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Donald Trump’s administration is reducing the number of immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota, where two local residents were fatally shot last month by federal officers, border czar Tom Homan said on Wednesday.
About 700 federal agents will be withdrawn from the immigration operation around Minnesota, Homan said during a news conference. He was dispatched to the Midwestern state last week amid a furore from local officials and citizens objecting to what they say have been heavy-handed tactics from federal agents, which led to the deaths of two U.S. citizens.
Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed on Jan. 7 by an ICE officer. Alex Pretti, also 37 and a critical-care nurse, was fatally shot on Jan. 24 by two Border Patrol officers. In between the deadly incidents, a federal officer shot another resident in the leg.
Roughly 3,000 federal officers are currently deployed in the state as part of Operation Metro Surge, which began in early December. Homan said those departing would include “a mix” of officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), without detailing specific numbers.
The federal government argued that the surge is necessary in its effort to take criminal immigrants off the streets and because federal efforts have been hindered by state and local “sanctuary laws and policies.”
“We’ve taken a lot of bad people off the street. Everyone should be grateful for that,” said Homan.
Homan, who also served in Trump’s first administration, highlighted the arrests of people not authorized to be in the U.S. who had been charged with serious offences.
On social media, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed for an even smaller federal presence as soon as possible.
“Operation Metro Surge is not making Minnesota safer,” said Walz. “Today’s announcement is a step in the right direction, but we need a faster and larger drawdown of forces, state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and an end to this campaign of retribution.”
Democrats demand changes
In the immediate aftermath of the fatal shootings, several Trump administration officials sought to depict the shootings as legally justified, while painting Good and Pretti as activists preventing officers from doing their jobs. Multiple videos that emerged of the shootings contradicted some of the claims.
It was only this week that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced that all ICE and CBP officers on the ground will be issued body-worn cameras to help provide accountability.
The brothers of Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis last month, testified at a congressional forum on Tuesday. Luke Ganger said what has been happening in the city is ‘completely surreal,’ adding: ‘This is not just a bad day or a rough week or isolated incidents.’
Democrats have been demanding changes to rein in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations. Congress is discussing potential new rules for ICE and CBP officers in the wake of the two deadly Minneapolis, which followed a fatal shooting in Chicago last year amid the second Trump administration’s deportation efforts.
But it’s unclear if the president or enough congressional Republicans will agree to any of the Democrats’ larger demands, which include that the officers unmask and identify themselves, and obtain judicial warrants in specific cases.
Tense incident with guns drawn
Homan said Wednesday that a “complete drawdown” to a pre-surge number of officers was contingent upon the end of what he called activities targeting ICE officers, including the setting up of road blockades.
He said there are nearly 160 cases involving persons charged with intimidating or impeding federal officers.
Despite Homan’s arrival and the recall of divisive high-profile commander Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol, tensions in Minnesota remain high.
On Tuesday, immigration officers with guns drawn arrested activists who were trailing their vehicles in Minneapolis. At least one person who had an anti-ICE message on clothing was handcuffed while face-down on the ground. An Associated Press photographer witnessed the arrests.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said agents detained the activists because they hindered efforts to arrest a man who is in the country illegally.
As It Happens6:49Minnesota’s attorney general says he fears for his wife, neighbours
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison accused the Trump administration of “extortion” for demanding the state hand over voter data as it continues its deadly immigration enforcement actions in the state. Ellison told As It Happens host Nil Köksal that the presence of thousands of ICE agents in Minnesota has his neighbours, and his legal immigrant wife, living in fear.
More federal lawyers depart
Minnesota officials raised alarm after federal officials blocked state investigators from accessing evidence in the Good shooting and declared that Minnesota has no jurisdiction to investigate the killing. The Justice Department also declined to open a civil rights investigation into her death.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed last week that the Justice Department was opening a civil rights investigation aimed at determining whether the shooting of Pretti was justified.
Neither Blanche nor other Justice Department officials have offered a specific explanation as to why there was such an investigation into Pretti’s killing, but not in the case of Good.
“It doesn’t mean that every time that there is a federal officer-related shooting that that’s something [the Civil Rights Division] takes up. It depends on the circumstances,” he said last week.
The Trump administration also announced last month an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, ostensibly for impeding the federal immigration blitz.
A five-year-old boy, Liam Conejo Ramos, and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were detained by immigration officers in a Minneapolis suburb on Jan. 20 and taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas. A judge ordered their release, and they have now returned to Minnesota, according to the office of Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro.
It is not clear if that probe has been abandoned. Homan said on Wednesday that productive discussions have been ongoing with Walz, Frey and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
While Trump and other administration officials have said they have a mandate from voters for their sweeping deportation efforts, there are signs of discontent within the Justice Department.
A new wave of departures is rippling through the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The latest departures are on top of a half-dozen attorneys who left the office last month amid disagreements over the Justice Department’s response to Good’s shooting. At least one supervisory agent in the FBI’s Minneapolis office is known to have resigned last month as well.
The office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.