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Hours later, newly assigned Tom Homan suggested the Department of Homeland Security could reduce the number of agents and officers Deployed to Minneapolis President Donald Trump appears to be at odds with his border czar after nurse Alex Pretty was shot and killed.
Speaking to reporters outside the premiere of his wife’s documentary, MelaniaAt the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Trump was asked whether the Department of Homeland Security would pull immigration enforcement agents out of the Gopher State’s largest city. The week-long roving campaign aimed at arresting anyone suspected of being in the United States illegally led to widespread protests across the city.
Trump responded: “We keep our country safe. We will do whatever it takes to keep our country safe.”
Asked to clarify whether he would “withdraw” agents from Minneapolis, Trump responded: “No, no. Not at all.”
The president claims he will not withdraw thousands of agents and officials from Minnesota. Less than a day later, Homan told reporters at a news conference after arriving in Minnesota that a “drawdown” could occur if Minnesota authorities follow through on what he called a tentative agreement to turn over people without legal status being held in state and city jails and jails.
Trump sent Homan to Minnesota earlier this week after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol “acting commander” Greg Bovino faced criticism from members of their own party for their poor performance in the immediate aftermath of the shooting of Pretty, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse who worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Two agents shot Pretty as many as 10 times in the back as he lay face down on the sidewalk, pinned down by other Border Patrol and ICE agents, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
After Preeti reached out to a protester who was pushed by an agent, agents grabbed and subdued him. As one agent threw Pretty to the ground, he unhooked a 9mm pistol that Pretty was legally carrying, but after another agent yelled “gun,” someone else shot him.
Noem claimed Saturday that the shooting was the result of “a situation where someone arrives on the scene to cause maximum harm to another person and kills a law enforcement officer,” even though Pretty never drew his weapon because he had a permit to carry one and did not confront CBP agents before being caught after trying to help a woman who was pushed by a CBP agent.
She also falsely accused him of “reacting violently” when agents tried to disarm him – a claim that appears to be contradicted by video of the shooting.
Noem has since defended her false statements, attributing them to talking points provided by the White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller Miller, a key architect of Trump’s mass deportation campaign, has in turn thrown Border Patrol agents under the bus, claiming in a statement that he was fed controversial false information from them.
But Trump’s decision to send Homan, a career ICE and Border Patrol agent who served as ICE chief for the first 18 months of his first term, appeared to be an effort to keep Noem on her side. actually Chief of Staff Corey Lewandowski and her hand-picked Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino to avoid causing more trouble for the administration.
At the same press conference, Homan mentioned possible “drawdowns” in the wake of two fatal shootings of federal agents. Homan acknowledged that “no agency is perfect” but said he would not “abandon the mission of the president.”