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CREDO Staetment on KXL and DAPL Executive Orders
WASHINGTON
CREDO released the statement below in response to reports that Pres. Trump plans to sign executive orders to advance construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines:
"President Trump is showing that he's in the pocket of big corporations and foreign oil interests," said CREDO Deputy Political Director Josh Nelson. "Approving these dirty oil pipelines would poison American air and water, supercharge climate change and trample Native American rights," Nelson continued. "Fierce grassroots activism has stopped these pipelines over and over again," he added. "CREDO will do everything in its power to stop the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, and keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground where they belong."
CREDO has played a major role in the fights against the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. CREDO's work against the Keystone XL pipeline includes:
97,000 ACTIVISTS SIGNED THE KEYSTONE XL PLEDGE OF RESISTANCE: During the Obama administration, more than 97,000 people signed the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, committing to risk arrest in peaceful, dignified civil disobedience, if needed to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. As part of the Pledge of Resistance, thousands of activists have been trained to lead or participate in direct actions where they would risk arrest.
MORE THAN 4 MILLION PETITION SIGNATURES: CREDO Activists generated more than 4.3 million petition signatures in opposition to Keystone XL.
MORE THAN 500,000 PUBLIC COMMENTS: CREDO activists submitted 511,000 public comments to President Obama's state department in opposition to Keystone XL.
MORE THAN 40,000 PHONE CALLS IN OPPOSITION TO KEYSTONE XL: CREDO Activists made 42,804 phone calls to the White House, the State Department, the EPA, Members of Congress and others in opposition to Keystone XL.
283 PROTEST VIGILS ATTENDED BY MORE THAN 10,000 ACTIVISTS: Just 72 hours after the release of the State Department's final environmental impact statement, CREDO organized 283 protest vigils in 49 states, with more than 10,000 total participants. It was the biggest, rapid-response, on-the-ground demonstration of Obama's presidency to date.
CREDO's work against the Dakota Access pipeline includes:
400,000+ PETITION OBAMA TO REJECT PIPELINE: More than 418,000 CREDO members signed CREDO's petition demanding that President Obama intervene and stop the Dakota Access pipeline. Specifically, the petition calls on the president to "direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permits under 'Nationwide Permit 12' and stop the Dakota Access pipeline once and for all." The full petition can be found here:https://act.credoaction.com/sign/NoDAPL/
NEARLY 3,000 #NoDAPL CALLS TO THE WHITE HOUSE: CREDO members made more than 2,800 calls to the White House urging President Obama to stop the Dakota Access pipeline. View the current number of calls and call script here:https://act.credoaction.com/call/call_obama_dapl/
180,000+ PETITION OBAMA AND GOV. DALRYMPLE TO UPHOLD FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS: More than 189,000 CREDO members signed a petition urging Pres. Obama and North Dakota Gov. Dalrymple to "uphold the rights of Native Americans and their allies to peacefully resist the Dakota Access pipeline without threat of violence." The full petition can be found here:https://act.credoaction.com/sign/dapl_assault/
CREDO Action, part of CREDO Mobile, is a social change network of over five million activists, sending tens of millions of petition signatures and hundreds of thousands of phone calls to decision-makers each year. CREDO Action members also participate in meetings, protests and other direct action for progressive change.
LATEST NEWS
One of the Few House Democrats Who Voted With Republicans to Fund DHS Says 'I Failed'
"I hear the anger from many of my constituents, and I take responsibility for that," said Rep. Tom Suozzi.
Jan 26, 2026
One of the seven Democrats who voted with nearly all Republicans in the House of Representatives to pass a multibillion-dollar Department of Homeland Security funding bill last week expressed remorse after DHS killed another US citizen in Minnesota.
"I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis," Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) said Monday, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has conducted President Donald Trump's mass deportation operations alongside Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
"I hear the anger from many of my constituents, and I take responsibility for that. I have long been critical of ICE's unlawful behavior, and I must do a better job demonstrating that," Suozzi continued.
"The senseless and tragic murder of Alex Pretti underscores what happens when untrained federal agents operate without accountability," the congressman added. "President Trump must immediately end 'Operation Metro Surge' and ICE's occupation of Minneapolis that has sown chaos, led to tragedy, and undermined experienced local law enforcement."
"IT'S WORKING: Keep the pressure on both Republicans and Democrats."
