President Donald Trump announced Monday that he is dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to oversee Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations following two deadly shootings of U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis.
“I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.”
The decision to send Homan, a career immigration agent who led ICE during the first Trump administration, comes amid mounting public scrutiny following Saturday’s fatal shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by immigration officers in Minneapolis. This marks the second U.S. citizen killed by federal agents in the city in less than a month.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Homan “will be managing ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota to continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.” She added that Homan will also coordinate with officials leading investigations into alleged welfare fraud in the state.
The deployment follows Operation Metro Surge, a large-scale federal immigration enforcement effort that brought thousands of ICE and DHS agents into Minnesota. The expanded federal presence sparked protests and unrest among residents opposed to the operation.
Both shootings occurred in daylight in front of witnesses and were caught on video from multiple angles. In Pretti’s case, the Department of Homeland Security claimed he approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a handgun and “violently resisted” attempts to disarm him. However, videos appear to show Pretti holding up a phone as the confrontation begins, and one officer removing a weapon from his person prior to any shots being fired.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said at a press conference that Pretti was believed to be a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry his weapon, consistent with Minnesota law.
The move to send Homan suggests a shift in the administration’s strategy. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has focused on raw numbers of deportations, placing Border Patrol at the helm of operations traditionally led by ICE. Homan, meanwhile, has backed a more targeted approach to deportations focusing on detaining and removing unauthorized immigrants with criminal records.
Noem praised the move Monday, saying Homan “has been a major asset to our team — his experience and insight will help us in our wide-scale fraud investigations, which have robbed Americans, and will help us to remove even more public safety threats and violent criminal illegal aliens off the streets of Minneapolis.”
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