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For Immediate Release
September, 07 2023, 03:21pm EDT
Contact:
David Vance,,dvance@commoncause.org
Senate Finally Confirms 5th FCC Commissioner After Vacancy of More Than 2.5 Years
Today, the U.S. Senate confirmed Anna Gomez to the Federal Communications Commission in a bipartisan 55-43 vote. Commissioner Gomez fills a slot at the agency which has been vacant since President Biden took office in January of 2021. The vacancy had often left the commission deadlocked 2-2 on critical matters, and her confirmation will allow the agency to move forward.
Statement of Ishan Mehta, Common Cause Director for Media and Democracy
With the confirmation of Anna Gomez to the FCC, the agency can now move forward to advance reforms that will benefit every American household – including providing robust and affordable connectivity that has become crucial to participating in our democracy and society. The confirmation of Commissioner Gomez breaks more than two and a half years of gridlock that has hobbled the FCC while Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats refused to confirm Gigi Sohn, the previous nominee.
With a full complement of commissioners, the FCC should quickly move to address issues that impact every one of us. With the commission deadlock broken, the FCC must rapidly move forward on addressing net neutrality, broadband connectivity, and media ownership concentration.
A free and open media is essential to democracy, and the FCC can once again hold media accountable to their public interest obligations.
Today’s confirmation of Anna Gomez is a win for American households from coast to coast that will see an FCC looking after their interests instead of corporate interests.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
(202) 833-1200LATEST NEWS
Bondi Demands Walz Turn Over Minnesota Voter Rolls to 'Restore Rule of Law' to State
"This is blackmail. This is the way organized crime works."
Jan 25, 2026
As Minnesota residents and people across the US were reeling from the killing of protester Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents on Saturday—the second fatal shooting by federal immigration agents in the city in less than three weeks—US Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Governor Tim Walz, telling him it is in his power to "restore the rule of law" in his state.
One suggestion the attorney general gave amounted to a "shakedown," said US Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), and had nothing to do with the Trump administration's persistent claims that immigrants have caused a crisis in Minnesota. Bondi demanded the Democratic governor turn over voter rolls for the state, as she has called on all 50 states and Washington, DC to do, prompting legal challenges from voting rights groups and voters.
Bondi wrote that Walz must allow the Department of Justice (DOJ) to access voter rolls to "confirm that Minnesota's voter registration practices comply with federal law."
"Fulfilling this commonsense request will better guarantee free and fair elections and boost confidence in the rule of law," she wrote.
Gallego accused the DOJ of "using fear to get their hands on voter information."
The Trump administration filed a federal lawsuit last September against Minnesota and several other Democrat-governed states to demand personal information for all voters, including driver's license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
Considering President Donald Trump's persistent, debunked claims of so-called "voter fraud" in the 2020 election, including the baseless claim that noncitizens are permitted by Democratic governors to vote in federal elections, advocates have said the DOJ's demands for voter rolls are aimed at further spreading lies and misinformation.
In the letter, Bondi also denounced Minnesota officials for speaking out against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the wake of an ICE agent's fatal shooting of Renee Good earlier this month, saying a "national tragedy" has resulted from the "anti-law enforcement rhetoric."
The "tragedy" the attorney general was referring to wasn't the killings of Good and Pretti, but a rise in "violence against ICE officers and agents" that the Trump administration has cited frequently. She didn't provide examples of violent attacks in the letter.
She also demanded that Walz turn over records on Medicaid and food assistance programs and "repeal sanctuary policies that have led to so much crime and violence in your state"—also providing no evidence of such a rise. According to data from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Minneapolis Police Department, crime has gone down in recent years.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said Bondi's letter suggested that Minnesota can expect more violence from federal immigration officers unless Walz turns over his constituents' sensitive data.
This isn’t leadership. This is blackmail.
