Even Republicans can see that there’s nothing normal about how the Trump administration has handled Alex Pretti’s killing.Republican Senator Rand Paul took to social media Tuesday to highlight ICE and CBP’s long leash Tuesday, pointing out on X that no other law enforcement agency would permit offending officers to walk free after an extrajudicial killing.“Local police routinely put officers involved in deadly shootings on administrative leave until an independent investigation is concluded,” Paul wrote. “That should happen immediately.” He further scolded the Department of Homeland Security for its attempts to write off Pretti as a violent criminal, arguing that the agency had failed to accomplish the bare minimum to calm the tensions boiling among the American public.“I can’t recall ever hearing a police chief immediately describing the victim as a ‘domestic terrorist’ or a ‘would-be assassin,’” Paul continued. “For calm to be restored, an independent investigation is the least that should be done.”Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked in Veterans Affairs, was slain Saturday while he protested the death of another U.S. citizen, Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by agents weeks earlier. Pretti was assisting a woman who had been shoved by a masked officer, when he was grappled by several agents and thrown to the ground. At least seven agents held him down or knelt on his back, and another agent drew his gun and shot Pretti. Widely circulated video of the incident that was filmed from multiple angles captured audio of 10 gunshots ringing out within five seconds.In the immediate aftermath of Pretti’s death, top Homeland Security officials attempted to induce national amnesia, retroactively labeling him a domestic terrorist while insisting that he had “approached officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun,” forcing officers to fire “defensive shots.” They also blamed Pretti for lawfully owning a gun, suggesting that his death was justified since he had a weapon on him.Pretti’s and Good’s needless deaths—and their dystopian handling by Trump officials—have made conservatives and their longtime donors recoil from Donald Trump’s immigration agenda for the first time since he returned to office. Wary of public backlash, Republicans are attempting to remap their routes toward midterm elections, steering clear of the polarizing subject. The National Rifle Association, meanwhile, made an unexpected strike against the administration when it tore into Customs and Border Protection commander Greg Bovino for suggesting that Second Amendment rights “don’t count” for protesters.By Monday, it appeared that Trump was finally grasping the need to overhaul the administration’s messaging. He announced that border czar Tom Homan would seize control of ICE and CBP operations in Minneapolis, effectively ousting Bovino in the process.But not everybody had caught wind of the makeover: DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin still wasn’t willing to backtrack on the department’s smear campaign against Pretti during an interview with Fox News Tuesday, sidestepping questions by the network as to whether DHS still deemed the nurse to be a “domestic terrorist.”