The Trump administration moved to dial down tensions in Minneapolis on Tuesday after weeks of unrest and national outrage over the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents, dispatching border czar Tom Homan to take direct charge of enforcement operations in the city.
Homan met separately with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in what officials described as an effort to reset relations between Washington and Democratic state leaders, as the White House faces growing political pressure over its aggressive immigration tactics ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The shift comes after Saturday’s killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents during a daytime protest. His death, following the earlier fatal shooting of Renee Good, a mother of three, has triggered widespread protests, legal scrutiny and bipartisan concern in Congress.
In a significant move, Homan has replaced senior Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino as the point man in Minneapolis. Bovino, who oversaw sweeping immigration crackdowns in several Democratic-led cities, is expected to depart Minnesota along with some agents he deployed there. Sources close to the administration said the leadership change reflects President Donald Trump’s desire to soften the administration’s posture amid intensifying backlash.
“Homan’s role is to recalibrate tactics,” a source with ties to the White House said. “The goal is to scale back and eventually pull out.”
A senior administration official confirmed that under Homan’s direction, federal agents would move away from large-scale, highly visible neighborhood sweeps that had drawn criticism and instead return to more targeted enforcement focused narrowly on deportations.
Mayor Frey said the 30-minute meeting with Homan, which also included the city’s police chief, was constructive. In a statement, Frey said he reiterated his demand that Operation Metro Surge—the federal enforcement campaign that flooded Minneapolis with agents—“come to an end as quickly as possible.”
“We agreed to stay in close contact,” Frey added, striking a notably more conciliatory tone than in previous exchanges with federal officials.
Governor Walz echoed that sentiment after his own meeting with Homan, saying he laid out Minnesota’s priorities, including impartial investigations into both fatal shootings and a reduction in the roughly 3,000 federal agents deployed across the city. Walz said he and Homan agreed to continue working toward those goals.
Behind the scenes, the president spent much of the weekend consulting advisers to reassess the administration’s response to Pretti’s killing, according to White House officials. Some advisers privately warned that the incident risked derailing Trump’s broader immigration agenda.
Initial reactions from within the administration drew sharp criticism. As with the earlier killing of Good, some officials publicly labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” a claim later undermined by witness videos verified by Reuters showing that he posed no immediate threat at the time of the shooting.
Discussions inside the White House reportedly included reducing the federal footprint in Minnesota, tightening the mission scope, improving coordination with state authorities, and even requiring immigration officers to wear body-worn cameras—an idea that would mark a significant policy shift.
The political stakes are high. Pretti’s killing has become a full-blown crisis for Trump, with even some Republican lawmakers calling for investigations. Public anger has also been fueled by a warning late Monday from Minnesota’s chief federal judge, who threatened to hold the acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, in contempt over the agency’s failure to comply with court-ordered bond hearings for detainees.
Polling suggests public support for Trump’s hardline immigration tactics was already slipping before the latest shooting. A Reuters/Ipsos survey showed further erosion in backing afterward, putting Republicans on the defensive as they fight to preserve narrow congressional majorities in the midterms.
Trump also met privately for two hours Monday evening with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she requested the meeting, according to a source familiar with the discussion. While the White House has offered few details, the meeting underscored the internal strain created by the fallout.
In public, Trump has adopted a more measured tone. He described recent conversations with Walz and Frey as productive and expressed sympathy for Pretti’s family, saying he would be “watching over” the investigation. At the same time, he defended Noem and ruled out her resignation.
Democratic leaders have escalated pressure, with the top three House Democrats warning they would initiate impeachment proceedings against Noem unless Trump removes her from office. Any such move would require Republican support to advance.
Privately, however, Trump has instructed advisers not to attack Pretti or publicly defend the agents’ actions, sources said, distancing himself from earlier comments by senior aides that characterized Pretti as an imminent threat despite contradictory video evidence.
Federal officials maintain that agents acted in self-defence, claiming Pretti approached them with a handgun. Video footage shows him holding a phone as agents wrestled him to the ground. A firearm was later recovered from his waistband; Pretti was a licensed gun owner who lived nearby.
Gun rights groups have pushed back against suggestions from administration officials that Pretti should not have been armed, exposing a rare rift between Republicans and a key conservative constituency during an election year.
As Homan begins his delicate mission in Minneapolis, the administration faces a narrowing path: restoring order without further inflaming tensions, while trying to salvage an immigration agenda increasingly under political and legal siege.
