Minneapolis – President Donald Trump on Monday softened his tone on Minnesota’s immigration crackdown, touting productive talks with the governor and mayor of Minneapolis. sent a border tsar take on much of the enforcement effort. Some federal agents were expected to leave as early as Tuesday.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he spoke by phone with Trump, who praised the discussion and said “a lot of progress is being made.” Frey said he asked Trump in a phone call to end the increase in immigration enforcement and that Trump agreed the current situation could not continue.
The mayor said some agents will be leaving soon and that he will continue to push for others involved in Operation Metro Surge to leave.
Among those expected to leave was senior Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Bovino has been at the center of aggressive enforcement by the administration in cities across the country. His departure marks a major public shift in federal law enforcement’s stance amid growing outrage fatal shooting 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents, the second fatal shooting by federal immigration officials this month.
Bovino’s leadership of high-profile federal crackdowns, including operations that sparked mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis, drew harsh criticism from local officials, civil rights advocates and Democrats in Congress.
Criticism surrounding Bovino has grown in the past few days after he publicly defended the shooting of Pretti and disputed claims of a confrontation that led to his death.
Border Czar Tom Homan will be in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota. Frey said he plans to meet with Homan on Tuesday.
Trump had a call with Minnesota’s governor
Trump and the Democrats Govt. Tim Walz they spoke in a phone call and later offered comments that were a marked change from the critical statements they had exchanged in the past. Their conversation took place on the same day a federal judge heard arguments in a lawsuit aimed at halting the federal increase in immigration enforcement in the state.
“In fact, we seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” the president wrote in a post on social media.
Walz said in a statement that the call was “productive” and that an impartial investigation into the shooting is needed. Trump said his administration is looking for “every” criminal the state has in custody. Walz said the state Department of Corrections fulfills federal requests for inmates.
Meanwhile, attorneys for the administration, the state and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul appeared before U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez on Monday, who is considering whether to grant requests for a temporary restraining order immigration operation.
She said the case was a priority, but in an order later Monday, she told federal government lawyers to file additional briefs by 6 p.m. Wednesday. She told them to address, among other things, the state and cities’ claim that Operation Metro Surge is to punish them for their shelters and policies.
Attorneys for the state and the Twin Cities have argued that the situation on the street is such that they say it requires a court to halt the federal government’s enforcement action.
“If it doesn’t stop right here, right now, I don’t think anyone who is serious about this issue can have a lot of confidence in how our republic is going to move forward,” said Minnesota Deputy Attorney General Brian Carter.
The judge questions the government’s motives
The judge questioned the government’s motivation behind the crackdown and expressed skepticism about a letter Attorney General Pam Bondi recently sent to Walz. The letter asked the state to allow the federal government access to voter rolls, turn over state Medicaid and food assistance records, and rescind shelters.
“I mean, is there no limit to what the executive branch can do under the guise of enforcing immigration law?” Menendez asked. She noted that the federal applications are subject to litigation.
Brantley Mayers, a lawyer for the Justice Department, said the government’s goal is to enforce the federal law. Mayers said one legal action should not be used to discredit another legal action.
Menendez questioned where the line is between violating the Constitution and the executive branch’s power to enforce the law. She also asked if she was asked to decide between state and federal policies.
“I’m starting to feel like I’m deciding which political approach is best,” she said.
At one point, when discussing the view of federal officers entry into a dwelling without permissionthe judge expressed reluctance to rule on issues not yet raised in the litigation before her.
Menendez has made it clear that she is struggling with how to rule because the case is so unusual and there is little precedent.
“Because it’s important, I’m doing everything I can to get it right,” she said.
Minnesota state and cities sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, five days later Renee Good he was shot by an immigration and customs officer. Pretti shoots added urgency to the case on Saturday.
Late Monday, a federal appeals court declined to lift a temporary stay on Menendez’s sentence issued in a separate case January 16. She ruled then that federal officers in Minnesota could not detain peaceful protesters who did not obstruct authorities, including people watching and following agents, or tear gas. A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals said the decision is unlikely to stand up on appeal.
Border Czar to Minnesota
Trump posted on social media Monday that Homan will report directly to him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Homan will be the “primary point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis” during the ongoing operations of federal immigration officials.
In court Monday, an administration attorney said about 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were on the scene, along with at least 1,000 Border Patrol agents.
The lawsuit is asking a judge to order the number of federal police officers and agents in Minnesota cut back to pre-increase levels and limit the scope of law enforcement operations.
The case has implications for other states that have become or could become the target of stepped-up federal immigration enforcement operations. Attorneys general from 19 states plus the District of Columbia, led by California, filed a friend request from the court supporting Minnesota.
In yet another case, another federal judge, Eric Tostrud, took note of the Justice Department’s request that cancel the order issued late Saturday to block the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to Saturday’s shooting.
Attorneys for the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension told the judge they could not trust the federal government to preserve evidence, citing the lack of cooperation the state has been getting from federal authorities after they said they were blocked from the crime scene.
But attorneys for the federal government argued that the temporary restraining order should be lifted because its investigators are already following proper retention procedures, and objected to the court’s “micromanagement” of what evidence the state can examine while the federal investigation is ongoing.
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