturday’s deadly shooting marked the second recent incident in which federal agents killed an American citizen in Minneapolis, following the January 7 death of Renee Nicole Good.
Pretti, 37, was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday during a targeted immigration enforcement operation.
John Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, 43, turned on his unwavering defense of ICE and branded their operations ‘cruel and un-American,’ following the shooting death of Alex Pretti
Pretti, 37, was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday during a targeted immigration enforcement operation
Gisele’s statement exposed a deep rift in beliefs, as her husband has repeatedly dismissed her upbringing in Brazil while endorsing Trump’s immigration crackdown and the aggressive use of federal agents nationwide
Fetterman has repeatedly voiced support for the president and ICE over the past two years – including a July 2025 break with his own party, when he slammed Democrats for ‘vilifying’ the agency
Federal officials have claimed Pretti ‘approached’ Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun prior to the fatal shooting – which came just weeks after Renee Good, 37, was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
All Democratic senators, as well as several Republicans, have issued statements condemning Trump officials and the aggressive tactics employed by agents in Minnesota and elsewhere across the nation.
President Donald Trump admitted ‘I don’t like any shooting’ when asked about the fatal confrontation between Border Patrol and the Minnesota nurse.
‘I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,’ Trump said. ‘But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully-loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.’
Fetterman, however, has remained silent.
Even as he remains quiet now, he has repeatedly voiced support for the president and ICE over the past two years – including a July 2025 break with his own party, when he slammed Democrats for ‘vilifying’ the agency.
During a Fox News interview, the senator addressed the alleged coordinated attack on an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4 of last year.
‘Absolutely unacceptable. Terrible. Awful,’ Fetterman said.
All Democratic senators, as well as several Republicans, have issued statements condemning Trump officials and the aggressive tactics employed by agents in Minnesota and elsewhere across the nation, except for Fetterman
In Gisele’s statement, she wrote: ‘This now-daily violence is not ‘law and order.’ It is terror inflicted on people who contribute, love and build their lives here’
Gisele reiterated in her statement that ‘for more than a decade, I lived undocumented in the US,’ referring to her Brazilian roots
‘ICE agents are just doing their job and I fully support that. For me and the people in my party, you know, to abolish it or treat them as criminals or anything, that’s inappropriate and outrageous,’ he added.
‘ICE performs an important, an important job for our nation.’
Days later, Fetterman again took to X to voice his support for the agents, writing, ‘ICE performs an important job for our country.’
‘Any calls to abolish ICE are 100 percent inappropriate and outrageous,’ he added, reiterating his stance.
His comments initially surprised the Democratic Party, as the term he has frequently condemned – ‘Abolish ICE’- has long been a slogan embraced by the progressive movement that helped elect him in 2022.
That same month, Fetterman made his position unmistakably clear at a White House meeting with Trump and African leaders, where the president publicly praised the Democrat for his outspoken views.
‘The new John Fetterman is exactly what you said – he’s right, he’s right,’ Trump said during the meeting.
‘And we have to protect our police officers, and we will, and we have been,’ he added.
Fetterman made his position clear at a White House meeting with Trump and African leaders last year, where the president publicly praised the Democrat for his outspoken views and stated ‘he’s right, he’s right’
Fetterman’s comments initially surprised the Democratic Party, as the term he has frequently condemned – ‘Abolish ICE’- has long been a slogan embraced by the progressive movement that helped elect him in 2022
During a Fox News interview, the senator addressed the alleged coordinated attack on an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4 of last year and called it, ‘Absolutely unacceptable. Terrible. Awful’
Speaking exclusively with the Daily Mail the following day, the senator responded that Trump’s praise of him probably ‘made my parents proud.’
‘They’re big Fox News viewers,’ Fetterman said. ‘My whole family is Republican.’
Yet his stance quickly drew criticism from Democrats, including Annie Wu Henry, the person behind his campaign’s social media efforts.
Henry posted a campaign video to X capturing Fetterman taking the complete opposite view while discussing his own family, notably his Brazilian-born wife.
In the voiceover, Fetterman said: ‘Ya know, I was asked, “Your wife’s family broke the law, what do you think of that?”‘
‘I said, “Well I’m so grateful that they did because if they didn’t have the courage to take that step I wouldn’t have the three beautiful children that I have today,”‘ he added.
But Fetterman has earned public praise from the Republican president on more than one occasion.
The Pennsylvanian was the only Democrat to meet with Trump at his Florida home Mar-a-Lago during the presidential transition in January 2025.
‘I just, I was invited to have a conversation with the president and that I did. And that’s what happened,’ he later told ABC News of the meeting.
