Minneapolis: US President Donald Trump said he would dispatch his border tsar Tom Homan to Minnesota to oversee ICE operations in the state, and held a “very good call” with Democratic Governor Tim Walz, signalling a shift of strategy amid ongoing unrest and violence.
The decision to effectively sideline Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and send Homan to Minnesota to take over immigration enforcement operations comes after two American citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – were shot and killed by federal agents in three weeks.
Trump has been frustrated by images coming out of Minnesota, where people protesting and documenting ICE raids are clashing with officers daily, and has tried to focus the narrative on efforts to remove violent criminals who are in the US illegally.
In the past few months, multiple US news outlets have reported on a feud between Homan and Noem that is believed to involve, among other things, disagreement over deportation strategy. The New York Post reported they were “barely on speaking terms”.
Homan is said to prefer a more targeted approach to removing known criminals, while Noem and her powerful DHS operative Corey Lewandowski are thought to be pursuing raw numbers, including undocumented migrants without criminal records.
“I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight,” Trump announced on social media. “He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.”
It was not immediately clear how Homan would interact with Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino, who has been the face of the special enforcement operation in Minneapolis. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Homan would be managing operations on the ground “to continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens”.
“In addition, Tom will co-ordinate with those leading investigations into the massive, widespread fraud that has resulted in billions of taxpayer dollars being stolen from law-abiding citizens in Minnesota,” she said.
Trump also said he received a call from Walz, who yesterday invoked the Nazis when calling on Minnesotans to stand up to the Trump administration and demanding that ICE leave his state.
Trump said Walz called “with the request to work together” and that the two men “seemed to be on a similar wavelength”. He claimed Walz was happy about the decision to dispatch Homan to Minnesota and that they would speak by phone.
Walz, who was Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate in the 2024 election, confirmed the call with Trump. “We had a productive conversation and I explained to him that his staff doesn’t have their facts straight about Minnesota,” he said on X.
Noem praised Trump’s decision to dispatch Homan, saying it was good for peace, safety and accountability in Minneapolis – though her statement focused on the assistance he would give to fraud investigations, not ICE operations.
“We continue to call on the leadership in Minnesota to allow for state and local partnership in our public safety mission,” Noem said.
The apparent shift in strategy from the White House comes as several Republicans publicly questioned ICE’s tactics and called for an independent investigation into the death of Pretti.
Several commentators in the Make America Great Again sphere were also critical. Conservative talk show host and blogger Erick Erickson said the violence in Minnesota was not just a result of Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey whipping activists into a frenzy.
“It is a policy choice made by the secretary of homeland security [Noem] and those around her because they thought it would make for great coverage,” he said. “Even the president knows it’s a problem.”
Prominent podcaster Joe Rogan has also been critical of ICE recently. After Good’s death, but before Pretti’s, he interviewed outspoken Republican Senator Rand Paul and likened ICE to the Gestapo of Nazi Germany.
“You don’t want militarised people in the streets just roaming around, snatching up people, many of which turn out to be US citizens that just don’t have their papers on them,” Rogan said. “Are we really gonna be the Gestapo, ‘Where’s your papers?’ Is that what we’ve come to?”
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal yesterday, Trump declined to defend the ICE agent involved in the Pretti shooting and said the administration was “reviewing everything” about the incident.
“I don’t like any shooting,” Trump told the newspaper. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via Twitter or email.
