DENTON, Md. -- The killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis last Saturday has enraged many people across the country. But some Trump supporters have sided with the agents and say they still back the president's sweeping enforcement of the nation's immigration laws.
Earlier this week, NPR traveled to Denton, a town of about 5,000 on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It is the county seat of Caroline County, which voted for President Trump by a margin of more than 2 to 1 in the 2024 election. In interviews with more than two dozen people, some Trump voters blamed the violence in Minneapolis on protesters, not federal agents.
"I think the protesters have a huge problem," said Allistaire Lawrence, who was renovating the attic of a house in this picturesque town that was first settled in 1781. "They're no longer protesting. They are impeding justice. Protesting is standing off to the side and not interfering."
Pretti stood in the middle of a street in Minneapolis last Saturday taking video of the agents, who were with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Then he helped a woman after one of the agents shoved her to the ground. Lawrence said Pretti should've stayed out of it, especially since the agents were armed.
"They've been put in other situations where their life has been at stake," said Lawrence. "They're probably on edge. They're probably a little jumpy."
Pretti is the second U.S. citizen killed in Minneapolis this month, following the death of Renee Macklin Good.
Lawrence, 39, said everyone should have to abide by U.S. immigration law – even his own family. His mother is from England, and he says that after Sept. 11, 2001, she failed to keep her immigration paperwork up to date and was deported back across the Atlantic.
"Paperwork's important," Lawrence said. "That's why we have it."
Jennifer Barrow, 43, is a hairdresser who lives about a half-hour away in the town of Easton. She also backs the president's immigration crackdown and says she's less focused on the safety of activists and more concerned about immigrants committing violent crime.
"I have a 12-year-old daughter, and if I were to happen to witness my daughter being raped by an illegal immigrant that has committed crimes over and over and again and not being deported … that's not OK," Barrow said.
She said she doesn't know the number of violent crimes undocumented immigrants commit in the U.S., but said she often hears stories about them raping and murdering women and children.
There have been heavily publicized cases of immigrants committing violent crime. In 2024, for example, an undocumented Venezuelan man killed Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student. However, research shows undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S.-born citizens.
While a lot of people in Denton had seen many videos of federal agents shooting Pretti, many said they hadn't and didn't know much about it. Destiny O'Neal, 25, who works as a manager at a restaurant in town, said she'd heard about Good's killing but didn't know about Pretti's.
She said she gets a lot of her information from social media and the resulting algorithms don't deliver much news.
"I like cosmetics, beauty stuff, Tubi movies and stuff like that," she said. "I go to my phone to escape my world."
A block down the street from the restaurant, Jeff Wright was busy chipping ice off the sidewalk from a snowstorm that struck on Sunday. Wright, a 73-year-old retired real estate broker, thinks both Pretti and the Customs and Border Protection agents made mistakes.
"He shouldn't have been carrying a gun in that situation, even though he has a permit to do so," said Wright, who added that the agents had "probably overreacted."
"Did I want him to see him get killed?" Wright said, "No!"
Pretti was an intensive care nurse who worked at a VA hospital. He had a concealed carry permit, but there's no evidence he ever drew his weapon.
Soon after the shooting, Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, called Pretti a "would-be assassin." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called him a "domestic terrorist."
Wright said that bothered him a bit and that the officials should've done more research and probably spoke too soon.
As to why they made such claims, Wright said, "They're doing what their base wants to hear."
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