Trump sends Tom Homan to Minnesota to direct unpopular crackdown
President Trump ordered border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Monday as an unpopular immigration crackdown continues to escalate and just days after the killing of protester Alex Pretti.
Trump noted that Homan had not been involved in the Minneapolis operation until now, which could be an effort to distance the White House from the killing of the second U.S. citizen this month by immigration customs agents in the disputed city.
“He hasn’t been involved in this, but he knows and loves a lot of people there. Tom is tough but fair, and he will report directly to me,” Trump wrote on his social network.
Trump did not say whether Homan would take over from Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem and Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino in overseeing the Twin Cities crackdown.
Homan, like Noem and Bovino, is a wholehearted supporter of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Federal agents broke up a protest outside a hotel Sunday evening in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
But the White House may hope to use the change in personality to lay the groundwork for a retreat from the ultra-aggressive tactics that marked the Minneapolis crackdown.
Trump and his administration officials have claimed to have sent thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minnesota to track down and arrest undocumented immigrants who are dangerous criminals.
The army of masked agents repeatedly engaged in heavy-handed tactics against protesters and other critics, both immigrants and American citizens, who sought to monitor and document their actions using their cellphone cameras.
ICE agents shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, an unarmed motorist, in highly controversial circumstances on January 7.
They killed Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse, Saturday morning as he sought to help another woman who was pushed to the ground by officers. Pretti had a holstered gun, but he had a legal license to do so and did not appear to brandish it at the officers. He was holding a cell phone.
Both killings were filmed by several other protesters.
Department of Veterans Affairs
Alex Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital. (Department of Veterans Affairs)
Despite evidence of potential misconduct, Noem quickly defended the officers who killed Good and Pretti. She labeled both victims “domestic terrorists” within hours, even before investigations were completed.
Pretti’s killing in particular outraged Americans and sparked new questions about the unpopular crackdown by some Republicans and Democrats alike.
Several Republican lawmakers have called for an independent investigation into Pretti’s killing. Federal authorities have so far refused to cooperate with Minneapolis police in the case.
