The Donald Trump Administration lowered its tone this Monday and readjusted the massive immigration raid operation in Minnesota to try to de-escalate tension after the death of a second protester at the hands of immigration agents, a fact that has generated outrage throughout the country.
The president announced the sending to Minneapolis of the border czar, Tom Homan, responsible for the mass deportation policy, who will be his only interlocutor on the ground, a decision interpreted as a sign that the operation has gone beyond its limits.
Trump also had a telephone conversation with the state governor, Tim Walz, with whom he said he was “on the same page”, despite the usual disqualifications he leveled against Walz, who was the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate in 2024.
These gestures come after the shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, a city that in recent weeks has become the epicenter of immigration raids and protests against these operations.
This is the second American citizen killed by federal agents after the death of Renée Good, a 37-year-old woman, on January 7.
In recent hours, Republican senators have demanded the opening of an investigation to clarify the actions of the agents and avoid discrediting the Department of Homeland Security.
Even the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, a reference for the conservative wing for his hard-line immigration policy, suggested that the White House should “re-adjust” the raids.
Opens to reducing the number of agents
On his social network Truth Social, Trump reported that Homan will arrive in Minnesota “tonight.” “He is tough but fair and will report directly to me,” he wrote of the official, who has not been involved in the deployment so far.
The announcement is a snub to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, and especially to the head of the Border Patrol, Gregory Bovino, the face of the aggressive operation deployed in Minnesota, where some 3,000 federal agents have been sent in recent weeks, triple the number of state and local forces.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated this Monday that Bovino is “a great professional” and will continue to lead the Customs and Border Protection Service, although Administration sources cited by CNN indicated that he and part of his team will leave Minneapolis on Tuesday.
As Walz explained, Trump promised during his call to study a reduction in the number of federal agents in the state and to improve coordination in operations targeting undocumented migrants wanted for violent crimes. The governor also reiterated the need for “impartial” investigations into the shootings.
The White House calls it a “tragedy”
In another sign of the change in tone, the White House for the first time described Pretti’s death as a “tragedy”, although it blamed the state’s Democratic authorities for agitating the streets due to his speech against federal agents.
The Executive avoided, however, repeating the accusations made over the weekend by members of the Administration, who described the victim as a “terrorist” and assured that he tried to use a weapon against federal agents.
The videos released show Pretti protecting two women during the operation, before being subdued by the agents, disarmed and shot in the back when he was on the ground subdued.
In an attempt to calm the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), which criticized the Government for having demonized Pretti for owning a gun, the presidential spokesperson said that “there has been no greater defender” of the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which protects the right to bear arms, than Trump.
The extensive immigration raid operation in Minnesota was ordered by Trump in early January, amid accusations from the White House against the state’s Democratic government for alleged misappropriation of federal funds intended for daycare centers run by members of the Somali community.
The deployment has been contested by local authorities and by thousands of protesters, who demand that Trump withdraw federal agents from the state.
