Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, met with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Tuesday after taking over the president's sweeping immigration operation in Minneapolis, as the White House tries to tamp down national outrage over the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen this month by federal agents.
In a statement reported by CNN, Walz said he had outlined the state's priorities to 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. Homan and Walz agreed to "continue working toward those goals," the governor said.
The move to install Homan in place of top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, who sources said is leaving after having led most of Trump's crackdowns in Democratic-led cities, is part of a broader reset by the president amid some advisers' concerns that the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal agents could derail his immigration agenda.
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.
Homan is also expected to sit down with Mayor Jacob Frey, Trump said on social media.
The president spent the weekend huddling with senior advisers to reassess the administration's response to Pretti's death on Saturday, according to the same source and a White House official.
The discussions included reducing the number of agents in Minnesota, recalibrating the mission to focus more narrowly on deportations rather than broad enforcement operations and exploring greater coordination with state authorities. 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 Pretti, an ICU nurse shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents on Saturday during daytime protests, has become a full-blown political crisis for Trump, with even some Republicans in Congress calling for investigations.
Coupled with the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good earlier this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, 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 Monday, Minnesota's chief federal judge threatened to hold the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 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," U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote in ordering Lyons to appear before him on Friday.
Bystander video of Pretti's killing was widely shared, contradicting some Trump officials' initial claims that Pretti, who was legally carrying a concealed gun but never touched it prior to being shot, posed a threat to law enforcement.
Public support for 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.
TRUMP IN DAMAGE CONTROL MODE
The president held a two-hour meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the Oval Office on Monday evening after Noem asked to meet, a source briefed on the matter confirmed. Noem's job is not in jeopardy, the source said. The New York Times first reported the meeting.
The typically combative Trump has also struck a more conciliatory tone in public remarks. He characterized private conversations with both Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Monday as productive, while the two Democratic leaders offered similarly positive comments, a far cry from the vitriol the two sides had previously exchanged.
Walz's office said Trump had agreed to direct DHS to ensure state authorities could conduct their own investigation into the Pretti shooting, while Frey said on X that his understanding was that some federal agents would begin leaving the city on Tuesday.
Privately, Trump made clear to advisers he did not want to defend the agent's actions or attack Pretti, after Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller labeled Pretti an "assassin" and Bovino suggested he intended to "massacre" officers, among other attacks from administration officials. Video footage of the incident verified by Reuters contradicted those allegations.
Senior aides were asked not to target Pretti publicly, and the president discussed distancing himself from public comments made by Miller and Noem, the White House official said.
Bovino, who said the officers who killed Pretti were the true victims in Saturday's shooting, is expected to depart Minneapolis along with some Border Patrol agents deployed with him, a senior administration official told Reuters on Monday.
Another person familiar with the matter said 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 U.S.-Mexico border, before retiring soon after.
Asked about Bovino's future on Tuesday, DHS pointed to a statement from spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin on Monday that said, "Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties."
DHS officials described the incident as an attack by Pretti, saying agents fired in self-defense after he approached them with a handgun, even though video showed Pretti 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, moments before they fatally shot him. 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 Pretti should not have been armed, a rare election-year rift between Republicans and one of their most loyal voting blocs.
