President Donald Trump announced on Monday that border czar Tom Homan will take over ICE’s operations in Minneapolis. It’s a tacit admission that he understands his administration’s deportation strategy has gone too far.
Dispatching Homan is part of a broader shift: Top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, who many locals came to see as the face of overly aggressive law enforcement, is leaving town, along with some of his agents. And Trump posted on social media that he had a “good call” with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), whose office said Trump was open to reducing the federal presence in Minnesota.
It’s a moral failing that Americans had to die for the Trump administration to change course, but at least the change is finally coming. It’s on Homan to make the most of his mandate.
As a top official for enforcement and removal operations during President Barack Obama’s administration, Homan earned a reputation for prioritizing the deportation of hardened criminals. When Trump named him border czar, Homan promised “a humane operation” that would target the “worst of the worst.” Most Americans support that approach.
Yet, under Kristi Noem’s leadership, the Department of Homeland Security has taken a maximalist approach. Migrants that DHS considers the “worst of the worst” accounted for fewer than 4 percent of ICE arrests since Trump took office, according to a Cato Institute analysis through early December. ICE instead has leaned heavily into detaining migrants who were not the original targets of its operations by running dragnets through Hispanic neighborhoods and rounding up nannies, maids and gardeners.
A fixation on quantity comes at the expense of making quality arrests of dangerous gang members who are harder to pick up. It also made the administration’s immigration policy politically toxic. False and inflammatory statements after the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti made the situation worse, as did brushing aside calls for independent investigations into what happened.
Homan can’t erase the mistakes of the last month, but he has an opportunity to ease tensions. That starts with refocusing deportations operations on criminal targets instead of 5-year-olds with pending cases in immigration court. Sanctuary jurisdictions, like Minneapolis’s Hennepin County, can help keep ICE out of their communities by directly handing over criminals in their custody to immigration enforcement officers.
The way ICE agents act is just as important as who they choose to detain. Officers and their superiors could learn from Minnesota National Guardsmen, who have used gestures of goodwill, like handing out hot chocolate, to de-escalate protests.
The next step to rebuilding trust with the public is transparency. DHS is reviewing body-camera footage from agents who were on the scene when Pretti was fatally shot. To help restore credibility, authorities would be wise to release a complete version of the video.
Congressional Republicans are signaling that they plan to conduct more rigorous oversight. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (Iowa) announced Monday that Noem has agreed to testify on March 3. Other GOP chairmen are demanding various DHS leaders appear before their own committees before that.
Many Americans see Homan as a corrupt villain. But the former cop and Border Patrol agent understands the mission and knows what it will take to end this sad chapter. The question is whether Trump’s most radical advisers will let him.
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