“The border czar”: Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s anti-immigration adviser, dispatched to Minneapolis

The temperature is rising in Minneapolis (Minnesota), where Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, died under federal police bullets on Saturday. In this context, Donald Trump announced this Monday that he had dispatched his immigration advisor, Tom Homan, a key figure in his administration. He will go there in the evening.

“He hasn’t been involved in that area, but he knows and likes a lot of people there. Tom is severe but fair and he will report directly to me,” the American president wrote on his network, Truth Social.

The “border czar”, as he is known in the American media, is one of the main architects of the anti-immigration policy pursued by the American government.

But Tom Homan appears less exposed to the media than other figures in the Trump administration in the face of the excitement caused by the deaths in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti and Renee Good on January 7. These two American citizens were shot dead by federal agents on the sidelines of mobilizations against immigration police (ICE) operations.

Kristi Noem faces criticism from the White House

Conversely, the Minister of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, was quick, like others, to come to the aid of the federal police officers involved while attacking the victims, without waiting for any investigation to be carried out. Her management of events would be highly criticized at the White House, according to the American press, which also reports strong disagreements between her and Tom Homan.

Donald Trump showed unusual, relative restraint on Sunday evening, telling the Wall Street Journal about the death of nurse Alex Pretti: “We are looking at the situation, we are reviewing everything and we will make a decision. » The tone is different from that adopted for example by the very influential and very radical advisor Stephen Miller, who described Alex Pretti as a “murderer”, in a message relayed on X by the vice-president, JD Vance.

Combating illegal immigration was a key campaign promise of Donald Trump, but polls show growing rejection by Americans of the way the policy is being implemented.