The White House said Monday that border czar Tom Homan will oversee Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota and head to Minneapolis after immigration officers shot and killed a second U.S. citizen protesting enforcement operations.
President Donald Trump said later he spoke directly with Gov. Tim Walz about Homan’s assignment.
The president wrote in a social media post Monday that Homan “has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there.” The president added: “Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.”
The move comes amid intense scrutiny of the immigration crackdown in the state, where local and state officials have repeatedly clashed with the White House over its deployment. Trump also said Walz, a Democrat, had called him “with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota.”
Writing on Truth Social, Trump called the conversation “a very good call” and said Walz was “happy” about Homan’s trip to Minnesota.
“I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession,” Trump wrote. “The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future.”
The development comes less than a day after Trump publicly called on Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, simultaneously asking Congress to pass legislation ending sanctuary jurisdiction policies.
Walz’s office said in a statement that he had a “productive call” with the president Monday, adding that he asked Trump for impartial investigations into the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents and for a reduction in the presence of federal agents in the state.
“The President agreed that he would talk to his Department of Homeland Security about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, as would ordinarily be the case,” the statement said. “The President also agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.”
Trump also spoke with Frey on Monday, he said in a later Truth Social post, adding that “lots of progress is being made” and that Homan would be meeting with Frey on Tuesday.
The governor, who earlier this month dropped his bid for reelection, announced last week that he had received a subpoena as part of a federal investigation into several Minnesota Democrats as his administration draws scrutiny from federal officials over a longstanding fraud investigation in the state.
The move to send Homan, a career immigration agent who led ICE during the first Trump administration, suggests a shift in 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.
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Homan, meanwhile, has backed a more targeted approach to deportations focusing on detaining and removing unauthorized immigrants with criminal records.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on X that Homan “will be managing ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota to continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”
Homan’s role will also see him coordinate with investigations into alleged graft by charities in Minneapolis with ties to the state’s large Somali diaspora, per Leavitt.
It comes as public scrutiny has grown in the wake of the Saturday shooting of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by immigration officers in Minneapolis. The Department of Homeland Security and other top officials in the Trump administration rushed to blame Pretti for the shooting, arguing that Pretti was carrying a weapon and that officers were justified in using deadly force against Pretti. But videos circulating on social media do not show Pretti brandishing the weapon, and Pretti was also licensed to carry a weapon consistent with Minnesota law.
Trump distanced himself from the shooting in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. He said the administration is investigating the incident and declined to immediately say whether the officers followed protocol.
“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump said.
Conservatives have been voicing frustration with DHS and Noem following the shooting. Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee have asked for leadership of ICE, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to appear before them and answer questions from lawmakers.
Some immigration hawks also quickly praised the move to send Homan to Minneapolis.
“There is no one who understands deportations better than Tom Homan. This is a great announcement from the White House,” said Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
Past tensions with Homan notwithstanding, Noem publicly 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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