US President Donald Trump sent border official Tom Homan to Minnesota amid escalating protests against immigration raids. Photo / Getty Images
President Donald Trump has sent his top border enforcer to Minneapolis and struck a conciliatory note in a bid to tamp down nationwide outrage over the second killing of a US citizen protesting militarised immigration raids this month.
The White House was scrambling as video of the latest shooting went viral, prompting street protests, criticism from former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, increasingly, from within Trump’s Republican Party.
Trump said that Tom Homan, his point man for border security, “will report directly to me”.
Homan’s new role appears to be an acknowledgement that the administration has run into political damage, with polls showing a majority of Americans disapprove of the often brutal crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
In a marked change of tone, Trump said he held a “very good” talk with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat whom he has repeatedly blamed for allowing illegal immigration and corruption. He also said he had called Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, another Democrat.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed”.
She also expressed sorrow for the death of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who was gunned down on Saturday at point-blank range by immigration officers while protesting in Minneapolis. Earlier, top Trump officials had branded Pretti, 37, a “domestic terrorist”.
In yet another indication of a pivot, US media reported that controversial Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was leaving Minneapolis.
However, there was no sign of Trump retreating from the broader, hardline policy of sending heavily armed, masked and unidentified ICE agents into Democratic-run cities to track down people breaking immigration laws – actions that Bovino has relished in leading.
There remain “hundreds of thousands” of “the worst illegal aliens” left to deport, Leavitt said.
Reducing illegal immigration is popular and helped Trump get elected in 2024. However, daily videos of violent encounters between suspects and masked agents, as well as multiple reports of people being targeted on flimsy evidence, have helped send Trump’s approval ratings plummeting.
Minneapolis has become ground zero in the turmoil.
A huge rally took place despite bitter cold on Friday to protest the raids and the shooting dead by an ICE agent of protester Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three on January 7. Like Pretti, she had been shot at close range and was a US citizen.
After Pretti was killed, more rallies erupted on the weekend in Minneapolis, New York and other major cities.
Opening a new front in the crisis, a federal judge in Minneapolis heard arguments on Monday on whether the deployment of federal officers violates the state of Minnesota’s sovereignty.
In a separate hearing, a judge was considering a request to force federal officials to preserve evidence in the killing of Pretti. She said she would rule quickly.
Adding to pressure in Congress, Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the US Government unless immigration enforcement agencies are reformed.
Trump’s initial reaction to Pretti’s killing was to suggest that the nurse had come intending to shoot at the police.
Pretti was carrying a pistol with him at the time but never removed it from its holster and had apparently already been disarmed when he was shot multiple times at point-blank range. He was licensed to carry a weapon.
Minnesota Attorney-General Keith Ellison on Sunday accused Trump of pushing a “flat-out insane” narrative.
Monday’s shift in White House messaging came as Republicans – who only rarely criticise their 79-year-old party leader in public – began to express alarm.
One of the most prominent cautions came from House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, who signalled on Sunday that federal agents should withdraw from Minneapolis – an intervention that would normally be unheard of from a figure considered one of Trump’s staunchest loyalists.
Republican Chris Madel sent shock waves when he dropped out of the running for Minnesota’s upcoming governor race to replace Walz, saying he could not remain a member of a party inflicting “retribution on the citizens of our state”.
Even Texas Governor Greg Abbott, one of Trump’s most dependable supporters, called for the federal authorities “to recalibrate”.
- Agence France-Presse