Issue spotlight: North Dakota’s US House candidates reflect on immigration policy

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) — North Dakota U.S. House candidates agree the southern border is more secure under President Donald Trump’s second term, but differ in reaction to two immigration enforcement-related killings in Minneapolis and the types of warrants needed to enter homes.

Republican U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak said border security was one of the top issues during the 2024 election.

“It was something I campaigned on,” Fedorchak said. “I would give us an ‘A’ on our work so far. We have basically shut the border down. Turns out, we didn’t need new laws.”

She said for the past year there have been “basically zero” immigrants without legal status crossing the southern border and being released into the country. According to Pew Research, there were about 238,000 encounters between migrants and federal immigration enforcement agents at the southern border in fiscal year 2025 – down from 1.5 million the year before and the lowest total since 1970.

Fedorchak said the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis were tragedies, but said she felt it wouldn’t be appropriate to pass judgment or weigh in on the matter until the investigations into the shootings are complete.

Making changes to leadership and policies in the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol after the shootings was the correct approach to “bring down the temperature,” she said.

Fedorchak said immigrants without legal status have due process rights through the nation’s immigration court system. She added she doesn’t think immigrants are being held indefinitely at detention facilities.

“I don’t know of those cases happening,” she said.

Fedorchak said her strong preference is that law enforcement should not be masked while conducting operations. But she said masks are appropriate when agents and their families are being threatened.

In some cases, immigration authorities have been using administrative warrants, signed by DHS officials, to detain immigrants without legal status, including entering private residences to make apprehensions. Democrats and other immigrant activists have said judicial warrants, signed by a judge, should be required in cases involving entering homes and vehicles.

Fedorchak said she’d have to look into the differences between judicial and administrative warrants used by immigration agents, but she believes DHS is following applicable immigration laws when conducting those operations.

Killings in Minnesota brought on by activist rhetoric, Balazs says

Republican U.S. House candidate Alex Balazs said he believes deportations involving immigrants without legal status is going well during President Trump’s second term and wants them to continue. He added the administration should also promote the benefits of immigrants self-deporting to retain the ability to reenter the country legally.

He said the Trump campaign pledge to only deport violent immigrant criminals was misconstrued.

“I don’t think there was ever a promise to not go after illegal immigrants just because they didn’t do anything,” Balazs said. “They’ve already committed a crime.”

Balazs said the justification of the Good and Pretti killings is a legal matter.

“Those shootings were caused by officials that didn’t allow ICE to do their jobs,” he said. “Someone fomented that and talked to those people and got them so riled up and pushed them in front. And, those agitators cost good people to get in front of police officers, or drive a car, or fight with somebody, and then they got shot.”

Balazs said the killings were sad, but added the situation was “bound to happen” if people continue to fall prey to rhetoric that makes protesters stand in front of law enforcement conducting legal operations.

Many of the confrontations could have been avoided if local and state officials cooperated with federal immigration operations, Balazs said.

Immigrants being held at detention centers inside the U.S. needs to continue, Balazs said.

“Sadly, they’re going to have to have their three hot meals and a cot until they get processed,” he said.

Balazs said federal immigration agents should be allowed to wear masks in the U.S. because people are “doxxing” those agents and targeting their family members.

“In a perfect world, I’d like to have all law enforcement where you can see their faces and you can see their IDs,” he said.

Administrative warrants, signed by the Department of Homeland Security, are sufficient to detain an immigrant without legal status, Balazs said, but entering the home of a U.S. citizen should require a judicial warrant signed by a judge.

Hammer advocates for more humane enforcement

Democratic-NPL U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer praised the Trump administration’s border security during his second term in office, but blasted the way deportations and immigration enforcement operations are being conducted.

“They are all human beings, and I have no problem with enforcement as long as it treats everybody like a human being,” he said.

Hammer said the lack of training for new immigration enforcement agents is apparent in videos from operations over the past year.

The shootings of Good and Pretti were not justified, he said.

“Both situations were not handled in any kind of professional manner,” Hammer said. “It’s clear from the videos.”

The aggressive posture of masked law enforcement evokes a certain response compared to a deescalating, calming effect of an identifiable law enforcement presence, he said.

Hammer said undercover officers may need to wear masks to protect their identities, but enforcing immigration law is not one of those exceptions.

He also cited the killings of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, last June by a masked man impersonating a police officer as an example of why people could become cautious and anxious around masked law enforcement.

“When I see someone show up at my front door, it’s not safe for me to assume they are law enforcement when we’ve seen that now,” he said.

Hammer said immigrants without legal status should be deported, even if they have no criminal convictions, but that they should also be allowed to reenter the country legally.

Due process for immigrants without legal status through the immigration court system has been hampered by a reduction in judges, he said. Last summer, the Trump administration fired or accepted deferred resignations of about 100 immigration judges and replaced them with military lawyers, according to The Associated Press.

Hammer said he thinks administrative immigration warrants are insufficient to enter people’s homes, and instead law enforcement should produce a warrant signed by a judge.

“In the Constitution, the due process is to all persons, not to all citizens, it’s to all persons,” he said. “If that can be violated for ‘a person,’ it can be violated for any one of us.”

North Dakota Monitor reporter Michael Achterling can be reached at machterling@northdakotamonitor.com.