Jim Banks: “Alex Pretti Was No Hero”

WASHINGTON–Indiana Republican Senator Jim Banks said Thursday that Democrats have it all wrong when it comes to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Like many investigators and politicians, Banks reacted to new video which appears to show Alex Pretti in a confrontation with federal agents 11 days before he was shot and killed in Minneapolis on January 24.

“The more that we see and learn shows that Alex Pretti was not a hero,” said Banks in a Thursday evening interview with Hammer and Nigel on 93 WIBC.

Banks says he was disgusted when watching the video, which he claims shows that Pretti was not letting ICE officers do their jobs.

“He spit at law enforcement officers. He kicked and smashed their vehicles,” said Banks.

He argues that ICE is being villified when they are actually a lot of good for the country.

“The Trump administration has already deported over 675,000 illegals out of our country in one year. There is a lot more to go. There have been a lot of self-deportations. Think about these ICE officers and how they’re operating all over the country. That’s motivated a lot of illegals to self-deport, so it’s almost a deterrent,” said Banks.

Banks says he’s also disturbed by the amount of death threats he’s seeing being leveled at ICE.

“There is an 8,000% increase of death threats against ICE officers in the last few months, a 1,300% increase in vehicle ramming attacks, and a 1,150% increase in violence against ICE officers. That’s directly related to the anti-ICE rhetoric from these radical Democrats,” said Banks.

Banks later said the ICE officers are the real heroes.