Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino is expected to leave Minnesota immediately as the Trump administration moves to manage the fallout from two fatal, agent-involved shootings that have ignited unrest and political friction in Minneapolis.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Bovino will depart the state along with a portion of Border Patrol agents currently operating there. The move comes as President Donald Trump has signaled a willingness to withdraw all Border Patrol personnel from Minnesota if state and local leaders agree to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that the administration’s position is straightforward: Border Patrol support would no longer be necessary if Minnesota officials reverse course and assist federal authorities with immigration enforcement.
“If Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey implement these common sense cooperative measures that, I will add, have already been implemented in nearly every single other state across the country, Customs and Border Patrol will not be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota,” Leavitt said. She added that ICE and local law enforcement are able to work together peacefully and effectively in many other jurisdictions.
The decision follows a period of escalating tension in Minneapolis after two shootings involving immigration enforcement agents this month. On Saturday, a Customs and Border Protection agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA hospital, who was allegedly interfering with an immigration operation. That incident occurred just weeks after another fatal encounter, when Renee Good was shot and killed inside her vehicle after she appeared to drive toward an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
As Bovino exits Minnesota, the White House announced that border czar Tom Homan is traveling to the state to take the lead role in mediating between federal immigration authorities and state and local officials. Leavitt described Homan as the administration’s point person for restoring cooperation and calming the situation.
“Mr. Homan is the point-person in cooperating with state and local authorities and corresponding with them, again, to achieve this level of cooperation to subdue the chaos on the streets of Minneapolis,” Leavitt said.
President Trump also spoke directly with both Walz and Frey on Monday and offered optimistic assessments of the conversations. Trump said he and Walz appeared to be “on a similar wavelength” about the future of immigration operations in Minnesota. He described his call with Frey as “very good” and said the mayor is scheduled to meet with Homan on Tuesday.
The administration’s efforts to de-escalate the situation come amid heated rhetoric from both state leaders and federal officials in the aftermath of the shootings. On Sunday, Walz compared the experiences of illegal aliens in Minnesota to the plight of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis before being captured and dying in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.
At the federal level, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem used particularly strong language when discussing the Pretti shooting. Noem described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist,” arguing that ideological violence against the government fits that definition.
“Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence,” Noem said, “that is the definition of domestic terrorism.”
With Bovino’s withdrawal and Homan’s arrival, the administration appears focused on resetting the dynamic in Minnesota by pressing for cooperation while reducing the federal footprint on the ground. Whether state and local officials will ultimately agree to the terms laid out by the White House remains to be seen, but the moves mark a significant shift in how the administration is responding to the unrest.
[READ MORE: Kanye West Issues Public Apology in Wall Street Journal Ad for Past Conduct]
