Gisele Barreto Fetterman, the wife of U.S. Senator John Fetterman, has seemingly diverged from her husband’s political views regarding the actions of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the second Trump administration in Minneapolis.
On Monday, the Pennsylvania senator issued a statement saying that he was grieving the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renée Good after being fatally shot by ICE officers in Minneapolis. He further stated that the “operation in Minneapolis should stand down and immediately end.”
The same day, his wife, Gisele, a Brazilian immigrant wrote, “For more than a decade, I lived undocumented in the US. Every day carried the same uncertainty and fear lived in my body – a tight chest, shallow breaths, racing heart. What I though was my private, chronic dread has now become a shared national wound. This now-daily violence is not ‘law and order.’ It is terror inflicted on people who contribute, love, and build their lives here. It’s devastatingly cruel and unAmerican 💔.”
The Pennsylvania Senator’s wife’s X account has almost 180,000 followers but her account has been made private and is largely inactive. Her post on Monday marks her first in over a year.
In his statement, Fetterman stood apart from fellow members of the Democratic party by stating that he would be supporting a bill funding ICE in order to avoid another government shutdown. Other Democratic Senators have stated that they will block funding for ICE that would prevent another shutdown.
All seven House Democrats from Pennsylvania voted against the Department of Homeland Security funding bill that passed last week. Fetterman has previously stood out as one of the few Democrats to defend ICE. He has also criticized calls to “abolish ICE” on social media as “extreme” and said that they must “Secure the border,” and “Deport all the criminals.
Even Mayor Frey of Minneapolis doesn’t support abolishing ICE.
The party must resist the destructive tendencies to push extreme positions.
Secure the border.
Deport all the criminals.
Stop targeting the hardworking migrants in our nation. pic.twitter.com/QbLyEGBtJ2
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) January 15, 2026
Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse and U.S. citizen, who was shot and killed by U.S. Border Patrol agents during a federal immigration enforcement operation in south Minneapolis. Video of the incident appears to show Pretti standing between an agent and a woman the agent pushed to the ground before he is pepper sprayed, wrestled to the ground by six officers, and shot.
Pretti’s death is part of a string of federal agent-involved shootings in the Minneapolis area in January 2026 that have thrust immigration enforcement into the center of national debate. Earlier in the month, ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot 37-year-old Renée Good during a separate Minneapolis operation.
