2026-05-05 10:00:51 UTC / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：布莱恩·托德
2小时前
发布于 2026年5月5日 美国东部时间6:00
2026年1月28日，贝基·哈卢瓦在佐治亚州奥古斯塔市查理·诺伍德退伍军人事务部医疗中心前为亚历克斯·普雷蒂举行的烛光守夜活动中手持蜡烛。
凯蒂·古德尔/奥古斯塔纪事报/今日美国网络/伊马格通讯社
在明尼阿波利斯的联邦移民官员杀害亚历克斯·普雷蒂后的数天里，退伍军人事务部的同事们在全国各医疗中心举行守夜活动，部分是为了抗议，部分是为了表达悼念。
贝基·哈卢瓦是佐治亚州奥古斯塔市查理·诺伍德退伍军人事务部医疗中心的娱乐治疗师兼工会负责人，她表示，“承认他是我们组织的一员，这一点很重要。”
“想到一名退伍军人事务部的同事竟然被自己为之工作的政府谋杀，这让我感到害怕，”哈卢瓦当时在接受CNN附属地方电视台WRDW采访时说道，“这对我来说太可怕了。”
然而不久后，哈卢瓦得知自己正受到同一政府的调查。她的主管告知她，当局已启动内部调查，以确定她是否违反了员工接受新闻媒体采访的机构规定，这项调查可能导致纪律处分。
退伍军人事务部员工因在守夜活动中发言而接受调查
1:21 • 消息来源：CNN
退伍军人事务部员工因在守夜活动中发言而接受调查
1:21
哈卢瓦并非个例，几位知情人士告诉CNN。至少另有三名退伍军人事务部员工因与媒体接触而接受调查，其中至少一人与亚历克斯·普雷蒂事件相关，据其中一位消息人士透露。
哈卢瓦表示，作为调查的一部分，调查人员通过新闻报道向她发送了她在守夜活动现场的照片，其中还包括她与当地一家报社的简短互动。有人在部分照片中用圆圈圈出了她的形象，并标注了她的名字。
“这真的让我感到不安，”她说。看到自己的脸被圈在人群照片里，感觉“非常像被跟踪”。
退伍军人事务部发言人奎因·斯莱文表示，出于隐私考虑，他无法就哈卢瓦的案件置评。“隐私法禁止退伍军人事务部在未获得员工书面同意的情况下公开讨论其具体细节，”斯莱文在一份书面声明中说道。他没有回应有关退伍军人事务部媒体关系政策以及此类调查开展频率的更一般性问题。
联邦机构通常会制定规定，限制员工在媒体采访中谈论其政府职务或部门工作，但允许他们以个人身份发言。在某些情况下，特朗普政府官员对联邦员工与记者交谈以及他们所谓的“泄密”采取强硬立场。
在这些退伍军人事务部员工的案件中，他们的采访涉及了引发全国讨论的议题。今年1月，明尼阿波利斯移民海关执法局行动激增后，普雷蒂与另一名抗议者蕾妮·古德的被杀成为了移民执法和言论自由辩论中的政治焦点。
2026年1月28日，亚历克斯·普雷蒂的照片摆放在佐治亚州奥古斯塔市查理·诺伍德退伍军人事务部医疗中心前举行的守夜活动的蜡烛后方。
凯蒂·古德尔/奥古斯塔纪事报/今日美国网络/伊马格通讯社
两人死亡后数小时内，负责监管移民海关执法局的国土安全部官员在没有证据的情况下声称普雷蒂和古德是国内恐怖分子，引发了公愤。全国各地随即爆发了抗议和守夜活动，包括哈卢瓦参加的这场活动。
帮助组织1月普雷蒂守夜活动的全国护士联合会（哈卢瓦也参与了此次活动）表示，其成员不会被噤声。
“针对参加同事守夜活动的联邦员工进行调查，这是可鄙且不道德的，”该联合会在给CNN的一份声明中说道。
2026年1月28日，贝基·哈卢瓦在佐治亚州奥古斯塔市查理·诺伍德退伍军人事务部医疗中心前为亚历克斯·普雷蒂举行的烛光守夜活动中发言。
凯蒂·古德尔/奥古斯塔纪事报/今日美国网络/伊马格通讯社
“一种恐吓手段”
哈卢瓦已将针对此次守夜活动调查的申诉，添加到她向平等就业机会委员会提交的针对退伍军人事务部官员的其他投诉中。
她认为自己受到调查是因为她作为工会负责人的身份，以及她参与针对上级的内部调查。哈卢瓦是佐治亚州最大的联邦政府员工工会——美国联邦政府雇员联合会的地方主席。
“我认为这是一种恐吓手段，”她说，“我认为这实际上是一种压制声音最大的员工的方法。”
退伍军人事务部员工因发声而接受调查
0:30 • 消息来源：CNN
退伍军人事务部员工因发声而接受调查
0:30
退伍军人事务部官网发布的员工手册规定：“未获官方代表部门发言授权的退伍军人事务部员工，应将媒体采访请求转至其行政沟通办公室。”
手册还规定，任何未获代表退伍军人事务部发言授权的人，在接受关于其观点或其他信息（无论是否与工作相关）的媒体采访时，都应明确表明自己是以个人身份发言。
哈卢瓦表示，她并未与退伍军人事务部协调此事，因为她谨慎地只谈论自己的观点，而非代表该机构官方发言，而且她是在下班时间且不在退伍军人事务部园区内参加的活动。她还说，她故意没有佩戴退伍军人事务部的身份徽章或任何带有退伍军人事务部标志的物品。
“这样一来，即便有人拍摄了照片或类似画面，也不会让人觉得我是在正常工作，或是以退伍军人事务部的身份发言，”她说。
哈卢瓦和另一名接受调查的退伍军人事务部员工（因担心遭到报复而要求匿名）表示，他们被问及了类似的关于接受媒体采访的问题，包括他们是否获得了采访许可。
哈卢瓦说，退伍军人事务部认定她违反了机构规定，因为她未经事先批准就同意接受采访。相关建议是让她的主管与她一起重新学习相关规定，她也在询问是否会采取进一步的纪律处分。
“我坚信自己没有违反这些政策，”哈卢瓦说道。
美国联邦政府雇员联合会副总法律顾问托马斯·达根表示，哈卢瓦遵守了行为准则，并且在守夜活动中行使了第一修正案赋予她的权利。
“至少可以说，退伍军人事务部让她卷入一场调查，这令人失望，”他告诉CNN。
Exclusive: VA conducted internal investigations into employees who attended vigil for Alex Pretti
2026-05-05 10:00:51 UTC / CNN
By Brian Todd
2 hr ago
PUBLISHED May 5, 2026, 6:00 AM ET
Becky Halioua holds a candle during a candlelight vigil for Alex Pretti, in front of the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, on January 28.