Speaking exclusively with the Daily Mail last year, Fetterman responded that Trump’s public praise of him probably ‘made my parents proud’
Annie Wu Henry, the person who was behind Fetterman’s campaign’s social media efforts, shared a clip to X in which the senator said he was ‘happy’ his wife’s family ‘broke the law,’ so he could have his beautiful family
Fetterman and Trump have shared interests spanning a number of topics, including supporting Israel, bombing Iran and some of the president’s immigration agenda
‘Overall, it was a positive experience. I mean, he was kind, he was cordial. It wasn’t in any kind of theater,’ Fetterman later disclosed of their meeting on ABC’s The View.
‘It wasn’t trying to get your picture taken to kind of put something out on social media. It was just, really, a conversation. We actually spoke for over an hour.’
Trump had an equally rosy takeaway from the Florida meeting.
‘He’s a commonsense person. He’s not liberal or conservative. He’s just a commonsense person, which is beautiful,’ the president told the Washington Examiner.
The unlikely duo have shared interests spanning a number of topics, including supporting Israel, bombing Iran and some of the president’s immigration agenda.
Fetterman called for Trump to bomb the Middle Eastern country before the commander-in-chief ordered strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year, and he also agreed with increasing spending for border initiatives.
‘I absolutely support those kinds of investments to make our border security as well,’ the Democrat said of Trump’s request for increased border funding at a town hall with fellow Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick.
On Sunday, the president said his administration will now investigate Pretti’s fatal shooting, as he signaled a willingness to withdraw immigration enforcement officials from Minneapolis.
Federal officials have claimed Pretti ‘approached’ Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun prior to the fatal shooting
Pretti’s death came just weeks after Renee Good, 37, was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer
On Sunday, the president said his administration will now investigate Pretti’s fatal shooting, as he signaled a willingness to withdraw immigration enforcement officials from Minneapolis
‘We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,’ Trump told the Journal. ‘At some point we will leave.’
The president also penned a lengthy Truth Social post on Sunday that ordered Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to turn over all criminal immigrants in the state.
Trump called on Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and ‘EVERY Democrat Governor and Mayor in the US to formally cooperate with the Trump Administration to enforce our Nation’s Laws, rather than resist and stoke the flames of Division, Chaos and Violence.’
He then ordered Walz and Frey to ‘turn over all Criminal Illegal Aliens that are currently incarcerated at their State Prisons and Jails to federal authorities.’
The president also said state and local police must agree to turn over any immigrant who has committed a crime, and local authorities must assist their federal partners in arresting immigrants accused of crimes.
At that point, Trump announced that he is also asking Congress to pass legislation ending sanctuary cities, which he argued is ‘the root cause of all of these problems.’
The administration has made similar demands in the past, with Attorney General Pam Bondi sending Walz a letter urging him to ‘cooperate fully’ with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday.
In a three-page letter, she accused state officials of ‘anti-law enforcement rhetoric’ and ‘putting federal agents in danger.’
The president also penned a lengthy Truth Social post on Sunday that ordered Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to turn over all criminal immigrants in the state
Walz argued in his address that ICE agents have overstepped their authority in Minnesota following Pretti’s death
Walz accused the Trump administration of launching a smear campaign against Pretti, whom federal officials have said wanted to ‘massacre law enforcement’
Bondi also called on the governor to ‘repeal sanctuary policies’ in Minnesota and asked that ‘all detention facilities’ in the state ‘cooperate fully with ICE’ and ‘honor detention retainers.’
She then requested that Minnesota give the Department of Justice access to its voter rolls to ‘confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal law.’
But Walz hit back at the allegations, calling them ‘a red herring’ and ‘untrue’ as he pleaded with the president to remove federal officers from his city.
‘What is the plan, Donald? What do we need to do to get these federal agents out of our state?’ the Minnesota governor asked.
‘President Trump, you can end this today. Pull these folks back, do humane, focused, effective immigration control – you’ve got the support of all of us to do that,’ he begged. ‘Show some decency. Pull these folks out.’
Walz argued in his address that ICE agents have overstepped their authority in Minnesota following Pretti’s death.
However, Trump seemingly doubled down on his claim that Somali immigrants in Minneapolis have been committing major fraud.
The president had deployed thousands of federal immigration agents to heavily Democratic Minneapolis for weeks, after conservative media reported on the alleged fraud.
Minneapolis has one of the country’s highest concentrations of Somali immigrants.
Still, Walz accused the Trump administration of launching a smear campaign against Pretti, whom federal officials have said wanted to ‘massacre law enforcement.’
‘You know what you saw,’ Walz said, before going on to accuse Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other top officials of ‘sullying his name within minutes of this event happening.’
Walz then addressed the American public directly, urging them to denounce Trump’s immigration crackdown and the killing of civilians by federal officers.
He also suggested that Trump was trying to ‘make an example of Minnesota’ but said he was proud of his state for standing up to the administration.