The Department of Justice has now told Minnesota officials that they will remove ICE if they hand over their voter rolls - this is not how the law works. pic.twitter.com/V9udMnJgPn
— Arizona Secretary of State (@AZSecretary) January 25, 2026
"They're not entitled to that data," said Fontes. "This is blackmail. This is the way organized crime works. They move into your neighborhood, they start beating everybody up, and then they extort what they want. This is not how America is supposed to work, and I'm embarrassed that the administration is pushing in this direction."
Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, noted that Bondi's demand came days after the DOJ acknowledged that a group aimed at challenging election results reached out to two Department of Government Efficiency Employees who were working at the Social Security Administration and requested they analyze state voter rolls.
"This is not a coincidence," said D'Arrigo. "Authoritarians crave legitimacy, and manipulated election results can provide that."
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'Please Get the Truth Out,' Alex Pretti's Parents Plead as Trump Officials Baselessly Smear Shooting Victim
"Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump's murdering and cowardly thugs," said Michael and Susan Pretti.
Jan 25, 2026
Michael and Susan Pretti urged the press and the public to counter the Trump administration's baseless claims about their son, Alex Pretti, after he was fatally shot by US Border Patrol agents on a street in Minneapolis and immediately—with no evidence—declared a "domestic terrorist" by top White House officials.
Pretti's parents expressed heartbreak as well as anger over their son's killing, which no federal officials contacted the family about, leaving them to learn he had been fatally shot from an Associated Press reporter who reached out to them.
"Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital," said the Pretti family. "Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact."
They emphasized that Pretti acted as a "hero" in his final moments, moving to help a woman who had just been forcefully pushed to the ground by a federal agent.
"His last thought and act was to protect a woman," they said before directly disputing claims by officials including White House Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who have made claims that are contradicted by multiple videos of the shooting.
In addition to labeling Pretti a "domestic terrorist"—a claim likely stemming from a memo signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which claims that acts of domestic terrorism include "impeding" or "doxing" law enforcement officers even though filming federal agents is a constitutional right—officials have claimed he "approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun" and wanted to inflict "maximum damage" on the agents.
Bovino on Saturday refused to answer a direct question about when Pretti approached the officers with a weapon; videos show him holding a phone, not the firearm he was legally permitted to carry in a holster, and approaching the woman who was pushed to the ground. The agents then pushed him to ground and surrounded him before one reached into the fray and took Pretti's gun just before at least one officer fired roughly 10 shots, killing him. Despite the fact that Pretti had just been disarmed and was on the ground, officials have called the shooting "defensive."
"The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting," said Michael and Susan Pretti. "Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by [President Donald] Trump's murdering and cowardly thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed."
"Please get the truth out about our son," the Pretti family concluded. "He was a good man."
Pretti had no criminal record. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology, society, and the environment from University of Minnesota in 2011 and worked as a research scientist before going back to school to become a registered nurse.
Pretti's father added in comments to the AP that his son "was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset," and had exercised his First Amendment right to demonstrate against the Trump administration's mass deportation and detention campaign and an ICE agent's killing of Renee Good earlier this month.
“He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street," said his father. "He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”
After the fatal shooting, the son of a deceased veteran whom Pretti had cared for at the VA hospital posted a video of him reading a "final salute" for his father.
"My father's final words to me were, 'Continue to fight the good fight," wrote the man. "He would be honored in Alex’s sacrifice, and ashamed of this current administration. In my dad's words I encourage you all to continue to ‘fight the good fight.'"
The AP reported that as of Saturday night, Pretti's family still had not heard from federal officials about their son's killing.
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As ‘Loyal Agents of Nazis’ in GOP Murder Citizens, US Is at 'Turning Point,' Advocates Say
"Either the American people are able to wrest power from the current fascist leaders or those leaders will continue to radicalize, using violence and terror to dismantle democracy."
