White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday he is working on a “drawdown” plan to bring some federal agents and officers out of Minnesota, hoping to calm soaring tensions over the massive federal presence and the protests against it.
Mr. Homan, tapped this week to take over control of the operation, emerged from three days of meetings to acknowledge that the way federal agents have carried out the mission has not “been perfect.”
He said he has secured some agreements from state and local leaders to cooperate better with the government in turning over deportation targets from their prisons and jails, which means the Trump administration can move federal agents out of the state.
“This is common sense cooperation that allows us to draw down on the number of people we have here. Yes, I said it, draw down the number of people we have here,” Mr. Homan said.
He said the drawdown will be tied to the level of cooperation state and local authorities provide.
Also Thursday, Sen. Susan M. Collins, a senior Republican from Maine, said the Department of Homeland Security will end an enforcement surge in her state. She said Secretary Kristi Noem promised her the change.
The surge in Maine began last week, with the administration citing the state’s “sanctuary politicians” as the reason to send in more personnel.
Homeland Security said it made 206 arrests in Maine from Jan. 20 to Jan. 24.
The department crossed the 3,500-arrest mark in Minnesota as of Wednesday, officials told The Washington Times.
Mr. Homan said the drawdown is not a retreat, but rather a recalibration based on that expectation of cooperation.
“We are not surrendering the president’s mission on immigration enforcement,” he said.
Mr. Homan also warned increasingly violent protesters, though, that their threats to Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel will not be ignored.
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He specifically called on state and local leaders to change their rhetoric and demand calm protesting from their residents.
Minnesota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office announced charges Thursday against 16 people accused of “violently assaulting” federal officers or property.
Mr. Homan appeared in Minneapolis alongside Marcos Charles, a senior ICE official, and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott.
Gone was Gregory Bovino, who had been given the title of commander-at-large of the Border Patrol and had overseen the enforcement surges in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minnesota.
Chief Bovino worked from the front lines, and his penchant for engaging protesters — including a too-fast finger on using harsh crowd control tactics — had made him the face of federal overreach for many Trump opponents.
In a video posted to social media by right-wing journalist Nick Sorter, Chief Bovino hailed the green uniform-clad Border Patrol agents he left over the months.
“I’m very proud of what you, the Mean Green Machine, are doing in Minneapolis right now, just like you’ve done it across the United States over these past tough nine months,” he said.
The shake-up came after last weekend’s slaying of Alex Pretti, shot by Border Patrol agents as he confronted them during an immigration operation.
Mr. Homan said he has met with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
He said the meeting with Mr. Ellison was particularly productive, with the attorney general agreeing that state law allows local authorities to honor ICE deportation detainer requests — in this case by notifying ICE before they release a deportation target.
Getting them from the jails means fewer agents need to go into communities to track them down.
Mr. Homan said one officer can take custody of a target in the safe confines of a jail, but to arrest in the community means a team of 15 agents to cover all contingencies and now, given the violent protests, the need for a security team to protect those officers.
Some 3,000 ICE and CBP personnel are in Minnesota. It’s the largest single-state operation in Homeland Security’s history.
It’s also produced some seriously tense moments, with protesters using encrypted messaging apps to orchestrate their own movements, tracking and confronting the federal officers.
Earlier this month, an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good in a confrontation. She partially blocked a roadway, ignored orders to get out of her SUV, then lurched the vehicle toward an ICE officer who had been videoing her from in front of the SUV.
The agent drew his gun and fired as the vehicle struck him.
Mr. Pretti was armed during a confrontation with CBP personnel. Some administration officials have described the shooting as “defensive,” though an initial agency review casts a different light.
That review said Mr. Pretti struggled with the officers, and an agent spotted the gun. Two others then fired their weapons at him.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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