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Former college basketball coach Bruce Pearl tore into Democrats Monday after a Border Patrol-involved shooting left one man dead in Minnesota over the weekend.
Pearl appeared on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich” and said he places some of the blame on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the rest of Democrats who turned up the heat while federal officials enforced U.S. immigration laws.
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Protesters hold signs during a demonstration in response to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis earlier in the day Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
“It’s just terrible. It’s awful. I feel so bad for… You know, these deaths obviously weren’t necessary,” Pearl said. “Both sides need to give in a little bit in this situation because, right now, it’s extremely toxic. I certainly blame Governor Walz for the way he handled the situation. Would you go back in time and look at how Minneapolis burned George Floyd and connect that to lawlessness? That doesn’t make what happened to George Floyd right. It doesn’t make what happened to those other two people that were killed right.
“But haven’t they been called to the streets? And haven’t they been encouraged and motivated by Democratic lawmakers to ‘stand up’ and ‘get out your cell phones’ and they plan to treat ICE and law enforcement like Nazis. Equating Anne Frank and her death to any other death that is happening is simply wrong. It is fundamentally wrong. This is our government. President Trump was elected to enforce these laws on immigration and they left behind millions and billions and billions of people there were illegal immigrants and it was terribly unfortunate.”
Walz on Sunday compared federal immigration measures in Minnesota to the Holocaust and Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” following the shooting death of Alex J. Pretti in Minneapolis. Federal officials initially said Pretti was armed and resisted officers, while local accounts indicate Pretti was disarmed before being shot.
People participate in an anti-ICE rally Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jack Brook)
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Walz said some children in Minnesota now feel fear or uncertainty about going outside because of the federal operations.
Pearl said lawmakers in Congress should start coming together to fix the U.S. immigration system.
“You’re an immigrant, I’m an immigrant. I’m all for legal immigration. I’m all for people who came here, worked hard and assimilated – we need to fix our immigration problem. Once again, Congress let go and do the right thing. Because you didn’t do the right thing, you didn’t fix our immigration laws, we’re in this situation right now. Because, politically, you don’t know what to do, how about you just do the right thing because you’re American?”
Overall, Pearl said, the temperature needs to drop.
The incident in Minnesota sparked many reactions in the sports world. A game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors was postponed and played later on Sunday.
A man, center, next to a Minneapolis police officer, grabs a protester at the door during a noisy demonstration in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in the city Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
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NBA fans protested Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) inside and outside the arena.
