President Trump announced on Monday that he was dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis that evening, amid a bipartisan outcry over the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
Homan, who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump’s first term, will report directly to Trump, according to Trump’s announcement on Truth Social.
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In another post, Trump said he has directed Homan to give Minnesota Governor Tim Walz a call, and the Administration is looking for “any and all Criminals” that the state has in possession.
“The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!” Trump wrote. The tone of Trump’s second post suggested a thawing in his relationship with Walz, after weeks of the two men publicly criticizing each other.
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The White House tells TIME in a statement that Homan would be managing ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota and coordinating with others on ongoing fraud investigations.
The news comes as Trump has been less quick to defend the agents involved in the Pretti shooting than high-ranking Administration officials. In an interview on Sunday with the Wall Street Journal, Trump declined to say whether the federal agents who shot Pretti acted appropriately, only saying the administration is investigating the matter.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump said.
The Administration is scrambling to contain the fallout from Minneapolis, where Pretti’s death was the second high-profile killing by federal agents in just over two weeks, and comes amid other confrontations that have drawn outrage. On Wednesday, two ICE agents were pictured aiming a canister of pepper at a protester’s face while he was pinned down. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the incident “should alarm every American.”
Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets over the weekend to protest against the federal agents’ presence in the Twin Cities, as the legality of the deployment of federal agents is contested in court. On Monday, a federal judge is hearing arguments on whether the immigration operation in Minnesota violates the Constitution. The judge will then deliberate whether the operation should be halted, at least temporarily.
It also underscores a shifting immigration strategy under the second Trump administration that is growing increasingly combative, as Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino was and seen as the face of the immigration operations in Minnesota.
On Sunday, Bovino doubled down on his defense of officers who shot Pretti, telling CNN that the officers are the victims of the incident, and that Pretti, who was legally carrying a firearm, was not entitled to the Second Amendment rights.
“Those rights don’t count when you riot and assault, delay, obstruct and impede law enforcement officers and, most especially, when you mean to do that beforehand,” he says.