WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his administration are trying a new approach to immigration enforcement following the second fatal shooting of an American citizen by federal agents on a snow-covered Minneapolis street.
Who’s out: Gregory Bovino, the border control commander who had become the face of the militarized operations in Minneapolis and whose long, olive Army overcoat with shiny buttons drew uncomfortable comparisons to SS officers from Nazi Germany. News reports indicate Bovino will return to his old post at the El Centro Border Patrol Sector in California.
Who’s in: Tom Homan, the White House border czar whom Trump has dispatched to Minneapolis to oversee immigration enforcement there. Homan “knows and likes many of the people there,” Trump said, and is “tough but fair.” Homan was the architect of Trump's family separation policy in his first administration and ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm during President Barack Obama.
Mostly out: Blaming the victim.
Alex Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse who treated sick veterans before he was pinned to the ground by Border Patrol agents on Saturday, Jan. 24, and shot multiple times. Bovino and other top administration officials initially claimed Pretti had brandished a pistol at officers and labeled him a “domestic terrorist.” But after several videos contradicted that narrative, the administration tried shifting the blame to Minnesota Democrats for what Vice President JD Vance described as “engineered chaos” in the streets.
