By Brad Brooks, Jack Queen and Andy Sullivan
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 26 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz each struck a conciliatory tone on Monday after a private phone call in a sign the two sides were seeking to defuse a crisis over the Trump-ordered deportation drive that has claimed the lives of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
In another apparent signal of a thaw in the standoff, a senior Trump administration official confirmed reports that Gregory Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol official who has been a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and civil liberties activists, will be leaving Minnesota along with some of the Border Patrol agents deployed to the Midwestern state.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump’s designated border czar, Tom Homan, would be tasked with overseeing the Minnesota operations. Trump said earlier in the day that Homan was being dispatched to Minnesota.
Later on Monday, a different person familiar with the matter said Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol “commander at large” and will return to his former job as a chief patrol agent along California’s El Centro sector of the U.S.-Mexico border. The source said he would then soon retire.
Another source confirmed Bovino would return to the El Centro sector but did not provide further details.
Word of Bovino’s demotion was first reported by The Atlantic on Monday, citing an official from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and two other people with knowledge of the change. The Atlantic also said Bovino was expected to retire soon.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin disputed those reports, posting on X: “Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties.”
Following his phone call with Walz, Trump said he was “on a similar wavelength” with the Democratic governor, weeks after ordering thousands of heavily armed federal immigration agents to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in a deportation drive over the staunch opposition of state and local authorities.
Walz’s office said he and Trump held a “productive call” in which the president said he would consider reducing the number of immigration agents in the state. He said Trump also agreed to direct the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the state could conduct its own investigation into the Pretti shooting.
Trump and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey also said they had spoken together by telephone. Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, the president said that “lots of progress” was being made following their discussion.
Frey said Trump had “agreed the present situation can’t continue,” adding that it was understood that some federal agents “will begin leaving” the Twin Cities on Tuesday.
The unexpected burst of telephone diplomacy came two days after a 37-year-old intensive-care-unit nurse, Alex Pretti, was shot and killed by federal agents on a Minneapolis street during a confrontation between the immigration officers and protesters.
The killing of Pretti, the second U.S. citizen fatally shot by immigration agents since the Trump administration deployed a force of 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area several weeks ago, has prompted a sharp public backlash against the mass deportation operation. Opinion polls show waning support for Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday showed some 58% of poll respondents said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have gone “too far” in their crackdown, while 12% said they had not gone far enough and 26% said the agents’ efforts were “about right.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, Jonathan Allen, Jack Queen, Susan Heavey, Katharine Jackson, Nate Raymond, Ted Hesson, Steve Holland, Bo Erickson, Jason Lange, David Morgan and Andy Sullivan; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Scott Malone, Deepa Babington and Diane Craft)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.