President Donald Trump on Monday softened his tone on immigration enforcement in the wake of another killing of an American citizen by federal officers — and amid growing calls for investigations — by expressing sorrow over the bloodshed and sending a new personal envoy to take charge in Minneapolis.
At the same time, the White House tried to pin the violence on Democrat-led jurisdictions that prohibit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The administration warned that the violence won’t end until Democratic governors and mayors assist federal law enforcement in arresting, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants.
“Nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed in America’s streets,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “It is President Trump’s hope and wish and demand for the resistance and chaos to end today.”
She added: “The most peaceful way to carry out this vital public safety mission is for Republicans and Democrats to do it together, and for state and local law enforcement to work together with federal law enforcement.”
The White House’s more measured response to the shooting death of Alex Pretti Saturday when compared to that of Renée Good earlier in January appears to shift the tone of an aggressive enforcement policy of Trump’s own making. The clearest sign of that shift was Trump’s decision Monday to send to Minnesota border czar Tom Homan, whose focus on targeting violent criminals contrasts the dramatic confrontations that Trump has demanded.
Leavitt said Trump maintains full confidence in Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, but she is also responsible for FEMA’s response to the weekend’s winter storm. Noem also downplayed reports of tension with Homan in a social media post praising him.
Yet Homan will report directly to the president. He is taking over from Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol commander who has been the face of the operation in Minneapolis as well as previous forays into Los Angeles and Chicago. Leavitt said Bovino will continue to lead operations around the country.
The developments come as most of Trump’s advisers inside the White House have urged him to focus on de-escalating the conflict in Minneapolis, a person close to the White House said.
One administration official said Trump concluded that Noem was no longer the right person to be in the spotlight on immigration enforcement. Noem has been loyal, and firing her would look like a victory for his opponents, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Over the weekend, Trump took note of conservative media figures including Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, who criticized the rhetoric from officials such as Noem and White House adviser Stephen Miller, who called Pretti a “domestic terrorist.”
The 37-year-old ICU nurse died Saturday after being shot by Border Patrol during an enforcement operation. Video of his death contradicted federal accounts that Pretti had threatened the lives of officers with a gun, showing that federal agents took the gun before they opened fire, and local police said he was carrying the weapon lawfully. After Good, Pretti was the second person to be shot to death this month on the streets of Minneapolis by federal immigration authorities.
Trump initially responded combatively to Pretti’s death by calling him a “gunman” and posting a photo of the licensed pistol, according to bystander video. But he did not go as far as Noem or Miller, and he sounded more equivocal on Sunday when he told the Wall Street Journal, “I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it.”
“President Trump does not want any Americans to lose their lives in the streets of America and in American communities across the country,” Leavitt said. “He believes what happened on Saturday is a tragedy, but every life is equal to President Trump.”
Sen. Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott of Texas urged the White House to change its tone on immigration enforcement, while other Senate Republicans, including Jerry Moran of Kansas and John Curtis of Utah, called for independent investigations. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) said Monday the heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services should testify before the panel.
Public opinion surveys show voters, especially independents, turning against Trump on his signature issue, adding to his falling ratings on managing the economy, especially inflation. A New York Times-Siena College poll conducted before the Pretti shooting this month found 61 percent of Americans and 71 percent of independents said ICE has “gone too far,” even as 50 percent of voters said they approved of Trump’s deportations. Only 20 percent of Americans said the Pretti shooting was justified, according to a YouGov poll conducted Sunday.
Leavitt dismissed concerns as “hysteria,” adding that “Americans overwhelmingly want exactly what President Trump is delivering: strong borders and strict immigration enforcement against the worst illegal aliens.”
Even before Saturday’s fatal shooting, the White House had already been trying to get a better handle on the situation in Minneapolis. Vice President JD Vance visited the state on Thursday at Trump’s direction to “turn down the chaos” and facilitate federal and local officials working together in the state. He met privately with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, according to a White House official with knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The vice president and Ellison, a Democrat who has been sharply critical of the Trump administration’s activity in the state, had a “frank” discussion, the person said, describing the meeting as productive but declining to elaborate. Ellison on Sunday called the meeting “polite” but described it in less productive terms, saying he left thinking the two men “probably weren’t going to get anywhere.”
When Vance emerged in front of news cameras Thursday in Minneapolis, the vice president’s tone was significantly different from what he had said days and weeks earlier, suggesting for the first time that federal immigration officials should be subjected to investigations and discipline.
The administration is trying to refocus the Minneapolis operation to what originally drew federal officers there: crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and fraudulent Medicaid claim. Trump on Sunday demanded that Minnesota officials and other Democratic governors and mayors assist federal law enforcement in arresting, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants. Attorney General Pam Bondi asked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) to turn over Medicaid and voter records and repeal “sanctuary” policies that prohibit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said he would propose legislation to ban such policies nationwide.
Walz disputed the administration’s claims about the state’s failure to cooperate in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday. He said the state holds 207 noncitizens in its prisons, not 1,360, and has never released someone without offering a transfer to federal custody.
Trump campaigned for a second term promising to launch a military-style deportation operation and encouraging police to use more force without restraint or fear of consequences. He promised to “indemnify” police from lawsuits, a slogan with little practical consequence since officers already have broad legal protections from liability, but clearly signaling that they would not be held responsible for using force.
In one speech, he mused bluntly that police could deter crime by holding “one really violent day” or “one rough hour — and I mean real rough.”
“We will send elite squads of ICE, Border Patrol, and federal law enforcement officers to hunt down, arrest, and deport every last illegal alien gang member until there is not a single one left in this country,” Trump said in an immigration-focused speech in October 2024. “It’s going to go very quickly.”
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