The Trump administration is deploying more than 100 U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and officers to Minnesota from operations in Chicago and New Orleans after the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
The Department of Homeland Security plans to pause operations in Chicago — where Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official, has led controversial arrest efforts — to support the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. Border Patrol officials also plan to send all nonlethal weapons housed in Chicago to Minnesota, according to the documents.
The increased presence of Border Patrol agents is expected to last through the weekend, with a planned return to their cities on Sunday. The Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the plans.
The surge of Border Patrol agents in the Twin Cities comes as local officials have called on immigration officers to leave Minneapolis after the killing of Renee Nicole Good on Wednesday.
Federal officials have said that Ms. Good, a U.S. citizen who lived in Minneapolis, tried to use her vehicle to run over law enforcement officers before she was fatally shot by an ICE officer. State and local officials have disputed federal accounts of the shooting.
Surges of immigration agents have at times staged dramatic raids in recent months in a number of Democratic-led cities, including Los Angeles, Portland and Washington, D.C. The deadly encounter in Minneapolis was at least the ninth shooting by an ICE officer since September. The immigration enforcement actions have prompted backlash and protests in those cities, and federal officials say the heated discourse has led to more threats against ICE agents.
Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis suggested that the shooting on Wednesday was the result of reckless actions by an ICE officer. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a Democrat, posted on social media about the administration’s account of events: “Don’t believe this propaganda machine.”
The Department of Homeland Security said this week that it had ramped up its presence in the region and deployed 2,000 law enforcement officers to the Twin Cities. Despite calls by local officials to leave, homeland security officials have pledged to continue operations in Minnesota.
Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday that immigration officers briefly paused their work after the shooting but were continuing operations in the region.
“We’re going to keep doing the work,” Mr. Lyons said.
The Trump administration has recently focused on Minnesota after fraud investigations into a Covid-19 program intended to feed children and other safety-net programs that were overseen by the administration of Mr. Walz, who on Monday dropped his bid for re-election.
More than 90 people have been charged with felonies in the federal fraud cases. Most of the defendants are of Somali origin. President Trump has used xenophobic language in recent weeks to attack Somalis living in the United States, saying, “We don’t want them in our country.”
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
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