Since CBP fatally shot Pretti, a legal observer and nurse, on Saturday, pressure has mounted for the Senate to reject the funding bill—part of a larger package Congress is trying to pass to prevent a government shutdown at the end of the month.
Suozzi sent the "stunning" statement in an email to his campaign list, according to New York Times reporter Michael Gold, who shared a screenshot on social media, where the congressman's comments were met with mixed reactions.
Yuh-Line Niou, a former Democratic New York state legislator, said: "Too little too late. Voting with Republicans is his specialty, and this is something his constituents should not forget this election."
Suozzi represents New York's 3rd Congressional District on Long Island and does not have a primary challenger for the June election.
Noting that "Long Island was a major site for immigration backlash" under former President Joe Biden, "when asylum-seekers were overwhelming NYC area services," Vox editor Benjy Sarlin said Monday that "politics clearly shifting there."
Gun violence prevention activist Shannon Watts declared, "IT'S WORKING: Keep the pressure on both Republicans and Democrats."
The account Dear White Staffers, known for calling out bad behavior on Capitol Hill, urged, "Keep yelling at your representatives!"
Human Rights Campaign national press secretary Brandon Wolf predicted that "he'll have a chance to prove his contrition when the Senate sends the bill back and the House has to vote on it again."
As Bloomberg reporter Jonathan put it, "even the centrist Dems are gone on ICE," with senators who voted to end the fall shutdown "now refusing to fund DHS" while House Democrats who just voted for the department funding bill issue a range of statements, including some calling for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The other six Democrats who voted for the DHS bill last Thursday are Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (NC), Laura Gillen (NY), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.).
After Pretti's killing on Saturday, Davis shared his condolences on social media and said in part that "our immigration laws can and must be enforced with respect for life and dignity. A thorough, independent investigation into this fatal shooting is essential to uncover the full facts and to ensure accountability can be determined. The Trump administration must take immediate and decisive action to bring an end to this violence and disorder that have taken lives and undermined public trust."
Climate activist and former Democratic National Committee member RL Miller responded, "If only you were in a position to exercise some accountability over this rogue agency, say, for example, by voting on its budget."
Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein similarly called out Gillen and Gluesenkamp Perez; the former argued that Noem "must be impeached immediately" that while the latter said that she "needs to step down."
Klippenstein also took aim at Gonzalez, who on Saturday advocated for "an independent and thorough investigation into today’s murder of yet another US citizen," while also trying to justify his vote for a bill that would give billions of dollars to ICE and CBP.
"I continue to strongly oppose ICE's illegal operations in South Texas and around the country," Gonzalez said, framing his vote as one in favor of funding the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Coast Guard ahead of the winter storm that hit many states, including his, over the weekend. He doubled down on his position in a Monday video shared on social media.
Fellow Texan Cuellar, who is known for voting with Republicans and was infamously pardoned by Trump last month, and Golden, who is not seeking reelection this year, have both described Pretti's death "tragic" and urged independent investigations, without expressing any remorse about their votes last week.
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Lifelong Gun Owner Graham Platner Fumes Over 2nd Amendment Hypocrisy of GOP After Pretti ‘Murder’
"This makes me shake with rage," said the Democratic US Senate candidate.
Jan 26, 2026
Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner on Monday called out Republicans who have long purported to support the right to carry firearms over their excuses for federal immigration agents gunning down Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti over the weekend.
In a video posted on social media, the Maine senatorial hopeful declared that on Saturday, "all of us witnessed, from multiple angles, federal agents murder Alex Pretti."
Platner then described his horror at watching "ghouls" in the Trump administration "tell us that what we saw with our own eyes is not what we saw."
I've been a gun owner my entire adult life.
The leaders of a political party that claims to care about the Second Amendment say that because Alex Pretti was carrying a firearm at a protest, he deserved to be executed. pic.twitter.com/Wd1aT2m2XY
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) January 26, 2026
Platner singled out statements by administration officials saying that Pretti, a nurse who worked at a hospital run by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), put himself in danger because he brought a loaded firearm with him while working as a legal observer of federal immigration officials conducting operations in his community.
"I have been a gun owner my entire life," Platner said. "I shoot competitively, I carry on occasion, because it is my right as an American and my right as a Mainer. And to watch people in a party that for years has screamed about protecting the Second Amendment, to turn around and say that because this man had a holstered legal firearm, he deserved to be murdered by federal agents, is the height of hypocrisy!"
Platner then took a breath and said that the Trump administration's attempts to smear Pretti after he had been killed made him "incredibly angry."
