Trump’s Border Enforcer to Leave Minnesota After Backlash (3)

Greg Bovino, the US Border Patrol commander who became the face of President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, is leaving the city following a mounting public outcry over the killing of two US citizens by federal agents in recent weeks.

Bovino and some Border Patrol agents are expected to begin departing as soon as Tuesday, according to local officials. The move follows protests, political turmoil and nationwide scrutiny of Operation Metro Surge, a federal enforcement effort that has posted thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota since last month.

The White House said it’s dispatching border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, where he will report directly to Trump and has been charged with easing tensions. Homan, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will meet with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey to discuss coordination between federal and local law enforcement.

Bovino had become a polarizing figure over his hardline tactics, including deploying chemical agents against protesters and his presence on the front lines of clashes between demonstrators and federal officers.

Before the Minnesota operation, he led immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina and New Orleans. In Chicago, a federal judge ordered him to wear a body camera and report daily to court as part of oversight of actions there.

The Atlantic reported on Monday that Bovino had been removed from his role as “commander at large” and was expected to return to his previous CBP position in Southern California. The Department of Homeland Security disputed that report, with Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson, saying in an email that “Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties.”

Read More: Trump Signals Minnesota Strategy Shift After Public Outcry

The backlash in Minnesota intensified after the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent during an enforcement operation.

Officials initially said Pretti posed a threat — Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller intimated on social media that Pretti was an “assassin” and “domestic terrorist,” while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the demonstrator showed up to “impede a law enforcement operation” and brandished a gun.

Available video of the incident didn’t show Pretti brandishing the firearm he was legally carrying, and suggested that the officers had disarmed him before shooting him repeatedly. Critics of the administration’s response included the National Rifle Association.

Pretti’s death came just weeks after the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good, a US citizen and Minneapolis mother of three, by an ICE agent during a similar operation in a residential neighborhood of the city.

Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, center, and law enforcement during a protest outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026.

Photographer: Ben Brewer/Bloomberg

Local officials called the federal presence chaotic and counterproductive. Frey said Minneapolis would continue to cooperate with state and federal authorities on serious criminal investigations but will refuse to assist in immigration arrests he deemed unconstitutional.

“Some federal agents will begin leaving the area tomorrow, and I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go,” Frey said Monday after speaking with Trump by telephone. “I will continue working with all levels of government to keep our communities safe, keep crime down, and put Minneapolis residents first.”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also spoke with Trump, describing the conversation as “productive,” a marked change from earlier tense exchanges. Walz’s office said the president agreed to consider independent investigations into the two fatal shootings and to review the size of the federal footprint in Minnesota.

The president, speaking after the calls in an interview with WABC that aired Tuesday, expressed optimism that he could strike a compromise with leaders in Minnesota to deescalate tensions.

“All I said: just give us your criminals, and if you give us the criminals, it all goes away,” Trump said.

Trump’s move to send Homan, who is seen as more focused on targeted enforcement than broad street operations, suggested the president might recognize that his maximum pressure deportation campaign had eroded public faith in immigration officials. Trump described Homan as “tough but fair.”

The New York Times reported that Trump met with Noem and her aide Corey Lewandowski for almost two hours on Monday evening in a sign of how seriously he’s taking the outcry.

At a briefing Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had laid out steps he wants Minnesota officials to take to “restore law and order,” including turning over immigrants accused or convicted of crimes to federal authorities and requiring local police to assist in apprehending and detaining those sought by federal agents.

Homan, she said, would manage ICE operations on the ground and focus on arresting “criminal” undocumented immigrants.

The sanctuary city debate lies at the heart of the conflict. Trump has long criticized those cities and states, typically run by Democrats, that limit cooperation with ICE, accusing them of shielding criminals and threatening to withhold federal funding.

Read More: Amodei, Hoffman Join Tech Workers Decrying Minnesota Violence

Public opinion polls show increasing discomfort with the administration’s tactics, even among voters who broadly support immigration enforcement. Nearly half of Americans in a recent Politico poll said the deportation campaign was too aggressive, and one in three Trump voters said while they support the goals of the effort, they disapproved of how it’s being implemented.

Business leaders in Minnesota, including executives from Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. Inc., have joined calls for de-escalation, warning that the federal operation was damaging worker morale and the state’s economic stability, while executives in Silicon Valley have also criticized ICE.

Read more: Amodei, Hoffman Join Tech Workers Decrying Minnesota Violence

In Washington, Senate Democrats have threatened to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless restrictions are placed on enforcement operations — raising the specter of a partial government shutdown — while some Republicans are urging for more restraint and clearer strategy on immigration from the administration.

Meanwhile, a Minnesota judge has ordered the acting chief of ICE to appear in court on Friday to answer questions about the Trump administration’s handling of bond hearings for detained immigrants. The judge said the administration has failed to comply with orders to hold bond hearings for the detainees.

“This is one of dozens of court orders with which respondents have failed to comply in recent weeks,” wrote Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz in an order Monday directing acting ICE Chief Todd Lyons to appear in person Jan. 30 to show why he shouldn’t be held in contempt.

(Updates with court demanding ICE chief to appear in court in last paragraph.)

--With assistance from Sara Forden.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Myles Miller in New York at mmiller899@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net

Sarah McGregor, John Harney

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