Revealed: VA launched internal probe of workers who attended Alex Pretti vigil

After 37-year-old Alex Pretti — an intensive care nurse for the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) — was fatally shot by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Minneapolis on January 24, protests were held not only in that city, but in many other U.S. cities as well. One of them was Augusta, Georgia, where VA recreational therapist Becky Halioua was among the demonstrators.

Now, CNN's Brian Todd is reporting that Halioua was the subject of a VA internal investigation because of her involvement in those protests.

"Her supervisor informed her that an internal probe had been launched into whether she violated agency rules regarding employee interviews with the news media — a probe that could result in disciplinary action," Todd explains in an article published on May 5. "Halioua is not alone, several sources familiar with the matter told CNN. At least three other VA employees have been investigated for their interactions with the press, including at least one other related to Alex Pretti, according to one of the sources."

Todd adds, "As part of her investigation, Halioua says investigators e-mailed her photos of herself at the vigil from news coverage, which also included a brief interaction with a local newspaper. Someone had drawn a line around her image in some photographs, labeled with her name."

Halioua told CNN, "It really gave me an uneasy feeling," adding that seeing her face circled in photos of protests seemed "very stalker-like."

Pretti's death followed the fatal shooting of another Minneapolis resident, Renée Good, by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (ICE) agents on January 7.

"In the case of the VA workers," Todd notes, "the interviews touched on an issue that sparked a national discussion. Pretti's killing, along with that of another protester, Renee Good, became political flashpoints in debates over immigration enforcement and free speech following a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Minneapolis in January. Within hours of their deaths, officials from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, claimed, without evidence, that Pretti and Good were domestic terrorists, sparking outrage. Protests and vigils, like the one Halioua attended, popped up across the country."

The union National Nurses United, which helped organize the vigil for Pretti that Halioua attended, told CNN, "It is despicable and immoral to come after any federal employee who participates in a vigil for a fellow worker."

Halioua described the probe of her as a "scare tactic," telling CNN, "I think that it is a method really to silence the employees with the loudest voices."