The emerging blame game over the Trump administration’s handling of the deadly shooting by border authorities in Minneapolis this week has exposed the internal jockeying for power within the Homeland Security Department over President Trump’s expansive federal immigration crackdown, and left the department in what current and former officials say is a severe crisis.
In the days since federal agents fatally shot a Veterans Affairs nurse, a bellicose Border Patrol agent leading the operation in the city was cast aside. The embattled homeland security secretary scrambled to get face time with Mr. Trump amid calls to step down. And a top White House official who designed Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda said the administration was examining whether border agents had violated protocol.
The situation has engulfed the department in turmoil and prompted widespread concern among the rank and file and members of Congress over the future of an agency tasked with protecting the United States from threats at home and abroad. Current and former homeland security officials have already described a growing sense of frustration and disillusionment at the agency leading Mr. Trump’s push to arrest and deport millions of immigrants.
“It appears to be chaos,” Deborah Fleischaker, who was the assistant director for policy for ICE during the Biden administration, said of the leadership of the Homeland Security Department. “Immigration has been politicized for a long time. But what we’re seeing is such an escalation of that and such an embrace of power as the ultimate tool.”
“The morale inside the department has got to be suffering,” she added. “It’s got to be hurting. They see what’s happening.”
None of the top immigration officials appeared at imminent risk of losing their jobs. After Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, met with Mr. Trump for nearly two hours this week, he said she had done a “very good job.” And Mr. Miller remains one of the more influential figures in the White House.
Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief whose tactics in immigration operations in American cities have garnered lawsuits and protests, was pulled out of Minneapolis. But White House officials maintained he was not at risk of losing his position. The White House has directed Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, to replace Mr. Bovino in Minnesota and meet with local authorities to “de-escalate” the situation in Minneapolis, in Mr. Trump’s words.
And amid all the finger-pointing and pushing to overcome the political fallout of the shooting, neither Mr. Trump or any of his advisers have explained why they falsely said the man the agents killed, Alex Pretti, had been brandishing a gun before he was shot, or why administration officials him a domestic terrorist before any investigation.
The aggressive tactics and false statements have mirrored a top-down combative approach set by Mr. Trump, in which the administration immediately attacks its opponents with inflammatory language, even if it is undercut by video evidence later.
A White House spokeswoman referred to comments this week by Mr. Trump, in which he indicated he was open to an investigation into the shooting.
Still, multiple homeland security officials said the fallout over Minneapolis has revealed what one person familiar with the internal dynamic called a “Game of Thrones”-style battle over power in the department that has simmered for months and now come to a boil. Other ICE officials have expressed difficulty navigating directions from the White House and the Homeland Security Department’s leadership, with the two sometimes not being on the same page.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, disputed any assertion that there was a power struggle at the agency.
“There is only one page: the president’s page,” Ms. McLaughlin said. “Everyone’s on the same page.”
After Ms. Noem faced intense pushback for calling Mr. Pretti a domestic terrorist, a U.S. official said her messaging had been crafted in part by Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller, who called Mr. Pretti a “terrorist” over the weekend, issued a statement on Tuesday saying the Homeland Security Department had chosen its language “based on reports from C.B.P. on the ground.” Ms. McLaughlin repeated that explanation on Wednesday.
Ms. Noem’s claim that Mr. Pretti was “brandishing” a gun was also undermined by a preliminary review done by the Customs and Border Protection’s internal watchdog office. And another claim by Mr. Bovino over the weekend, that two agents involved in the shooting of Mr. Pretti were still working, was under scrutiny after a homeland security official said on Wednesday that they were on leave.
Some former homeland security officials said Mr. Trump had set up the agency for a power struggle at the start of his term when he appointed Mr. Homan, a longtime Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, as border czar. Mr. Homan was tasked with implementing the president’s campaign pledges on border policies and mass deportations — duties that would normally fall under the purview of the homeland security secretary.
Mr. Miller has also has long issued directives to senior homeland security officials, dating back to Mr. Trump’s first term. He has continued to oversee Mr. Trump’s immigration operations, holding frequent calls with senior ICE officials demanding they ramp up immigration arrests.
Ms. Noem gets phone calls from Mr. Miller several times a week to discuss a range of homeland security matters, according to two U.S. officials.
Complicating matters even more, the omnipresence in the department of Corey Lewandowski, Mr. Trump’s first campaign manager and Ms. Noem’s senior adviser, has prompted significant consternation among homeland security officials.
One official who requested anonymity to speak candidly about homeland security leadership said that anything that happens at ICE must receive his blessing. And another person familiar with the matter said that any funding request for his homeland security office had to go through Mr. Lewandowski.
Mr. Homan and Ms. Noem initially won praise from the White House for driving down illegal crossings at the border to record lows.
But over the past year, as ICE unsuccessfully attempted to fulfill the White House’s massive expectations of arrests and deportations through more targeted enforcement, Mr. Bovino rose to power.
Mr. Bovino’s rise caused frustration among some homeland security officials who felt he had evaded the chain of command to run sprawling, militarized immigration raids, according to a U.S. official and one current and one former ICE official.
“It’s hard on the people in the department and in the agencies who are looking to leadership for direction if leadership is not on the same page and even worse than that, are very much publicly at odds,” said Tim Quinn, a former senior official at Customs and Border Protection who left the agency last year. “People are watching the scenes from Minnesota and elsewhere and I think it does not reflect what they expect from federal law enforcement.”
Interviews with people inside the Homeland Security Department, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, yielded mixed views about the situation. Mr. Bovino’s departure has frustrated some agents. Some ICE officials hope it de-escalates the situation in Minnesota, as Mr. Trump has suggested.
Others with knowledge of the situation expressed concern that Mr. Miller had undermined Border Patrol agents on the ground by suggesting on Tuesday that their tactics in Minneapolis violated White House guidance.
Rodney Scott, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said in a statement that Mr. Miller had conveyed support for border officials in the field and “the men and women of C.B.P. are deeply grateful for his unwavering support. Any suggestion otherwise is an ignorant and stupid lie.”
Despite the shifting responsibility among top officials, members of Mr. Trump’s own party in Congress questioned the competency of the homeland security leadership.
Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, said he didn’t “have any confidence” in Ms. Noem and accused her department of neglecting one of its other responsibilities: disaster response.
“They’re asleep at the switch,” Mr. Tillis told reporters on Capitol Hill. “She clearly doesn’t know how to manage, she’s never managed a large organization and she’s failing at every possible measure of the job.”
Mr. Tillis also criticized Mr. Miller’s statements after the shooting, calling him and Ms. Noem “amateurs in the strictest sense of the word.”
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, called for an independent investigation into the shooting of Mr. Pretti.
“For people to have confidence in government and confidence in the law enforcement we have in government, we have to be very honest,” Mr. Paul said. “We have to tell the truth.”
Tyler Pager contributed reporting.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
The post Shooting Aftermath Leaves Homeland Security Department in Turmoil appeared first on New York Times.
