WASHINGTON/MINNEAPOLIS--President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, met with the Minneapolis mayor and the Minnesota governor on Tuesday in a show of detente, as the White House sought to ease unrest gripping the city after two U.S. citizens were shot dead by federal agents.
Homan was put in charge of the Minneapolis immigration enforcement surge in place of U.S. Border Patrol "commander at large" Gregory Bovino, who sources said was being demoted and reassigned after having overseen most of Trump's crackdowns in Democratic-led cities.The move was part of a broader reset by the Republican president - who faces mounting political pressure - to soften his administration's aggressive deportation tactics.
Some advisers have expressed concern that national outrage over Saturday's killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, and the administration's immediate defense of the agents who shot him, could derail Trump's broader immigration agenda.As they did after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good earlier this month, some administration officials initially responded to Pretti's killing by accusing him of "domestic terrorism," a claim belied by witness video verified by Reuters that showed he posed no threat.
Homan's job in Minneapolis is to "recalibrate tactics" and improve cooperation with state and local officials, a source with ties to the White House said, adding: "The goal is to scale back, eventually pull out."
Speaking of the Minnesota situation on Fox News on Tuesday, Trump said his administration was "going to de-escalate a little bit."
"I don't think it's a pullback. It's a little bit of a change," the president said. Asked whether he retained confidence in U.S. Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, whose role in the crisis brought calls for her dismissal or impeachment from leading Democrats on Capitol Hill, Trump said: "I do."
The president met with Noem, at her request, for two hours in the Oval Office on Monday evening, a source briefed on the matter confirmed.
A senior Trump administration official said Homan would move away from the broad, public neighbourhood sweeps that Bovino had conducted in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and other cities and adopt a more traditional, targeted approach.
In a statement, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he had reiterated to Homan his request that the enforcement action, known as Operation Metro Surge, "come to an end as quickly as possible," and that city leaders would remain in touch with Homan. The 30-minute meeting included the city's police chief.
In a separate meeting with Homan, Governor Tim Walz said he had outlined the state's priorities, including impartial investigations into the two shootings and a reduction in the 3,000-strong force of federal agents deployed to the city. Homan and Walz agreed to continue working toward those goals, the governor said.
Announcing his plan to send in Homan, the subject of a U.S. Justice Department bribery probe that was abruptly closed last year, Trump on Monday sought to cast his designated "border czar" as a neutral figure in the Minnesota crisis who "knows and likes many of the people there."
In weekend talks between the president and his advisers, discussions included reducing the number of agents in Minnesota, focusing the mission more narrowly on deportations, and exploring greater coordination with state authorities, according to a White House official.
