MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Monday that some federal immigration enforcement officers would soon leave his city following a conversation with President Donald Trump, who praised the discussion that declared that “lots of progress is being made."
Frey said he asked Trump in a phone call to end the immigration enforcement surge and that Trump agreed the present situation cannot continue.
The mayor said some agents will begin leaving
Tuesday. Frey said he would keep pushing for others involved in Operation Metro Surge to go.
Among the agents who are expected to depart was senior Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Trump dispatched his border czar to Minnesota to take charge of much the administration's immigration enforcement efforts.
Bovino has been at the center of the administration’s 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.
The border czar, Tom Homan, will take charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
The person familiar with the matter was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Bovino's 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.
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.
In other developments, Trump declared that he was now on a “similar wavelength” as the governor following the second fatal shooting by federal immigration officers this month.
Trump and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz spoke 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 in a lawsuit aimed at halting the federal immigration enforcement surge in the state.
“We, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” the president wrote in a social media post.
Walz, in a statement, said the call was “productive" and that impartial investigations into the shootings were needed. Trump said his administration was looking for “any and all” criminals the state has in their custody. Walz said the state Department of Corrections honors federal requests for people in its custody.
It was unclear whether the new tone would lead to changes. 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 the immigration operation.
She said the case was a priority, though she issued no immediate ruling.
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’s enforcement actions.
“If this is not stopped right here, right now, I don’t think anybody who is seriously looking at this problem can have much faith in how our republic is going to go in the future,” Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Brian Carter said.
The judge questioned the government’s motivation behind the crackdown and expressed skepticism about a letter recently sent by Attorney General Pam Bondi to Minnesota 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.
“I mean, is there no limit to what the executive can do under the guise of enforcing immigration law?” Menendez asked. She noted that the federal requests are the subject of litigation.
Brantley Mayers, a Justice Department attorney, said the government's goal is to enforce federal law. Mayers said one lawful action should not be used to discredit another lawful action.
“I don’t see how the fact that we’re 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,” Mayers said.
Menendez questioned where the line was between violating the Constitution and the executive's power to enforce the law. She also asked whether she was being asked to decide between state and federal policies.
“That begins to feel very much like I am deciding which policy approach is best,” she said.
At one point, while discussing the prospect of federal officers entering residences without a warrant, the judge expressed reluctance to decide issues not yet raised in a lawsuit before her.
“I can’t be the global keeper of all things here. Like, presumably that will be litigated," she said to the state's attorney.
Menendez made it clear that she was struggling with how to rule because the case is so unusual, and there are few precedents.
"It’s because this is important that I’m doing everything I can to get it right,” she said.
The state of Minnesota and the cities sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, five days after Renee Good was shot by an Immigration and Customs officer. The shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol officer on Saturday added urgency to the case.
Trump posted Monday on social media that Homan would report directly to him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Homan would be “the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis” during continued operations by federal immigration officers.
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.
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.
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, filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Minnesota.
"If left unchecked, the federal government will no doubt be emboldened to continue its unlawful conduct in Minnesota and to repeat it elsewhere,” the attorneys general wrote.
Menendez ruled in a separate case on Jan. 16 that federal officers in Minnesota cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities, including people who follow and observe agents.
An appeals court temporarily suspended that ruling three days before Saturday’s shooting. But the plaintiffs in that case, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, asked the appeals court late Saturday for an emergency order lifting the stay in light of Pretti's killing.
The Justice Department argued in a reply filed Sunday that the stay should remain in place, calling the injunction unworkable and overly broad.
In yet another case, a different federal judge, Eric Tostrud, issued an order late Saturday blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to Saturday's 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.
A hearing in that case is scheduled for Monday afternoon in federal court in St. Paul.
On Sunday night, protesters targeted a Minneapolis hotel where federal agents were believed to be staying, blocking a major avenue on the edge of the University of Minnesota campus.
A freelance photographer working for The Associated Press saw smashed glass in the hotel lobby, as well as graffiti with obscenities and threats directed at ICE.
A Minneapolis police officer was inside the hotel and tried to provide aid to a federal agent who was injured. More officers from local and state agencies planned to move in to “deescalate the situation, and make arrests,” Minneapolis police said Monday in a statement.
But as they began to reach the scene and arrested two people, federal agents arrived and “deployed chemical munitions,” the police statement said. A DHS spokesperson said a statement on the situation would be provided later Monday.
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Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in Minneapolis and Mike Catlaini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
