Trump sends his “border czar” to stop the crisis in Minneapolis after the murder of a nurse

Measurement shows the concern of the White House due to the explosive situation in that city, which has generated enormous rejection at the national level against the president’s immigration policy.

“Tonight I’m sending Tom Homan to Minnesota. He hasn’t been involved in that area, but he knows and likes a lot of people there,” Trump wrote in a post on TruthSocial.

“Tom It’s tough but fair and it will inform me“Trump wrote.

In a separate post, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote that Homan would manage operations of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the ground “to continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal immigrants.”

He also wrote that Homan would coordinate with separate federal officials investigating fraud in Minnesota involving state social services.

The announcement comes as the White House faces strong rejection of ICE’s actions in Minnesota, which have already led to the death of two protesters in Minneapolis in January, causing national outrage.

The crisis worsened this weekend. Several videos posted between Saturday and Sunday showed an ICE agent shooting in the back and killing protester Alex Pretti after an altercation in which Pretti, who was filming the immigration agents, tried to help a woman who was being sprayed with pepper spray.

Pretti, a 37-year-old American citizen, was an intensive care nurse at a veterans hospital in the city and He carried a gun with legal permission. The videos show that Pretti never took out the gun, that he only had the cell phone in his hand, and that when He was shot 10 times on the floor by the agents who had already pulled out the gun.

The official story contradicted the images that were disseminated on social networks. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noemsaid that Pretti had brandished the weapon at federal agents and that he intended to “massacre” the agents.

Democrats and local officials have harshly criticized ICE’s handling of the incident and the administration’s narrative. There were letters from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama that spoke of “illegal and cruel practices” and the institutional gravity that the episode represents, in a country where former presidents do not usually give their opinion.

But also some Republicans called for an investigation. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy called Pretti’s death and other events in Minneapolis “incredibly disturbing” and called for a “full joint federal and state investigation” into the incident, something that senior Trump administration officials have so far resisted.

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowksi said the episode raises “serious questions within the government about the instructions that agents receive to carry out their mission.” And that the fact that Pretti legally carries a gun “does not justify federal agents killing an American”. Immigration agents “do not have a blank check” to do their jobs, he added.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis wrote in

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, President Trump did not respond directly when asked twice if you believe the agent acted appropriately.

However, by sending his Border Czar, Trump seeks to decompress the situation. Few in the country believe Pretti is a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin,” as Trump wrote shortly after Pretti’s death and before all the facts were known or an investigation could be launched. Trump accused local politicians, including Gov. Tom Walz and the mayor of Minneapolis, of “inciting insurrection” and called ICE agents “patriots.”

The dispatch of Homan, a veteran ICE official, suggests a possible marginalization of authoritarian tactics employed by top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino and underscores the internal dispute within the administration over the execution of the president’s immigration agenda. The move has been met with relief by some Homeland Security officials who have been waiting for Homan to intervene, given his extensive experience in federal law enforcement.

Bovino’s tough style was endorsed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. But Homan has generally taken a more focused approach on the threat to public safety. That’s slightly different from the sweeping sweeps that have occurred in cities across the country. Although Homan has been publicly aligned with the Trump administration, there have been internal disputes between factions that support him and those who support Noem. Homan and Noem generally have not spoken in recent months, according to US officials.

Homan is expected to manage the ICE operation in Minnesota, according to the White House. It was not immediately clear how Bovino’s role would change going forward.

The action of the anti-immigrant force, who work hooded and in camouflage uniforms in all the states of the country, but especially in cities governed by Democrats, has caused strong tension in Minneapolis since the beginning of the year.

Already on January 7, federal agents had killed Renee Good, another 37-year-old American citizen, who, while driving her truck, maneuvered to escape the agents. The autopsy concluded that it was a homicide, but no one was responsible.

Public outrage was revived this week with the case of Liam Conejo Ramos, a five-year-old boy returning from school who was used as bait by immigration officials. to arrest his fatherAdrian Conejo Arias, of Ecuadorian nationality.

Both were detained and are in an immigration center in Texas. The photo of the boy standing with his backpack in front of the patrol car, dressed in a dark coat and turquoise hat with white pompoms, went around the world and became a symbol of the extent to which Trump’s anti-immigration force reaches.

On Friday there was thousands of protesters in Minneapolis in repudiation of the actions of ICE, while hundreds of businesses closed in solidarity with immigrants.

Pretti’s death It turned on again this Saturday the streets of the city, with dozens of people demanding that the immigration agents who shot the nurse be arrested. In response, authorities deployed tear gas and flashbang grenades to disperse the crowd, which was demonstrating indignantly in the street despite the freezing temperatures.

The raids by the anti-immigrant force, which in addition to undocumented people also suffer migrants in legal status and American citizens, are beginning to be a political headache for Trump. At the beginning of his mandate, a year ago, it was one of the most popular topics of his administration, but the vision changed.

A survey by The New York Times and Siena University published on Friday revealed that, while 50 percent of Americans approve of the deportations of people living in the country illegally and view the president’s management of the border with Mexico as favorable, only 36% of those surveyed said they approved of the way ICE was doing its job.

63% disapprove, including 70% of independent voters. 61% of voters said ICE had “gone too far” in its tactics, including nearly one in five Republicans.

These numbers, added to the fact that 55.5% of Americans disapprove of his management of the economy (according to the average of RealClearPolling polls), can complicate Trump’s electoral outlook in the November legislative elections.