MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Staying with Minneapolis, federal officials say they are investigating the killing of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday. The CBP is conducting its own investigation amid a torrent of criticism of the agency's use of force. Experts say immigration officers do not have the policing skills to handle crowds in an urban environment. NPR law enforcement correspondent Martin Kaste reports.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Customs and Border Protection is often referred to as the country's biggest police department. And with more than 45,000 officers, it is bigger than any state or local law enforcement agency. But for Americans who live far from the border, it's still unusual to see CBP in their streets...
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: That's not the time. Did you know that?
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KASTE: ...Shoving protesters and observers back and spraying chemical irritants into their faces.
IRENE VEGA: The skills that these federal immigration agents are bringing to these cities are a complete mismatch for what we actually need.
KASTE: Irene Vega is a sociologist at UC Irvine, who studied border officers' attitudes about use of force, interviewing more than 90 of them. She says CBP has a very specific institutional culture.
VEGA: They saw themselves very different, right? They would tell me that they were trained to hike in the desert. You know, they often told me about arresting 10, 15 people who were very compliant.
KASTE: Minnesota officials have demanded that CBP and ICE back away from this kind of policing. Here's Governor Tim Walz on Sunday.
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TIM WALZ: It's their job to do immigrations and customs enforcement. It's law enforcement's job to do law enforcement in Minnesota.
KASTE: There's concern that these immigration officers, who now outnumber Minneapolis police, are out of their depth in this new environment. For instance, after Pretti was shot, federal officials blamed him for having a gun, angering the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. The group's chairman, Bryan Strawser, says state law allows concealed carry with a permit, which police say Pretti had.
BRYAN STRAWSER: Federal officers, particularly those that are not based in Minnesota - they should be informed on what our laws are.
KASTE: The federal immigration agencies counter that they're being forced into this crowd control role. Here's CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott on Fox News over the weekend.
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RODNEY SCOTT: The primary training was to go out and arrest suspects, which is already dangerous. This entire environment where the community is encouraged by local leaders to come out and actually prevent you from making a felony arrest - it's a new dynamic. We're trying to evolve to it.
KASTE: Local politicians have encouraged protesters to be peaceful, not to impede officers. This isn't the first time CBP has been under pressure to change. More than a decade ago, outside reviews found a pattern of excessive force, such as officers shooting people for throwing rocks. The agency updated its manual in 2014 to require officers to carry less lethal weapons, such as pepper spray. There are also changes to the training. Retired federal trainer Kawika Lau helped to shape a new approach to teaching deescalation.
KAWIKA LAU: We teach them emotional intelligence, self-regulation, self-awareness because you can't bring calm to any situation if you, yourself, are not calm.
KASTE: But Lau cautions that those techniques are for one-on-one confrontations. When it comes to crowds, he's not sure how prepared CBP is.
LAU: They may have some training and expertise in urban operations and, you know, working in cities, but that's not what that position was designed to do. Therefore, that's not what the training is designed to produce.
KASTE: Earlier today, Governor Walz said on social media that he'd had what he terms a productive call with President Trump, who he says agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota. Veteran police reform expert Chuck Wexler, yesterday, told NPR that if any other police agency had just had officers involved in three shootings in as many weeks, it would pull back and reassess what it's doing. He says he hopes the feds will also consider what he calls a tactical pause in Minnesota. Martin Kaste, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHYGIRL SONG, "HEAVEN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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