![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP26026170007194-e1769470773842.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump softened his tone Monday on the immigration crackdown in Minnesota, touting productive conversations with the governor and Minneapolis mayor as he sent the border czar to take charge of much of the enforcement effort. Some federal agents were expected to leave as soon as Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he spoke by phone with Trump, who praised the discussion and declared that \u201clots of progress is being made.\u201d Frey said he asked Trump in a phone call to end the immigration enforcement surge and that Trump agreed the present situation cannot continue.<\/p>\n
The mayor said some agents would soon leave and that he would keep pushing for others involved in Operation Metro Surge to go.<\/p>\n
Among those who are expected to depart was senior Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Bovino has been at the center of the administration\u2019s aggressive enforcement surge in cities nationwide. His departure marks a significant public shift in federal law enforcement posture amid mounting outrage over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents.<\/p>\n
Bovino\u2019s leadership of highly visible federal crackdowns, including operations that sparked mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis, has drawn fierce criticism from local officials, civil rights advocates and congressional Democrats.<\/p>\n
Criticism has increased around Bovino in the last few days after his public defense of the Pretti shooting and disputed claims about the confrontation that led to his death.<\/p>\n
The border czar,\u00a0Tom Homan,\u00a0will take charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota.<\/p>\n
In other developments, Trump declared that he was now on a \u201csimilar wavelength\u201d as the governor following the\u00a0second fatal shooting\u00a0by federal immigration officers this month.<\/p>\n
Trump and Democratic\u00a0Gov. Tim Walz\u00a0spoke in a phone call and later offered comments that were a marked change from the critical statements they have exchanged in the past. Their conversation happened on the same day a federal judge heard arguments\u00a0in a lawsuit\u00a0aimed at halting the federal immigration enforcement surge in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,\u201d the president wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n
Walz, in a statement, said the call was \u201cproductive\u201d and that impartial investigations into the shootings were needed. Trump said his administration was looking for \u201cany and all\u201d criminals the state has in their custody. Walz said the state Department of Corrections honors federal requests for people in its custody.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, attorneys for the administration, the state and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul appeared Monday before U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, who is considering whether to grant requests to temporarily halt\u00a0the immigration operation.<\/p>\n
She said the case was a priority, though she issued no immediate ruling.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the state and the Twin Cities argued the situation on the street is so dire it requires the court to halt the federal government\u2019s enforcement actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this is not stopped right here, right now, I don\u2019t think anybody who is seriously looking at this problem can have much faith in how our republic is going to go in the future,\u201d Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Brian Carter said.<\/p>\n
The judge questioned the government\u2019s motivation behind the crackdown and expressed skepticism about a letter recently sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi to\u00a0Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The letter asked the state to give the federal government access to voter rolls, to turn over state Medicaid and food assistance records, and to repeal sanctuary policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, is there no limit to what the executive can do under the guise of enforcing immigration law?\u201d Menendez asked. She noted that the federal requests are the subject of litigation.<\/p>\n
Brantley Mayers, a Justice Department attorney, said the government\u2019s goal is to enforce federal law. Mayers said one lawful action should not be used to discredit another lawful action.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see how the fact that we\u2019re also doing additional things that we are allowed to do, that the Constitution has vested us with doing, would in any way negate another piece of the same operation, the same surge,\u201d Mayers said.<\/p>\n
Menendez questioned where the line was between violating the Constitution and the executive\u2019s power to enforce the law. She also asked whether she was being asked to decide between state and federal policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat begins to feel very much like I am deciding which policy approach is best,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
At one point, while discussing the prospect of federal officers\u00a0entering residences without a warrant, the judge expressed reluctance to decide issues not yet raised in a lawsuit before her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t be the global keeper of all things here. Like, presumably that will be litigated,\u201d she said to the state\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n
Menendez made it clear that she was struggling with how to rule because the case is so unusual, and there are few precedents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s because this is important that I\u2019m doing everything I can to get it right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The state of Minnesota and the cities\u00a0sued the Department of Homeland Security\u00a0earlier this month, five days after\u00a0Renee Good\u00a0was shot by an Immigration and Customs officer.\u00a0The shooting\u00a0of\u00a0Alex Pretti\u00a0by a Border Patrol officer on Saturday added urgency to the case.<\/p>\n
Trump posted Monday on social media that Homan would report directly to him.<\/p>\n
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Homan would be \u201cthe main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis\u201d during continued operations by federal immigration officers.<\/p>\n
In court Monday, an attorney for the administration said about 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were on ground, along with at least 1,000 Border Patrol officers.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit asks the judge to order a reduction in the number of federal law enforcement officers and agents in Minnesota back to the level before the surge and to limit the scope of the enforcement operation.<\/p>\n
The case has implications for other states that have been or could become targets of ramped-up federal immigration enforcement operations. Attorneys general from 19 states plus the District of Columbia, led by California,\u00a0filed a friend-of-the-court brief\u00a0supporting Minnesota.<\/p>\n
In yet another case, a different federal judge, Eric Tostrud,\u00a0issued an order\u00a0late Saturday blocking the Trump administration from \u201cdestroying or altering evidence\u201d related to Saturday\u2019s shooting. Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty asked for the order to try to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect.<\/p>\n
A hearing in that case was scheduled for Monday afternoon in federal court in St. Paul.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in Minneapolis and Mike Catlaini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Trump #paves #ground #Minnesota #retreat #touts #talks #governor #mayor #lots #progress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump softene… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[486,4263,9094,1190,6844,6472,10628,1378,10629,460,6748,599,598],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16085"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}