Trump, seeking damage control, weighs less aggressive approach in Minneapolis

WASHINGTON/MINNEAPOLIS - Donald Trump’s border czar, Mr Tom Homan, met Minnesota’s governor on Jan 27 ahead of talks with the mayor of Minneapolis, as the White House seeks to defuse the unrest that has gripped the city after the fatal shooting of two US citizens by federal agents.

The move to install Mr Homan in charge of the operation in place of Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, who sources said is leaving after having led most of Mr Trump’s crackdowns in Democratic-led cities, is part of a broader reset by the president to soften his administration’s aggressive posture in Minneapolis.

Some advisers are concerned that

the Jan 24 killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti

by federal officers, which sparked national outrage, could derail Mr Trump’s immigration agenda.

Mr 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.

“The goal is to scale back, eventually pull out,” the source added.

A senior Trump administration official said Mr Homan would move away from the broad, public neighbourhood sweeps that Mr Bovino had conducted in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and other cities and adopt a more traditional targeted approach.

In a statement, Governor Tim Walz said he had outlined the state’s priorities to Mr Homan, including impartial investigations into the two shootings and reducing the 3,000-strong force of federal agents that has been deployed to the city. Mr Homan and Mr Walz agreed to “continue working toward those goals,” the governor said.

Mr Homan was also expected to sit down with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Mr Trump said on social media.

The president spent the weekend huddling with senior advisers to reassess the administration’s response to Mr Pretti’s death on Jan 24, according to the same source and a White House official.

As in the aftermath of

the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good

earlier this month, some Trump administration officials initially responded by accusing Mr Pretti of domestic terrorism, a claim belied by witness video verified by Reuters that showed he posed no threat.

The discussions included reducing the number of agents in Minnesota, recalibrating the mission to focus more narrowly on deportations and exploring greater coordination with state authorities. Mr Trump also weighed whether immigration officers should be required to have body-worn cameras, as many police officers do, according to the White House official.

Support for Trump’s immigration drive wanes

The killing of Mr Pretti, an ICU nurse shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents on Jan 24 during daytime protests, has become a full-blown political crisis for Mr Trump, with even some Republicans in Congress calling for investigations.

Coupled with the fatal shooting of Ms Good, a mother of three, earlier this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Mr Pretti’s shooting sparked renewed anger over the aggressive tactics of the federal agents who have been roving the streets of Minneapolis for weeks.

Late on Jan 26, Minnesota’s chief federal judge threatened to hold the acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mr Todd Lyons, in contempt for his agency’s failures to comply with court orders that some detainees receive bond hearings.

“The court’s patience is at an end,” US District Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote in ordering Mr Lyons to appear before him on Jan 30.

Public support for Mr Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics appeared to be waning both before and after the Pretti shooting, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. The issue has put Republicans on the defensive ahead of November’s midterm elections, when the party’s narrow congressional majorities are at stake.

Damage-control mode

The president held a two-hour meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the Oval Office on the evening of Jan 26 after Ms Noem asked to meet, a source briefed on the matter confirmed. The New York Times first reported the meeting.

The typically combative Mr Trump has also struck a more conciliatory tone in public remarks.

He characterised private conversations with both Mr Walz and Mr Frey on Jan 26 as productive, while the two Democratic leaders offered similarly positive comments, a far cry from the vitriol the two sides had previously exchanged.

At the White House on Jan 27, Mr Trump expressed sympathy for Mr Pretti’s family and said he would be “watching over” the investigation into his killing. But he also defended Ms Noem and said she would not be stepping down.

Privately, Mr Trump has made clear to advisers he did not want to defend the agents’ actions or attack Mr Pretti, after Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller labelled Mr Pretti an “assassin” and Mr Bovino suggested he intended to “massacre” officers, despite widely shared videos contradicting those claims.

Senior aides were asked not to target Mr Pretti publicly, and the president discussed distancing himself from public comments made by Ms Miller and Ms Noem, the White House official said.

Mr Bovino, who said the officers who killed Mr Pretti were the true victims in the Jan 24 shooting, is expected to depart Minneapolis along with some Border Patrol agents deployed with him, a senior administration official told Reuters on Jan 26.

Another person familiar with the matter said Mr Bovino had been stripped of his specially created title of “commander at large” and would return to his former job as a chief patrol agent along California’s El Centro sector of the US-Mexico border, before retiring soon after.

Asked about Mr Bovino’s future on Jan 27, DHS referred to a Jan 26 statement that said he had not been relieved of his duties.

DHS officials said agents fired in self-defence after Mr Pretti approached them with a handgun, even though video showed him holding a phone, not a gun, as agents wrestled him to the ground.

It also showed officers removing a firearm from his waistband after he was subdued, seconds before they fatally shot him. Mr Pretti was a licensed gun owner who lived half a mile from the scene.

Gun rights groups have pushed back on Trump administration officials’ suggestion that Mr Pretti should not have been armed, a rare election-year rift between Republicans and one of their most loyal voting blocs. REUTERS