White House Border Czar Tom Homan spoke to reporters in Minneapolis Thursday morning, arriving in the city less than a week after immigration officers shot and killed Alex Pretti during protests. During his comments, Homan said he came to the city to “seek solutions.”
“I didn’t come to Minnesota for photo ops or headlines,” Homan said. “I came here to seek solutions, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
He added that community safety in the city is paramount and praised the progress made in the last few days. He said he will stay in the city “’til the problem’s gone.”
“We’ve made a lot of progress in the last few days,” Homan said. “I’ve been on the ground since Monday to regain law and order.”
Homan also noted that he’s met with Democratic state officials since arriving, including Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey, and Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Attorney General.
Bovino out, Homan in
Homan’s arrival in the city comes after President Donald Trump ordered a leadership shakeup.
Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino departed Minneapolis after making unsubstantiated claims that Pretti intended to “massacre” immigration agents.
Homan declined to comment on Pretti’s death, saying, “Do I have an opinion? Yeah. A personal opinion. I’m not going to share that with you… We’ll let the investigation play out.”
Trump has tasked Homan with overseeing operations in the city, signaling a shift toward what the administration calls a more “targeted approach.”
“President Trump wants this fixed, and I’m going to fix it,” Homan said Thursday.
New approach to immigration efforts
According to Reuters, immigration agents received new guidance Wednesday instructing them to avoid engaging with “agitators.”
“DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR ENGAGE WITH AGITATORS,” the directive states. “It serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation. No one is going to convince the other. The only communication should be the officers issuing commands.”
The guidance also outlines a move toward “targeted enforcement of aliens with a criminal history,” noting, “this includes arrests, not just convictions. ALL TARGETS MUST HAVE A CRIMINAL NEXUS.”
During Thursday’s press conference, Homan touched on these changes, saying officers would focus more on working in jails and prisons and spend less time focused on street operations.
He added that Ellison told Homan county jails “may notify ICE of the release dates” of “criminal public safety risks” so ICE can take them into custody.
The new guidance says agents are expected to use megaphones to issue commands and “verbalize every step of the arrest process.”
Another notable change: Border Patrol will now take a secondary role to ICE after months of agent-led clashes in the city.
