Trump indicates thaw in immigration crackdown crisis
Brad Brooks and Jack Queen and Andy Sullivan |
President Donald Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz have struck a conciliatory tone after a phone call about immigration enforcement, a sign the two sides are seeking a way to end their standoff over a deportation drive that has claimed the lives of two US citizens in Minneapolis.
In another apparent signal of a thaw in the crisis on Monday, a senior Trump administration official confirmed reports that Gregory Bovino, a top US Border Patrol official who has been a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and civil liberties activists, will be leaving Minnesota along with some Border Patrol agents.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, would be tasked with overseeing the Minnesota operations in Bovino’s absence. Trump said earlier in the day that Homan was being dispatched to Minnesota.
Trump said he was “on a similar wavelength” with the Democratic governor, weeks after ordering thousands of heavily armed federal immigration agents to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in a deportation drive over the staunch opposition of state and local authorities.
Trump said he had also spoken to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Trump has spent the past month accusing Walz and Frey of incompetence for failing to stop a state welfare-fraud scandal that the Republican president portrayed as fomented entirely by criminal immigrants.
Walz and other Democrats have countered that Trump was seizing on the issue welfare fraud as a pretext for a mass federal deployment that they have characterised as a reckless, lawless invasion.
The fatal shooting of a 37-year-old nurse, Alex Pretti, on Saturday by immigration agents – the second US citizen killed in the state by federal officers this month – has prompted a sharp public backlash. Opinion polls show waning support for Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Walz’s office said he and Trump held a “productive call” in which the president said he would consider reducing the number of immigration agents in the state.
He said Trump also agreed to direct the US Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the state could conduct its own investigation into the Pretti shooting.
Trump said Homan was being sent to Minneapolis to work with local officials. While other top Trump officials have characterised Pretti as a “domestic terrorist”, Homan has not publicly spoken about the incident.
Regarding Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she would remain in her job “with the full trust and confidence of the president”.
The White House is pressing Minnesota officials to enlist local police to help with immigration enforcement, which could be difficult as some cities, including Minneapolis, forbid police from enforcing federal civil immigration laws.
State officials say the number of immigration agents on the ground already outstrips the number of police in the area. They say the crackdown is endangering public safety and stretching their resources thin.
Trump’s statements came as state officials pressed a US judge to temporarily stop the surge of 3000 immigration agents, which they characterised as a tactic to pressure the state to change its immigration policies.
“They put violence into the streets of Minnesota to get what they want,” Brian Carter, a lawyer with the state attorney general’s office, told US Judge Katherine Menendez.
The surge of agents has spurred massive street protests in sub-freezing temperatures and fierce condemnations by the state’s Democratic leaders.
Homeland Security Department officials have described the latest shooting as an attack by Pretti, saying agents fired in self-defence after he approached them with a handgun.
But video from the scene, verified by Reuters, contradicts that account.
The footage shows Pretti holding a phone – not a gun – as agents wrestle him to the ground. It also shows officers removing a firearm stored near his waistband after he was subdued, moments before they fatally shot him. Pretti was a licensed gun owner.
Reuters
