Border czar Tom Homan Thursday said the feds will “draw down” the number of federal agents involved in President Trump’s controversial Minnesota operation against undocumented immigrants after the killing of protestor Alex Pretti.
In a new sign that Trump is seeking a retreat from the crackdown, Homan vowed to act in a more “targeted” way to nab criminals instead of street sweeps that have provoked widespread protests in Minneapolis.
“I’m not here because the federal government has carried out this mission perfectly,” Homan said in an hourlong press conference.
“President Trump wants this fixed, and I’m going to fix it,” Homan added.
He rejected the suggestion that Trump was caving to public pressure to scale back the Minnesota action after Pretti was shot dead Saturday in the second killing of a U.S. citizen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota this month.
“We are not surrendering our mission at all,” Homan said.
Despite striking a less-pugnacious tone, Homan suggested the reduction in forces will depend on increased cooperation with state and local officials.
He held what he called productive meetings with Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey after Trump sent him to Minnesota to take over the operation, effectively sidelining Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Bottom line: You can’t fix problems if you don’t have discussions,” he said.
Homan didn’t name Pretti or slain unarmed motorist Renee Nicole Good, who was killed by ICE agents on Jan. 7. He refused to say whether he thought either killing was justified.
“Do I have an opinion? Yeah. My personal opinion. I’m not going to share that with you,” he said. “We’ll let the investigation play out.”
That was a dramatically different approach than that of Noem, who branded Pretti a “domestic terrorist” and falsely claimed he “brandished” a gun and attacked agents before the shooting.
Trump also said he wants an “honest investigation” of the Pretti killing, although so far only Homeland Security investigators are probing the killings of Pretti and Good.
Noem and other Trump administration officials have said the officers involved acted properly, despite videos that appear to show little justification for either killing, especially the slaying of Pretti, who was lying on the ground when officers pumped 10 bullets into his back.
Even with some hints of a more conciliatory approach, Homan has “zero tolerance” for protesters who assault officers or allegedly impede their work. He refused to put a timetable on when the operation might wind down and declined to say how many agents would be in the Twin Cities going forward.
“I dont want to see anybody die, not the officers, not members of the community and not the targets of our operations,” Tom Homan says
The veteran immigration official doubled down on the need for local jails to alert Immigration and Customs Enforcement to people in their custody whom ICE can remove from the country.
“Give us access to illegal aliens, public safety threats in the safety and security of a jail,” Homan said.
