White House reviews immigration tactics after fatal Minneapolis shooting; Trump vows to ‘de‑escalate’
WASHINGTON — The White House is examining whether U.S. immigration agents breached protocol before the fatal shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti during weekend protests in Minneapolis, senior aide Stephen Miller said, as the administration signaled a shift in tactics amid mounting political fallout.
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Miller, who oversees President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, said the administration had issued “clear guidance” that additional personnel sent to Minnesota were to protect deportation teams and create a physical barrier between arrest units and demonstrators. “We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,” he said in a statement.
The White House later said Miller was referring to general guidance given to agents statewide, not the specific incident in which Pretti, 37, was killed. It said officials would examine why “additional force protection assets” were not present to support Saturday’s operation.
Protocol questions follow reversal on shooting narrative
Miller’s acknowledgment came days after he labeled Pretti a “would-be assassin,” remarks he attributed to an initial statement by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem falsely claiming Pretti was brandishing a weapon. Video evidence later showed Pretti was not holding a gun when he approached federal agents; he had a sidearm, but agents had removed it before he was shot multiple times at close range.
Trump said Monday his administration was “going to de-escalate a little bit” in Minneapolis, while maintaining confidence in Noem despite calls from top Democrats for her firing or impeachment over the department’s handling of the crisis. The president met with Noem for two hours in the Oval Office at her request, according to a person briefed on the meeting.
Recalibrating the surge
Tom Homan, the president’s designated “border czar,” met separately with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as the White House worked to lower tensions and narrow the scope of enforcement. A senior administration official said Homan would move away from broad, public neighborhood sweeps that Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino led in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Chicago, and shift to more targeted operations.
Frey said he reiterated his request that the enforcement action — known as Operation Metro Surge — “come to an end as quickly as possible.” Walz said he pressed for impartial investigations into Pretti’s killing and the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, and for a reduction in the roughly 3,000 federal agents deployed to the city. Homan called the meetings a “productive starting point.”
Tension on the streets remained high. At a town hall, a man sprayed an unknown liquid at U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar as she called for abolishing ICE and for Noem’s resignation. Ecuador’s foreign ministry said an ICE agent attempted to enter its Minneapolis consulate on Monday.
Legal and political pressure intensifies
Pretti’s death has sharpened scrutiny of the federal presence in Minneapolis and complicated the White House’s immigration push ahead of November’s midterms. Even some Republicans have called for investigations. Minnesota’s chief federal judge threatened to hold acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in contempt over the agency’s failure to comply with court orders granting some detainees bond hearings.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll suggested public support for Trump’s enforcement tactics was waning before and after Pretti’s killing. Privately, some advisers worry the back-to-back shootings and images of heavily armed federal agents could derail broader immigration plans.
Trump characterized recent talks with Walz and Frey as productive, a shift from weeks of bitter exchanges. Both Democrats were subpoenaed last week in a Justice Department probe into whether their opposition to Operation Metro Surge constituted a crime. At the White House, Trump expressed sympathy for Pretti’s family and said he would watch the investigation, adding that Pretti “certainly shouldn’t have been carrying a gun” — a remark at odds with some gun-rights allies.
House Democratic leaders said they would pursue impeachment proceedings against Noem unless she is removed, though any effort would require Republican backing in the GOP-controlled chamber. Inside the administration, weekend discussions included reducing the number of agents in Minnesota, narrowing the mission to deportations and coordinating more closely with state authorities, a White House official said.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
