President Trump, responding to the Saturday shooting death of anti-ICE activist Alex Pretti, appears on the verge of withdrawing federal agents who have swarmed Minneapolis to hunt down illegal immigrants amid increasingly violent street protests.
After weeks of mayhem, Mr. Trump and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz talked by phone Monday.
Mr. Walz said the president “agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.”
Two days earlier, Mr. Pretti, who worked as an ICU nurse, was shot multiple times during a scuffle with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in downtown Minneapolis. The shooting death ignited a new wave of street protests targeting ICE agents in the area.
Mr. Trump indicated that he may pull ICE agents out of Minnesota and deploy them elsewhere.
He praised comments from Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican, who said on Fox News that ICE should be moved away from the tenuous situation and “maybe go to another city and let the people of Minneapolis decide.”
Mr. Trump said Mr. Walz called him “with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota.” He said they “seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”
Mr. Walz said he was “happy” that Mr. Trump had assigned border czar Tom Homan to intervene, the president said.
Mr. Homan flew to Minneapolis on Monday afternoon.
“I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession,” Mr. Trump said. “The Governor, very respectfully understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future.”
Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been leading the administration’s enforcement surge in cities nationwide, and some immigration agents are expected to leave Minnesota as early as Tuesday.
“This is a positive development — one that I hope leads to turning down the temperature and restoring order in Minnesota,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune posted on social media about Mr. Homan’s arrival.
Meanwhile, Minnesota asked U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez to issue an immediate order to shut down Mr. Trump’s immigration enforcement surge and to boot thousands of federal officers out of the state. Attorneys for the state said the latest shooting death of an American citizen requires the courts to rein in the White House.
Mr. Pretti, 37, is the second person killed in Minneapolis after scuffling with ICE agents. Activist Renee Good, 37, was fatally shot earlier this month after she blocked agents with her SUV and then lurched forward into an agent as she attempted to drive away.
“This situation is unprecedented in the 250-year history of our country. We have never had a federal government amass what is essentially an army of 3,000 to 4,000 masked, heavily armed federal agents and send them into a state to basically stir the pot with conduct that is pervasive and includes widespread illegal violent conduct,” said Brian Carter, a lawyer with the state attorney general’s office.
Judge Menendez was clearly sympathetic to the complaints and to the ongoing chaos in communities in and around Minneapolis. She questioned the Justice Department’s legal justification for sending in that sort of heavy force.
She also wondered whether she had the power to order a total pullout of the federal officers.
“One of the things I’m struggling with is that not all crises have a fix from a district court injunction. There are other things that are supposed to rein in this kind of conduct,” she said.
Minneapolis has become a central battleground in the escalating war over Mr. Trump’s immigration enforcement plans and the resistance to them in Democratic-led communities.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that for ICE agents to leave, Mr. Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey must agree to turn over illegal immigrants in their custody or with active warrants or known criminal histories. She said local police must assist in arresting illegal immigrants wanted for offenses, particularly violent crimes.
The president campaigned on ending the flood of illegal immigration into the U.S. and pledged to deport illegal immigrants, especially those who commit crimes. Some Democratic-led counties, including many in Minnesota, do not fully cooperate with ICE.
Homeland Security Department officials called on Mr. Walz and Mr. Frey earlier this month to honor ICE detainers for 1,360 illegal immigrants, among them violent criminals, who are held in custody across the state.
“If Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey implement these commonsense, cooperative measures, that have been implemented in nearly every state across the country, ICE and Border Patrol will not be needed … on the ground in Minnesota,” Ms. Leavitt said.
Mr. Walz said in his statement that he reminded the president that the state honors federal detainers when it releases prisoners from corrections facilities and notifies ICE if they are in the country illegally.
“There is not a single documented case of the department’s releasing someone from state prison without offering to ensure a smooth transfer of custody,” Mr. Walz said.
The Trump administration has become increasingly critical of the protests in Minnesota. It accuses far-left groups funded by wealthy liberals of coordinating and steering activists to areas where ICE is operating and encouraging them to harass and impede agents.
Several top Minnesota Democrats, among them Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, are accused of using secret Signal chat groups to organize and direct protesters to harass ICE agents. Ms. Flanagan denied the accusation.
Mr. Walz has been among those publicly encouraging protesters. Last week, he used a blue bullhorn to urge a crowd of activists to keep up “the resistance” and “cause good trouble.”
Vice President J.D. Vance, who visited ICE agents in Minneapolis last week, blamed the Saturday shooting on state and local officials. He said they “have created the chaos so they can have moments like yesterday, where someone tragically dies, and politicians get to grandstand about the evils of enforcing the border.”
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
