Minneapolis mayor says 'some' ICE agents to leave city

MINNEAPOLIS: Some federal immigration agents will leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, the city's mayor said, as US President Donald Trump struck a conciliatory note after nationwide outrage over the killings of two American citizens. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a post on social media platform X that 'some federal agents' will begin leaving the city, but did not provide specifics of how many. 'I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go,' Frey added. Frey said he spoke with Trump on Monday, adding: 'The president agreed the present situation can't continue.'
The White House was scrambling as video of the latest shooting went viral, prompting street protests, criticism from former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, increasingly, from within Trump's Republican Party. In a marked change of tone, Trump said he had sent his top border enforcer Tom Homan — whom the president described as 'tough but fair' — to Minneapolis on Monday. Homan 'will report directly to me,' Trump wrote on his TruthSocial platform.
Homan's appointment came as US media reported that controversial Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino will be leaving Minneapolis, though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has vehemently denied he has been 'relieved of his duties,' DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X. McLaughlin added that Bovino 'is a key part of the President's team and a great American.'
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said 'nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed.' She also expressed sorrow over the death of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who was gunned down on Saturday at point blank range by immigration officers, while protesting in Minneapolis. Earlier, the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem portrayed Pretti's killing as an act of self-defence, initially claiming that he approached agents brandishing a handgun, intent on a 'massacre.' The New York Times reported that Trump held an almost two-hour meeting on Monday evening with Noem, who has favoured aggressive immigration raids.
At a demonstration in Minneapolis on Monday, locals expressed relief that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were leaving. 'It's a vindication to some degree. We have a lot of fear around what kind of violence and reprisals might come as they leave,' protester Kyle Wagner said. 'Our neighbourhoods and communities have been brutalised by them, so any decrease in the numbers and the severity is just a huge relief to the community that's been suffering for months now.'
Jasmine Nelson, who was also at the demonstration, said she was inspired by locals coming together to protest the killings. 'It's really beautiful to see everyone get together like this and fight against these injustices,' she said. Trump said he had sent his top border enforcer Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Monday, saying that he 'will report directly to me.'
Despite his recent moves, there was no sign Trump was retreating from the broader, hardline policy of sending heavily armed, masked and unidentified ICE agents into Democratic-run cities. There remain 'hundreds of thousands' of 'the worst illegal aliens' left to deport, Leavitt said.
Campaigning against illegal immigration helped Trump get elected in 2024, but daily videos of violent masked agents, and multiple reports of people being targeted despite flimsy evidence, have sent Trump's approval ratings plummeting. Minneapolis has become ground zero in the turmoil — with huge rallies to protest an ICE agent's killing of protester Renee Good January 7 still going ahead on Friday despite freezing conditions. — AFP