White House slides into damage control over Minneapolis ICE operation

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his administration are trying a new approach to immigration enforcement following the second fatal shooting of an American citizen by federal agents on a snow-covered Minneapolis street.

Who’s out: Gregory Bovino, the border control commander who had become the face of the militarized operations in Minneapolis and whose long, olive Army overcoat with shiny buttons drew uncomfortable comparisons to SS officers from Nazi Germany. News reports indicate Bovino will return to his old post at the El Centro Border Patrol Sector in California.

Who’s in: Tom Homan, the White House border czar whom Trump has dispatched to Minneapolis to oversee immigration enforcement there. Homan “knows and likes many of the people there,” Trump said, and is “tough but fair.” Homan was the architect of Trump’s family separation policy in his first administration and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm during President Barack Obama.

Mostly out: Blaming the victim.

Alex Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse who treated sick veterans before he was pinned to the ground by Border Patrol agents on Saturday, Jan. 24, and shot multiple times. Bovino and other top ‌administration officials initially claimed Pretti had brandished a pistol at officers and labeled him a “domestic terrorist.” But after several videos contradicted that narrative, the administration tried shifting the blame to Minnesota Democrats for what Vice President JD Vance described as “engineered chaos” in the streets.

Mostly in: Cooperation.

Trump said on Monday, Jan. ‌26, that he had “very good” phone calls with Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, also a ‌Democrat. “We, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump said after his call with Walz. “Lots of progress is being made!” he announced following his conversation with Frey.

Most definitely in: Damage control.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has sought to distance Trump from administration officials’ incendiary comments about Pretti. “I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way,” she told reporters at a White House briefing.

Trump, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, declined to say whether he thought agents involved in the shooting had acted appropriately. The administration, he said, is “reviewing everything and will come out with a determination.”

Pretti’s ​death marked the second time in three weeks that an American citizen had been killed by federal officials in Minneapolis.

Renee Nicole Good, 37, a poet ‌and mother of three, was fatally shot by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement ⁠agent Jonathan Ross on Jan. 7. Videos of the shooting show multiple agents approaching Good’s SUV, which had stopped in the middle of a one-way street in an area where ICE agents were conducting an operation. Videos show agents instructing Good to get out of the vehicle and Ross firing multiple times through the window as she appeared ‌to turn her car away from them.

The Trump administration has said Ross fired in self-defense and accused Good of deliberately trying to run over him.

Mass protests erupted across Minneapolis after Good’s shooting. Pretti’s killing three weeks later intensified public outrage and led to demands by state and local officials for the Trump administration to end immigration operations in Minnesota.

Even some congressional Republicans have raised concerns about Pretti’s killing.

“The events in Minneapolis are incredibly disturbing,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, wrote on X ‌just hours after the shooting. “The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake.”

Cassidy and Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have all called for independent investigations into the shooting.

Gun-rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, also have taken issue with the Trump administration for criticizing Pretti for bringing a gun with him and for suggesting it’s dangerous for lawful gun owners to protest while in possession of their legally obtained firearms.

Pretti had a legal permit to carry a gun, but videos filmed by bystanders contradict the administration’s claims that he pulled the weapon on agents. ‌One video appears to show a Border Patrol officer removing a pistol ​from Pretti’s waistband ‌after he had been pinned to the ground by other agents. The gunshots that killed him were fired after he was disarmed.

“The Second Amendment protects Americans’ right to bear arms while protesting ‒ a right the federal government must not infringe upon,” the advocacy group Gun Owners for America said in a statement.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote on X: “Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement or government.”

Meanwhile, Minnesota’s chief federal judge has ordered the acting head ‌of ICE to appear in court over what he says is the administration’s repeated failure to grant detained immigrants bond hearings despite judicial orders to do so.

The order, filed on Monday, Jan. 26, directs Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, to appear in court on Friday to say why he should not be held in contempt of court.

Still unanswered: Is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has been under increasing scrutiny since the shootings of Pretti and Good ​and is facing calls for her impeachment, in danger of losing her job?

For now, the answer appears to be no. Trump told reporters on Tuesday, Jan. 27, that he still has confidence in her and won’t ask her to step down following his reshuffling of the federal presence in Minnesota.

“I think she’s doing a very good job,” he said.

Trump said the administration is doing “a big investigation” into the Pretti shooting and that he will be watching over it.

“I want a very honorable and honest investigation,” he said. “I have to see it myself.”

The events in Minneapolis have helped drive public support for Trump’s immigration policy to a record low.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll ⁠released this week shows that approval of Trump’s immigration policy has fallen to its lowest level since his return to the White House last year. Fifty-three percent of Americans polled ​disapprove of the president’s immigration policy, while 39% approve of the job he is doing on immigration, down from 41% in the prior Reuters/Ipsos poll this month.

As the administration shifts its tone on ⁠immigration, first lady Melania Trump became the latest member of the Trump team to weigh in on the events in Minneapolis.

The first lady called for national unity during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

 “I’m against the violence,” she said, “so, please, if you protest, protest in peace.”