The fight over federal immigration enforcement has now crossed into territory that should alarm anyone who still believes facts matter in public debate. On Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, one of the most senior Democrats in the U.S. Senate, displayed an AI-generated image on the Senate floor that he claimed depicted the “last second” before Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. The problem is not subtle or debatable: the image is fake.
Durbin acknowledged the image was “graphic” and said its use was “necessary,” yet the picture itself bears all the hallmarks of artificial intelligence fabrication. A Customs and Border Protection officer is shown standing behind Pretti with a gun to the back of his head, another officer kneels nearby, and basic visual elements are grotesquely distorted.
One officer appears to be missing his head entirely. Proportions are warped, details melt into one another, and the positioning of the officers does not match any known video or eyewitness account of the actual incident. This is not a disputed photograph or a controversial frame of video. It is an invented scene.
I am on the Senate floor to condemn the killing of U.S. citizens at the hands of federal immigration officers and to demand the Trump Administration take accountability for its actions. https://t.co/kd9HXi1rQN
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) January 28, 2026
Durbin physically placed the image on a stand during his speech, a choice that required staff involvement, printing, and preparation. The idea that no one in that process recognized the image as artificial strains credulity. This was not a low-quality mistake buried in a social media feed.
It was elevated onto the Senate floor and presented as emotional evidence at a moment of national tension. Whether through recklessness or intent, the effect is the same: the public was shown a fictional execution-style image and encouraged to believe it represented reality.
That matters because there is already an active investigation into Pretti’s death, including body-camera footage under review. Introducing fabricated imagery at this stage does not advance truth, accountability, or justice. It contaminates the information environment and hardens narratives before facts are established. The parallel to the long-debunked “hands up, don’t shoot” claim is unavoidable. Once a false image or slogan embeds itself emotionally, corrections rarely catch up.
I can’t believe it, but it’s real. @SenatorDurbin actually used the fake AI image from Minnesota on the Senate floor. Did no one notice the alleged ICE officer is missing a head?! pic.twitter.com/6aTo9FwPSy
— Eric Teetsel (@EricTeetsel) January 29, 2026
Even those who are deeply critical of immigration enforcement tactics should be able to agree on one baseline principle: U.S. senators should not be manufacturing or amplifying fake depictions of lethal force to sway public opinion. Doing so undermines legitimate scrutiny and fuels unrest. If the facts are sufficient to condemn wrongdoing, they do not need to be supplemented with digital fiction.
