Washington/Minneapolis. President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, met with the Minneapolis mayor and the Minnesota governor on Tuesday in a show of detente, as the White House sought to ease unrest gripping the city after two US citizens were shot dead by federal agents.
Homan was put in charge of the Minneapolis immigration enforcement drive to replace US Border Patrol "commander at large" Gregory Bovino, who sources said was being demoted and removed after having overseen most of Trump's crackdowns in Democratic-led cities.
The move was part of a broader reset by the Republican president - who faces mounting political pressure - to soften his administration's aggressive deportation tactics.
Some advisers have expressed concern that national outrage over Saturday's killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, and the administration's immediate defense of the agents who shot him, could derail Trump's broader immigration agenda.
As they did after this month's fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, some administration officials initially responded to Pretti's killing by accusing him of "domestic terrorism," a claim belied by witness video verified by Reuters that showed he posed no threat.
Homan's job in Minneapolis is to "recalibrate tactics" and improve cooperation with state and local officials, a source with ties to the White House said, adding, "The goal is to scale back, eventually pull out."
Speaking of the Minnesota situation on Fox News on Tuesday, Trump said his administration was "going to de-escalate a little bit."
"I don't think it's a pullback. It's a little bit of a change," the president said. Asked whether he retained confidence in US Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem, whose role in the crisis brought calls for her dismissal or impeachment from leading Democrats on Capitol Hill, Trump said: "I do."
The president met with Noem, at her request, for two hours in the Oval Office on Monday evening, a source briefed on the matter confirmed.
Recalibrating the surge
A senior Trump administration official said Homan would move away from the broad, public neighborhood sweeps that Bovino had conducted in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and other cities and adopt a more traditional, targeted approach.
