Minnesota asks courts to ease immigration blitz after 2 shootings, as Trump sends his border czar
President Donald Trump said on social media Monday that he is sending czar Tom Homan to Minnesota, two days after a second US citizen was shot and killed by federal immigration officials in the state.
Trump posted on social media that Homan will report directly to him.
The president’s statement comes after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino led controversial news conferences over the weekend regarding the killing of Alex Pretti on Saturday.
Both officials defended the actions of Border Patrol agents as soon as possible, instead of waiting for an investigation to be conducted.
Videos of the incident reviewed by the Associated Press appear to contradict the Trump administration’s claims that the gun was fired “in self-defense” against Pretti as he “approached” them with a gun. While Pretti was armed, he had a license to carry a concealed weapon, and may have been in strict compliance with the state’s firearms laws.
Pretti can only be seen holding a phone in his hand in the videos of the moments before his murder.
‘Amazing job’: Trump
It is unclear what Homan’s responsibilities will be. He has been criticized by Democrats in Congress for his defense of Trump’s tough immigration policies and deportation efforts, and for taking a $50,000 bribe last year from an undercover FBI job, an incident the Trump administration says was not a criminal matter.
He was the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Trump’s first term. Before returning to the federal government in this capacity, Homan was a consultant for a company that invests in private prisons.
Trump, in an interview published by the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, showed his willingness to finally withdraw immigration officials from the Minneapolis area, the newspaper reported.
“At some point we’re going to leave. We’re done, they’ve done a great job,” Trump told the Journal but did not give a time frame for when the agents might leave.
In two lengthy social media posts, the Republican president said Democrats encouraged people to block the law. He also called on Minnesota officials to cooperate with immigration officials and “hold accountable” people who were in the US illegally.
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2 court hearings stem from the shooting
Meanwhile, a federal judge will hear arguments Monday about whether to at least temporarily halt Minnesota’s immigration crackdown.
The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, five days after Renee Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7.
Since the initial court filing, states and cities have added significantly to their original petition in an effort to restore the order that was in place before the Trump administration launched Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota in Dec. 1.
RT Rybak, former mayor of Minneapolis, says the city has been attacked by federal government forces, but ‘we will not accept it.’ He also said that Trump administration representatives were spreading disinformation about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who killed other protesters. ‘No one here is a terrorist,’ he said.
The lawsuit asks US District Judge Katherine Menendez to order a reduction in the number of law enforcement officers and agents in Minnesota back to pre-operational levels and limit the scope of the law enforcement.
Attorneys for the Justice Department called the lawsuit “legally void” and said “Minnesota is seeking a veto over law enforcement.” They asked the judge to dismiss the petition or at least suspend his order pending the pending appeal.
Attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Minnesota.
“If left unchecked, the federal government will undoubtedly be emboldened to continue illegal conduct in Minnesota and never again,” the attorneys general wrote.
It is unclear when the judge might issue a ruling.
Mendez ruled in a separate case on Jan. 16 that federal officials in Minnesota cannot arrest or detain peaceful protesters who do not obstruct authorities, including people who are being followed and watched by agents.
The appeals court temporarily suspended the decision three days before Saturday’s incident. 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 their stay because of Pretti’s murder.
The Department of Justice argued in a response filed Sunday that the stay should continue, saying the order was ineffective and overly broad.
In another case, a separate judge, Eric Tostrud, issued an order late Saturday barring the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to Pretti’s shooting.
A hearing for that case was scheduled for Monday afternoon in federal court in St. Paul, Minn.
A week after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, another ICE-involved shooting in the city is fueling tensions between law enforcement and protesters. As President Donald Trump threatens to bring in the National Guard, Andrew Chang explains the rise of ICE in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Photos provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said the move was necessary after the Justice Department in DC declined to continue investigating the Good shooting. The department later said it was investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over whether they were impeding the state’s immigration efforts.
The unrest, especially in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, could have political ramifications for Americans abroad. Democratic anger over anti-immigration tactics has led the party’s senators to oppose a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, raising the possibility of a partial government shutdown by the end of the week.
Six of the 12 spending bills in the current budget year have been signed into law by the president. Six others are still awaiting action in the Senate, and if senators fail to act by midnight on Friday, funding for Homeland Security and other agencies covered under the six bills will end.
Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada accused Noem of trying to “mislead the American public” and said he “must be impeached and removed from office immediately.”
IImpeachment is unlikely in the Republican-controlled Congress, although several Republicans have called for a thorough investigation of federal immigration policies in Minnesota.
