By Brad Brooks and Joseph Ax
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday he was "playing with fire" after the Democratic leader reiterated that his city would not help federal agents enforce immigration law, a day after the president said his administration would "de-escalate a bit" in the city.
Tensions remained high in Minneapolis, where observers and activists say immigration raids appear to have been more targeted and less confrontational
over the last 24 hours. The city has been convulsed by unrest after two U.S. citizens were shot dead by federal officers, including Saturday's killing of nurse Alex Pretti.
Trump's administration has signaled it will soften its approach, dispatching border czar Tom Homan to take over the operation from Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official whose aggressive tactics drew widespread criticism.
A senior administration official said Homan's arrival would mark a shift to more traditional targeted operations rather than the broad sweeps Bovino has led in multiple cities. Yet it remained unclear how much would change in a city where federal agents have regularly clashed with protesters.
Observers and activists told Reuters that Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity appeared to slow somewhat on Tuesday before resuming in full on Wednesday. They said there did now appear to be more of an emphasis on targeted exercises.
On Wednesday, ICE agents were seen in several parts of the city rolling up to homes and businesses in caravans of three vehicles with six to eight agents in total, then knocking on doors and looking around, seemingly for a specific person.
If that person was not found, observers said, the agents were seen leaving. In past weeks, agents might have begun randomly stopping people and demanding to see proof of legal status, a practice that has enraged community members and led to heated encounters.
It is difficult to know precisely how many raids are taking place. Authorities do not share that information, and volunteers who track ICE and Border Patrol vehicles say many of their encrypted communication chats have broken into atomized, hyper-local groups, partly to avoid infiltration by federal agents.
"They definitely shift around," said Patty O'Keefe, a community ICE observer in south Minneapolis. "Let up for a few days so people let their guard down, I think."
One observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he did not believe the change in tone from Trump meant there would be a meaningful slowdown in detentions.
"Like everybody out here, though, we can hope that maybe the change of having Homan come in could mean that ICE will shoot and kill less, that they won't attack people like us keeping watch on them," he said.
DEMOCRAT OMAR ATTACKED
In one sign that political tensions remain heated, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minneapolis Democrat and a frequent Trump target, was sprayed with a foul-smelling liquid by a man with a syringe during a Tuesday town hall, where she called for the abolition of ICE.
Omar was unharmed, and Minneapolis police arrested the suspect, Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, for third-degree assault. It was not clear whether Kazmierczak, who was booked into Hennepin County Jail, had an attorney.
Separately, Ecuador's foreign ministry sent a note of protest to the U.S. embassy in Quito after the ministry said an ICE agent tried to enter its Minneapolis consulate on Tuesday.
Under mounting political pressure, Trump had dialed back his attacks on Frey and Governor Tim Walz after speaking with both Democrats in the wake of Pretti's killing, vowing to work with them to lower the temperature.
But on social media on Wednesday, Trump faulted Frey for saying the city would not enforce immigration laws: "Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!"
Trump has threatened to cut off funding for states that include so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, which limit how much cooperation they give federal immigration authorities.
In response, Frey wrote on social media, "The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws."
TRUMP LOSING PUBLIC SUPPORT
Pretti, 37, was shot dead during protests near his home on Saturday, and some administration officials immediately accused him of planning to kill law enforcement officers, citing the handgun he was carrying.
But video verified by Reuters showed Pretti held only a phone in his hand when Border Patrol agents pushed him to the ground. Video also showed that an agent found Pretti's gun near his waist and removed it seconds before another agent shot a restrained Pretti in the back.
The killing, coupled with the earlier fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer, has become a major political crisis for Trump. A growing number of Republicans in Congress, who rarely buck Trump, have called for independent investigations into the shooting.
Stephen Miller, the White House adviser widely seen as the architect of Trump's immigration policy, said in a statement reported by CNN that agents "may not have been following" protocol before Pretti was shot. Miller had previously described Pretti as an "assassin" and "terrorist" immediately after the shooting.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Minneapolis; Additional reporting by Maria Alejandra Cardona in Minneapolis and Jonathan Allen in New York; Writing by Joseph Ax)
