US president Donald Trump’s border tsar said the immigration crackdown in Minnesota could wind down if federal agents gained broader access to state jails, amid public outrage over the administration’s policies.
“The withdrawal of law enforcement resources here is dependent upon cooperation,” Tom Homan told reporters at a news conference outside Minneapolis. “As we see that cooperation happen, then the redeployment will happen,” he added.
Mr Homan spoke as anger grew in Minnesota and beyond over the killings of two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, by federal agents in separate shootings in Minneapolis this month as part of the crackdown.
On Wednesday, Minnesota’s chief federal judge condemned the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) for violating nearly 100 court orders during its operation.
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In his remarks, Mr Homan presented himself as a pragmatist seeking common ground with Minnesota officials, who have publicly butted heads with Mr Trump.
He conceded that not “everything that has been done here has been perfect” and said he had met with local officials, including governor Tim Walz.
In response to the public anger, Mr Trump shook up the on-the-ground leadership of the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota and put Homan in control, but there has been little sign of major changes on the ground.
Federal immigration agents appeared to press on with their aggressive operations on Wednesday, and the Trump administration’s lawyers defended their actions, describing the surge of federal agents there as a legitimate exercise of its power.
Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said during a CNN town hall meeting on Wednesday night that he and other local officials had a “productive and collegial conversation” with Mr Homan and agreed that change was needed.
But Mr Homan did not commit to ending the federal operation “on any given timeline,” Mr Frey said.
Following weeks of daily clashes between protesters and immigration agents, spiked by the fatal shooting of two US citizens during such confrontations, Mr Honan said operations will be more “targeted”.
“President Trump and I, along with others in administration, have recognised that certain improvements could and should be made. That’s exactly what I’m doing here,” he said.
Mr Homan also acknowledged people’s right to protest, but urged the public to “keep it peaceful”.
He conceded that not “everything that has been done here has been perfect”, and said he had met with local officials such as governor Tim Walz.
He did not comment on newly unearthed videos which showed an encounter between Alex Pretti and federal agents 11 days before his fatal shooting. The videos show Mr Pretti yelling at agents before they begin to drive away in a vehicle.
He then kicks twice at one of the vehicle’s taillights, breaking it. That seemed to prompt agents to swarm on him and push him to the ground.
In Maine, senator Susan Collins of said on Thursday that Ice had ended its “enhanced activities” in the state.
“There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale Ice operations here,” she said in a social media post.
There was no immediate response from Ice, which started an operation to detain what it called 1,400 “criminal illegal aliens” in Maine last week.
A newly issued internal memo from a high-ranking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) official, meanwhile, directs federal officers to refrain from any unnecessary communication and engagement with “agitators” so as to avoid “inflaming the situation”.
The directive also orders Ice officers to only target immigrants who have records of criminal charges or convictions, a departure from earlier tactics that included randomly stopping people on the street to demand documented proof of legal US residence or citizenship.
A day after sounding a conciliatory tone in his public remarks, the Republican president took to his Truth Social platform to warn that Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, was “playing with fire” by continuing to insist that city authorities would play no role in enforcing federal immigration laws.
US attorney general Pam Bondi said federal agents had arrested 16 people on Wednesday in Minnesota for allegedly assaulting, resisting or impeding federal law enforcement.
“Nothing will stop us from continuing to make arrests and enforce the law,” Ms Bondi wrote.
A federal judge in Minneapolis said on Wednesday that Ice was flouting the law by ignoring dozens of federal court orders during this month’s surge.
While cancelling a contempt-of-court hearing for acting Ice chief Todd Lyons – after the agency belatedly complied with an order to release a wrongly detained Ecuadorean man – US district Judge Patrick Schiltz cited at least 96 federal court orders he said Ice has violated in 74 cases.
The guidance contained in the internal Ice memo seemed to reflect a change playing out on the streets of Minneapolis.
Observers and activists closely tracking Ice actions said that immigration raids had slackened somewhat on Tuesday before ramping up again on Wednesday, though in a more narrowly tailored manner.
Mr Trump himself said on Tuesday he was looking to “de-escalate a little bit”, and dispatched Mr Homan to take over the operation from Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official whose aggressive tactics drew widespread criticism and legal challenges.
Minnesota’s Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul have been in a state of upheaval since Mr Trump ordered some 3,000 heavily armed Ice and Border Patrol agents to the area weeks ago to conduct a deportation drive dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
- The New York Times. Additional reporting by Reuters
