By Nandita Bose and Brad Brooks
WASHINGTON/MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, was set to take over the president's sweeping immigration operation in Minneapolis on Tuesday, as the White House tries to tamp down national outrage over the second fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen this month by federal agents.
The move to install Homan in place of top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino, who sources said is leaving after having led most of Trump's crackdowns in Democratic-led
cities, is part of a broader reset by the president amid some advisers' concerns that the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal agents could derail his immigration agenda.
Trump spent the weekend huddling with senior advisers to reassess the administration's response to Pretti's death on Saturday, according to a White House official and a source familiar with the talks.
The discussions included reducing the number of federal agents deployed to Minnesota, recalibrating the ICE mission in the state to focus more narrowly on deportations rather than broad enforcement operations and exploring greater coordination with state authorities. Trump also weighed whether immigration officers should be required to have body-worn cameras, as many police officers do, according to the White House official.
The killing of Pretti, an ICU nurse shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents on Saturday during protests, has become a full-blown political crisis for Trump, with even some Republicans in Congress calling for investigations.
Coupled with the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good earlier this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Pretti's shooting prompted renewed anger over the aggressive tactics of some 3,000 federal agents who have been roving the streets of Minneapolis for weeks.
Late on Monday, Minnesota's chief federal judge ordered the acting head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, to appear for a contempt hearing on Friday after the judge said the agency failed to comply with court orders that some detainees receive bond hearings.
"The court's patience is at an end," U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz wrote.
Bystander video of Pretti's killing was widely shared, contradicting some Trump officials' initial claims that Pretti, who was legally carrying a concealed gun but never touched it prior to being shot, posed a threat to law enforcement.
Public support for Trump's immigration enforcement tactics appeared to be waning both before and after the Pretti shooting, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. Some Republicans have voiced concern that absent a shift in tactics, Trump's mass deportation push could cost the party its congressional majorities in November's midterm elections.
TRUMP IN DAMAGE CONTROL MODE
The president held a two-hour meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the Oval Office on Monday evening after Noem asked to meet, a source briefed on the matter confirmed. Noem's job is not in jeopardy, the source said. The New York Times first reported the meeting.
The typically combative Trump has also struck a more conciliatory tone in public remarks. He characterized private conversations with both Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Monday as productive, while the two Democratic leaders offered similarly positive comments, a far cry from the vitriol the two sides had previously exchanged.
Walz's office said Trump had agreed to direct DHS to ensure state authorities could conduct their own investigation into the Pretti shooting, while Frey said on X that his understanding was that some federal agents would begin leaving the city on Tuesday.
Privately, Trump made clear to advisers he did not want to defend the agent's actions or attack Pretti, after Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller labeled Pretti an "assassin" and Bovino suggested he intended to "massacre" officers, among other attacks from administration officials. Video footage of the incident verified by Reuters contradicted those allegations.
Senior aides were asked not to target Pretti publicly, and the president discussed distancing himself from public comments made by Miller and Noem, the White House official said.
Bovino, who said the officers who killed Pretti were the true victims in Saturday's shooting, is expected to depart Minneapolis along with some Border Patrol agents deployed with him, a senior administration official told Reuters on Monday.
Another person familiar with the matter said Bovino had been stripped of his specially created title of "commander at large" of the Border Patrol and would return to his former job as a chief patrol agent along California's El Centro sector of the U.S.-Mexico border, before retiring soon after.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin disputed those reports, posting on X on Monday: "Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties."
VIDEO CONTRADICTS OFFICIAL ACCOUNT
DHS officials described the incident as an attack by Pretti, saying agents fired in self-defense after he approached them with a handgun, even though video showed Pretti holding a phone, not a gun, as agents wrestled him to the ground.
It also showed officers removing a firearm from his waistband after he was subdued, moments before they fatally shot him. Pretti was a licensed gun owner.
In another sign that support for Trump's immigration drive in Minnesota was weakening, a leading Republican candidate for governor in the state, Chris Madel, dropped his bid on Monday, saying the crackdown had gone too far.
"I cannot support the national Republicans' stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so," he said in a video statement.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington and Brad Brooks in Minneapolis; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson and Susan Heavey; Writing by Joseph Ax, editing by Deepa Babington)