Jan 25, 2026
As hundreds of Minneapolis residents assembled in Whittier Park Saturday evening to demand once again that federal immigration agents leave Minnesota following the second fatal shooting of a legal observer in less than three weeks, one speaker demanded that the gathering must not simply be "another damn vigil."
"This is a turning point," said Edwin Torres DeSantiago of the Immigrant Defense Network.
He spoke to the crowd hours after several federal officers were filmed surrounding Alex Pretti, 37, after he attempted to help a woman one of them had pushed to the ground, and fatally shooting him.
Torres DeSantiago's words were echoed by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, which did not mince words about the agents of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection who have for months roamed the streets of cities including Minneapolis, Chicago, and Los Angeles, arresting immigrants and US citizens and opening fire nearly two dozen times—killing at least six people including Pretti.
The federal agents recruited by the Trump administration with flyers imploring them to choose between their "homeland" and an "invasion," said the Lemkin Institute, "are loyal agents of Nazis and white supremacists within the Republican Party. They are behaving as enemies both of the Constitution and of the American people and they must be treated as such."
"The United States is at a crossroads: Either the American people are able to wrest power from the current fascist leaders or those leaders will continue to radicalize, using violence and terror to dismantle democracy and commit even greater mass atrocities," said the organization. "History is clear about this."
The warning came as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it would be investigating the shooting involving its own officers instead of the FBI. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said DHS representatives had blocked them from accessing the crime scene late Saturday, even though officials had obtained a judicial search warrant.
The bureau joined the Hennepin County Attorney's Office in filing a lawsuit to prevent the "destruction of evidence" by DHS.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, called on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to order the city's police department to "take control of the scene of the latest deadly ICE shooting, launch an independent criminal probe, and protect peaceful protesters at the scene from ICE violence."
"Calling for ICE to leave is not enough. This shooting happened on a city street in the jurisdiction of the Minneapolis law enforcement and they must lead an independent investigation into what appears to be another horrific, unnecessary execution of a Minneapolis resident," said Mitchell. "ICE should immediately end its deadly and disastrous siege of Minnesota and turn over all evidence and information about this shooting and the prior shooting of Renee Good to local authorities."
Meanwhile, Trump administration officials continued pushing a narrative which was contradicted by numerous videos of the shooting and the moments leading up to it, claiming Pretti had "approached" federal agents with a gun. Footage shows Pretti holding only a phone, not a firearm, and one of agents involved in wrestling him to the ground after he was pepper-sprayed reaches into the scuffle empty-handed and then pulls out a gun before the multiple shots were fired.
Third angle of today’s shooting of a 37-year-old male by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, clearly shows one of the agents running away from the scuffle before the shooting carrying the victim's handgun, a Sig P320. pic.twitter.com/97atyCozQP
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) January 24, 2026
Pretti was armed with a gun that he was carrying lawfully and had a permit for, local authorities said.
Despite the video evidence, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem repeated almost verbatim the claim she made earlier this month when an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in another incident that did not match the administration's description in footage taken by bystanders: "Fearing for his life and the lives of his fellow officers around him, an agent fired defensive shots."
Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser and deputy chief of staff, said without any evidence soon after the shooting that Pretti was a "domestic terrorist" who "tried to assassinate federal law enforcement," and Trump called Pretti a "gunman."
The shooting came days after seven Democrats in the US House joined Republicans in passing a funding bill for DHS without securing restrictions on ICE, despite growing national outrage over federal immigration agents' operations and Trump's mass deportation agenda.
The bill still needs to go through the Senate and is one of several funding measures that need to pass by January 30 to keep the government open.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement after Pretti was killed that “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included."
"What's happening in Minnesota is appalling—and unacceptable in any American city," said Schumer. "Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans' refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE."
Democratic senators who had been expected to support the $64.4 billion in DHS funding, which includes $10 billion for ICE, said after the shooting that they would not do so.
"I cannot and will not vote to fund DHS while this administration continues these violent federal takeovers of our cities," said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).
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