"This is an ICU nurse at the VA who has dedicated his life to helping veterans and helping his community," he said. "And then he is killed protecting his neighbors, protecting people in his community. Murdered, shot down by the state, executed in the street. This makes me shake with rage."
Multiple Democratic lawmakers have expressed outrage since Pretti's killing on Sunday, and several Democrats, including some who represent swing districts, have called for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in response.
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Architect of DHS Calls Out the Agency's 'Lawlessness, Fascism, and Cruelty'
John Mitnick, a conservative attorney who helped build the Department of Homeland Security and served as its general counsel during Trump's first term, says the agency has become a monster.
Jan 26, 2026
One of the architects of the Department of Homeland Security says the agency he helped create has turned into a monster.
Following this weekend's fatal shooting of 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis, the second this month, John Mitnick—a conservative lawyer who served under both Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump—took to social media to express his fury at the agency's conduct.
"I helped to establish DHS in 2002 and 2003 and later had the Homeland Security portfolio as a White House counsel and served as general counsel of the department," said Mitnick on Saturday. "I am enraged and embarrassed by DHS’s lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty. Impeach and remove Trump—now."
Mitnick, a former Republican candidate for Congress, served as an associate general counsel for science and technology at DHS from 2002-04, during the agency's infancy. An agency webpage credits him as someone who "assisted in establishing the department as an attorney in the Transition Planning Office."
After the Bush presidency, Mitnick served in a number of private-sector roles, including as senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary at the Heritage Foundation—the influential right-wing think tank that would go on to author much of the second Trump administration's agenda.
He returned to DHS in 2018, when he was confirmed by the US Senate as general counsel to the department under Trump. The New York Times explained that "part of Mr. Mitnick’s job as general counsel was to push back against policies that could put the Homeland Security Department in a legally dubious position."
In an ominous precursor to Trump 2.0, Mitnick was forced out of his role as DHS counsel in 2019 after pushing back against a policy to release detained migrants into Democratic-led sanctuary cities as part of a political stunt, as opposed to border towns.
That policy was spearheaded by none other than Stephen Miller, who was then serving as a senior adviser to Trump, who has become arguably the most powerful single figure in his second White House and the brains behind his "mass deportation" agenda.
Multiple White House sources described Miller as the driving force behind Mitnick's ouster as part of a larger "purge" of officials who refused to cosign orders they felt were legally questionable.
In contrast with other officials who have stated that they regret their involvement in creating DHS, believing it paved the way for Trump's authoritarianism, Mitnick contested on Saturday that "the name [of the agency] is not responsible for the conduct."
"Laws do not apply themselves; it takes officials of integrity and good character devoted to the rule of law to apply them," he said. "Current DHS leadership is devoid of those qualities."
Within hours of Pretti's shooting—just as they did following the shooting of 37-year-old mother Renee Good weeks ago—White House officials raced to absolve the agents involved of any wrongdoing while casting the victim as a dangerous terrorist threat, even as video evidence directly contradicted their claims.
Miller specifically described Pretti as a "would-be assassin" who sought to kill agents despite zero evidence of this being the case, other than the fact that he was legally carrying a handgun, while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem baselessly described his actions as “domestic terrorism," prompting calls for her impeachment.
In the Guardian, columnist George Chidi described it as part of "a pattern... emerging, in which the Trump administration prioritizes the vilification of the dead victim as to blame for the incident over preserving the neutrality of any investigative process."
Polls show that the American public has rapidly grown hostile to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the wake of its rampage across Minnesota, which—in addition to the extrajudicial killings of two US citizens—has involved cases of explicit racial profiling, unconstitutional "citizenship checks," and extreme uses of force against protesters, legal observers, and detainees.
A YouGov poll published Sunday found that just 20% of American adults found Pretti's shooting to be justified. That same poll found that a record high 46% of Americans now want to abolish ICE, compared with just 41% who want to maintain it. This includes 19% of Republicans, a higher percentage than ever recorded during Trump's second term.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said that if ICE's conduct has so disturbed even a lifelong conservative functionary like Mitnick, it's a sign of how far the agency has truly gone.
"Beyond helping establish DHS itself in 2003, Mr. Mitnick was a Senate-confirmed Trump choice for general counsel for DHS in his first term, and is not a man for hyperbole," Reichlin-Melnick said. "So bear that in mind when you see him calling out DHS's 'lawlessness, fascism, and cruelty.'"
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