Katie Goodale/Augusta Chronicle/USA Today Network/Imagn
For days after the killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, fellow workers for the Department of Veterans Affairs held vigils at health centers nationwide, partly in protest and partly to pay their respects.
Becky Halioua, a recreational therapist and union leader at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, said she felt “it was important to acknowledge him, as a brother of our organization.”
“It’s scary for me to think about a fellow VA employee being murdered by the same government that they work for,” Halioua told local TV station WRDW, a CNN affiliate, at the time. “That’s terrifying for me.”
Then Halioua learned she was under investigation by that same government. 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.
V.A. employee investigated after speaking at vigil
1:21 • Source: CNN
V.A. employee investigated after speaking at vigil
1:21
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.
As part of her investigation, Halioua says investigators emailed 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.
“It really gave me an uneasy feeling,” she says. Seeing her face circled in a photograph of a crowd seemed “very stalker-like.”
VA press secretary Quinn Slaven said he could not comment on Halioua’s case, citing privacy concerns. “Privacy laws prevent VA from publicly discussing specific details about its employees without their written consent,” Slaven said in a written statement. He did not address more general questions about the VA’s media relations policy and how often it conducts these types of investigations.
Federal agencies typically have rules that limit employees from talking about their government role or department in media interviews, while allowing them to speak in a personal capacity. In some cases, Trump administration officials have taken a hard line against federal employees talking with reporters and what they characterize as leaks.
In the case of the VA workers, 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.
A photo of Alex Pretti sits behind candles during a vigil held in front of the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, on January 28.
Katie Goodale/Augusta Chronicle/USA Today Network/Imagn
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.
National Nurses United, a union that helped organize the January vigil for Pretti that Halioua attended, said its members won’t be silenced.
“It is despicable and immoral to come after any federal employee who participates in a vigil for a fellow worker,” the union said in a statement to CNN.
Becky Halioua speaks during a candlelight vigil for Alex Pretti in front of the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, on January 28.
Katie Goodale/Augusta Chronicle/USA Today Network/Imagn
‘A scare tactic’
Halioua has added a grievance over the vigil probe to other complaints she’s filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against VA officials.
She believes she was investigated because of her role as a union leader and her participation in internal investigations against superiors. Halioua is a local president of the largest union of federal government employees in Georgia, the American Federation of Government Employees.
“I think that it’s a scare tactic,” she says. “I think that it is a method really to silence the employees with the loudest voices.”
V.A. employee under investigation after speaking out
0:30 • Source: CNN
V.A. employee under investigation after speaking out
0:30
A VA employee handbook published on its website says: “VA employees who are not authorized to speak officially on behalf of the Department should refer the media request to their administration communications office.”
It also says anyone not authorized to speak on behalf of the VA should make clear during media interviews about their opinion or other information, whether work-related or not, that they are speaking in their personal capacity.
Halioua says she didn’t coordinate with the VA because she was careful to only speak about her opinion, not in an official capacity for the agency, and because she attended the event off-hours and off the VA campus. She also said she didn’t wear her VA identification badge, or anything with a VA logo, on purpose.
“So that if there were any photos or anything like that that were taken, that it wouldn’t appear as though I was actively at work, or speaking in a VA capacity,” she said.
Halioua and another VA employee who was investigated, and who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, said they were asked similar questions about speaking to the media, including whether they had permission to do so.
The VA found that Halioua violated agency rules, she said, because she consented to an interview without requesting prior approval. It was recommended that her supervisor review the rules with her, and she’s asked if further disciplinary action will be taken.
“I very strongly believe that I have not violated those policies,” Halioua says.
Thomas Dargon, deputy general counsel for the AFGE union, says Halioua followed the rules of conduct and was exercising her first amendment rights at the vigil.
“It is disappointing to say the least that VA dragged her through an investigation,” he told CNN.