(The Hill) — President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, on Thursday publicly acknowledged internal changes made to federal immigration operations in Minnesota following the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens at the hands of federal officers, saying President Trump wants to “fix” immigration operations in the state.
“President Trump wants this fixed, and I’m going to fix it, with your help,” Homan said, speaking at a press conference in Minneapolis.
The event marked Homan’s first public remarks after Trump dispatched him to Minnesota on Monday, following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. The administration in the aftermath of the shooting has made changes to the operation in Minnesota, including pulling U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino from the operation.
“I do not want to hear that everything that has been done here has been perfect. Nothing is ever perfect. Anything can be improved on. What we’ve been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book,” Homan said on Thursday.
“The mission is going to improve because of changes we’re making internally. No agency organization is perfect. President Trump and I, along with others in the administration have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made,” he added.
The border czar went on to say the administration is working to “draw down” the federal presence in Minnesota.
“I have staff from CBP and from ICE working on a draw down plan,” he said, referring to Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “What does that look like based on the cooperation? What does that look like based on how many targets we have left to find.”
Homan also touched on his conversations with state and local officials, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
“We didn’t agree on everything. I don’t expect to agree on everything,” he said. “Bottom line is you can’t fix problems if you don’t have discussions.”
Homan noted they did not agree with state and local officials that they should be involved in immigration enforcement.
“I didn’t ask them to be immigration officers. I’m asking them to be cops working with the cops to help us take criminal aliens off the street,” he said.
Tensions came to a head in Minneapolis following Pretti’s shooting over the weekend, which came just weeks after Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer in the city.
While some administration officials initially accused Pretti of acting as the aggressor in the incident, multiple video angles of the shooting tell a different story.
The footage shows an officer shooting Pretti in the back after an altercation in which Pretti, filming the officers, sought to help a woman being pepper-sprayed before he was also pepper-sprayed. Video appears to show an officer taking Pretti’s gun and walking away before the ICU nurse was shot.
The administration has since taken a notably softer tone on the shooting in recent days, with Trump saying he never heard his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller refer to Pretti as “a domestic terrorist.”
