Texas GOP leaders, including Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, talk about ICE after killing of Alex Pretti

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Governor Greg Abbott has been vocal about defending the Texas border from illegal crossings and undocumented immigrants. The National Border Patrol Council has endorsed his campaign for a third term.

But on The Mark Davis Show on 660 AM The Answer in Dallas/Ft. Worth, Abbott spoke about the need for the White House to rethink its approach in Minneapolis after three shootings in a month, two of them fatal.

"In general, we need to have respect for law enforcement officers in the country," Abbott said. "ICE, they are law enforcement officers, and so that they -- being the White House -- need to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that that respect is going to be re-instilled, and that's not an easy task, especially under the current circumstances."

He is not alone in his critical assessment. Senator Ted Cruz also spoke about the government's response immediately after the latest shooting, which left intensive care nurse Alex Pretti dead after federal officers fired ten shots at him in the middle of the street.

"Immediately, when an incident like this happens," Cruz said on his podcast, "they come out guns blazing [saying] 'we took out a violent terrorist, hooray'...escalating the rhetoric doesn't help, and it actually loses credibility."

Republicans in Congress want answers from ICE. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said he has asked leaders from heads of ICE, CBP, and USCIS to testify.

Abbott said the White House will shift its approach.

"But I know that they're working on a game plan to make sure that they are going to, let's say, recalibrate," Abbott said during the radio interview, "and maybe work from a different direction, to ensure that they get back to what they wanted to do to begin with. And that is to remove people from the country who are here illegally... and go about their job in a more structured way, to make sure that they are going to be able to remove these people without causing all the kinds of problems and fighting in communities that they are experiencing right now."

Also on Tuesday, another prominent Texas Republican who authored the state's concealed carry law wrote an opinion piece critical of ICE and the administration. Jerry Patterson is the former Texas Land Commissioner, and as a State Senator, he authored SB60 in 1995, the state's concealed handgun law. He's pro-Second Amendment and says he doesn't like the rhetoric he hears from Washington.

"This is not America. This is not liberty," he told ABC13. "It's particularly egregious, you know, in light of where you normally find these kinds of activities and liberty violations, and that's places like Iran, you know, China, Russia. That's what goes on there. But now it's going on here. And it's pretty damn scary."

He's talking about ICE and the actions of federal officers on the streets of Minneapolis. Over the weekend, Alex Pretti, who was a licensed gun owner with a concealed carry permit, was shot and killed. In a video of the moments before the shooting, one of the federal officers appears to remove a gun from Pretti's waist that seems to match the handgun federal officials said he was carrying.

Patterson wrote an opinion piece published in newspapers across Texas, titled, "I carry a handgun, am I a domestic terrorist?" He asked, "If I brandish my handgun in the presence of a peace officer, I expect to get shot. If it remains untouched in my holster, I don't expect to get shot. Until Saturday in Minneapolis, that was a pretty simple concept. What happened?"

Patterson also wrote in his editorial, "ICE is needed, but not this ICE. This ICE and its leadership need to go -- now."

As for Governor Abbott and Senator Cruz, Patterson says he thinks they, and others, could go further in their questioning of the administration.

"They're triangulating," Patterson said. "...It's timidity. Okay, what can I...going through this thought process, what can I say? What can I say that lends a little credence to maybe ICE has screwed this up, but without jeopardizing myself in the next primary?"

Patterson said he has no primary to worry about, so maybe that's why he's speaking his mind. He also said he just wants those in charge to be honest with the American public.

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