(AFP) – Some federal immigration agents will leave Minneapolis Tuesday, the city’s mayor said, as US President Donald Trump struck a conciliatory note after nationwide outrage over the killings of two American citizens. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a post on social media platform X that “some federal agents” will begin leaving the city, but did not provide specifics of how many. “I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go,” Frey added. Frey said he spoke with Trump on Monday, adding: “The president agreed the present situation can’t continue.”
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. In a marked change of tone, Trump said he had sent his top border enforcer, Tom Homan — whom the president described as “tough but fair” — to Minneapolis on Monday. Homan “will report directly to me,” Trump wrote on his TruthSocial platform.
Homan’s appointment came as US media reported that controversial Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino will be leaving Minneapolis, though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has vehemently denied he has been “relieved of his duties,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X. McLaughlin added that Bovino “is a key part of the President’s team and a great American.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said “nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed.” She also expressed sorrow over 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, the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem portrayed Pretti’s killing as an act of self-defense, initially claiming — against all evidence — that he approached agents brandishing a handgun, intent on a “massacre.” The New York Times reported that Trump held an almost two-hour meeting Monday evening with Noem, who has favored aggressive immigration raids.
At a demonstration in Minneapolis on Monday, locals expressed relief that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were leaving. “It’s a vindication to some degree. We have a lot of fear around what kind of violence and reprisals might come as they leave,” protester Kyle Wagner told AFP. “Our neighborhoods and communities have been brutalized by them, so any decrease in the numbers and the severity is just a huge relief to the community that’s been suffering for months now.” Jasmine Nelson, who was also at the demonstration, said she was inspired by locals coming together to protest the killings. “It’s really beautiful to see everyone get together like this and fight against these injustices,” she said.
Trump said he had sent his top border enforcer Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Monday, saying that he “will report directly to me.” Despite his recent moves, there was no sign Trump was retreating from the broader, hardline policy of sending heavily armed, masked, and unidentified ICE agents into Democratic-run cities. There remain “hundreds of thousands” of “the worst illegal aliens” left to deport, Leavitt said. Campaigning against illegal immigration helped Trump get elected in 2024, but daily videos of violent masked agents, and multiple reports of people being targeted despite flimsy evidence, have sent Trump’s approval ratings plummeting.
Minneapolis has become ground zero in the turmoil — with huge rallies to protest an ICE agent’s killing of protester Renee Good on January 7 still going ahead on Friday despite freezing conditions. Like Pretti, Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and US citizen, was shot at close range.
Opening a new front in the crisis, a federal judge in Minneapolis heard arguments on Monday about 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, saying she would rule quickly. Pressure is also mounting in Congress, where Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the US government unless immigration enforcement agencies are reformed.
Monday’s shift in White House messaging came as Republicans — who rarely criticize their 79-year-old party leader in public — began to express alarm, including House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer and Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Republican Chris Madel sent shockwaves 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.”
– Roberto Schmidt with Sebastian Smith in Washington
© 2024 AFP
