President Trump vowed earlier this week to "deescalate" his administration's immigration crackdown "a little bit" after federal immigration agentsshot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolisduring January enforcement operations — shootings that few Americans see as justified, according tothe latest polls.
But the man Trump has now sent to Minnesota to run Operation Metro Surge — White House border czar Tom Homan — insisted on Thursday that "we're not surrendering our mission at all."
"We're just doing it smarter," he said.
So what does that mean? Is Trump's "pivot" in Minneapolis just a way to alter public perception without altering policy — and perhaps persuade Democrats in Congress to abandontheir growing effort to shut down the government at midnight on Friday unless Republicans agree to rein in federal immigration authorities? Or will Minnesotans actually see "some massive changes" on the ground, as Homan claimed on Thursday?
Here's everything we know so far.
New leadership
Before Homan, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem andformer Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovinowere leading the charge in Minnesota. They've both been sidelined now. Trump deemed the hard-charging Bovino a "pretty out-there kind of a guy" and demoted him to his previous job in El Centro, Calif. He's expected to retire soon. Noem, whohas clashed internally with Homan, is facingcalls for resignation and impeachment.
In contrast, Homan is a relatively mainstream figure who led the deportation wing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Obama administration and he later served as the agency's acting director during Trump's first term. When the president announced on Monday that he was sending Homan to the Twin Cities, it was widely seen as admission that Bovino and Noem had messed up — and that Trump's own effort to inflict "reckoning and retribution" on Minnesota had backfired.
Homan said as much on Thursday. "No agency or organization is perfect, and President Trump and I, along with others in the administration, have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made," he told reporters. "That's exactly what I'm doing here."
New instructions for agents
Since Trump returned to office last January, his Department of Homeland Security has surged ICE and Border Patrol agents intomore than a half dozen major U.S. citieswitha new quota of 3,000 arrests per day, up from 1,000 previously. In response, agents have increasingly rounded up noncriminals in public places, as top White House aide Stephen Miller — the architect of Trump's immigration agenda — instructed them to do back in May, according to theWall Street Journal.
Rather than "develop target lists of immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, a longstanding practice," the Journal reported, Miller told agents to target "Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 7-Eleven convenience stores."
As a result, "at-large" immigrant arrests in U.S. communities have increased by 600% over the past year, according toa new report by the American Immigration Council— and the number of people with no criminal record being held in ICE detention on any given day has increased by 2,450%. (Being present in the U.S. unlawfully is a civil immigration law violation punishable by deportation — not a federal crime punishable by prison.)
In Minneapolis and elsewhere, these noncriminal apprehensions have been a significant source of tension. But late Wednesday, Reuters reported on new internal guidance instructing ICE agents only to target immigrants with criminal charges or convictions.
"We are moving to targeted enforcement of aliens with a criminal history," the guidance reads. "This includes arrests, not just convictions. ALL TARGETS MUST HAVE A CRIMINAL NEXUS."
Homan echoed this message on Thursday. "When you have a criminal standing here and a non-criminal standing there, that criminal always should be targeted first, because he's a significant concern to the safety and security of the community," he said.
The new guidance, which was issued by the top official in ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations division, also tells agents to avoid engaging with protesters because "it serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation."
"No one is going to convince the other," the guidance continues. "The only communication should be the officers issuing commands," who are now required "to verbalize every step of the arrest process" via megaphone.
A possible 'drawdown?'
After holding what have been described as "productive" conversations with Minnesota's Democratic leaders — Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and state Attorney General Keith Ellison — Homan said on Thursday that he has "staff from [Customs and Border Protection] and from ICE working on a drawdown plan."
But, he added, "the withdrawal of law enforcement resources here is dependent upon cooperation" from state officials — specifically in allowing ICE to arrest criminal immigrants before they're released from jail.
This might not be a heavy lift. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused states like Minnesota — where state and local police deliberately refrain from participating in federal immigration enforcement operations — of releasing "violent criminal illegal aliens" from state custody.
Yet "in reality," as Walz wrote ina recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, the Minnesota Department of Corrections already "honors all federal and local detainers by notifying Immigration and Customs Enforcement when a person committed to its custody isn't a U.S. citizen. There is not a single documented case of the department's releasing someone from state prison without offering to ensure a smooth transfer of custody."
(Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell recentlyconfirmedthat state law requires his department to notify ICE when a noncitizen enters prison; he also said Minnesota has always worked with ICE to transfer prisoners with immigration detainers upon their release.)
County jails have been less consistent. But on Thursday, Homan said that Ellison had agreed that these facilities can also notify ICE of the release dates of "criminal public safety risks" so they can be taken into custody immediately.
A shift in federal laws?
On Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate,revealed a set of demands to overhaul ICE. They include:
Tightening rules around the use of warrants and requiring ICE to coordinate with state and local law enforcement
Introducing a uniform code of conduct for all federal agents
Barring ICE agents from wearing face coverings, requiring that they wear body cameras and mandating that they carry visible identification
"We want masks off, body cameras on," Schumer said. "No more anonymous agents, no more secret operatives."
"These are common-sense reforms, ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement," he added.
It's possible that some of these reforms could pass Congress. TheNew York Times reported Wednesdaythat Trump and Schumer were in the process of hammering out a deal that would keep the government open by spinning off DHS funding from the rest of the looming budget vote. The maneuver would "give lawmakers and the White House" more time "to draft a new homeland security spending bill that would include new restrictions that Democrats have demanded on the tactics of immigration enforcement officers and more accountability for those accused of using excessive force," according to the Times.
Trump's rhetoric remains heated
Trump said Monday that he would talk to federal officials about ensuring independent investigations into the recent ICE shooting deaths — something that Walz and others have demanded. But so far that doesn't seem to have happened.
Instead, local and state authorities in Minnesota say their federal counterparts have impeded their efforts, denying access to the scene multiple times even after they secured a signed search warrant. On Saturday, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office sought and received an emergency court order from a federal judge who barred federal officials from destroying or altering evidence from the case, including evidence removed from the scene or taken into exclusive federal custody.
"Federal investigators have not shared any information with Minnesota BCA agents," Michael Ernster, a spokesman for the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, told CNN on Wednesday. "Our own investigation into this incident remains open."
And after a brief effort tolower "the temperature," the president's rhetoric doesn't seem to have moderated much, either. Ata rally in Iowa on Tuesday, he dismissed anti-ICE protesters as "paid insurrectionists," "paid agitators," "lunatics" and "sickos." He also claimed that the immigrants arrested by federal agents have been "hardened, vicious, horrible criminals" who want to "blow up our shopping centers, blow up our farms [and] kill people."
