Donald Trump said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would remain in her post despite the president’s decision to reshuffle the leadership running his deportation effort in Minnesota following widespread outcry over the killing of two US citizens by federal agents.
“I think she’s doing a very good job,” Trump told reporters Tuesday as he departed the White House for a trip to Iowa. “The border is totally secure.”
The public vote of confidence came a day after the president ordered the shakeup in the aftermath of the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent during an enforcement operation.
Trump’s decision to dispatch border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, effectively replacing Greg Bovino, the US Border Patrol commander who became the face of the contentious immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, spurred widespread speculation that the president may be frustrated with how his deportation efforts are being carried out and viewed by the public.
Trump’s expression of support for Noem suggested he wasn’t immediately looking to further upend his immigration team. Still, the president indicated he was pleased by the reaction to his decision to appoint Homan, a Noem rival within the administration seen as more focused on targeted enforcement than broad street operations.
“He’s meeting with the governor, and he’s meeting with the mayor, I think, later, and I hear that’s all going very well,” Trump said of Homan.
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.
Initial statements by administration officials — including Noem, who said Pretti showed up to “impede a law enforcement operation,” and senior adviser Stephen Miller, who intimated on social media that Pretti was an “assassin” and “domestic terrorist” — drew bipartisan criticism. 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.
Trump on Tuesday notably declined to say whether the Pretti shooting was justified.
“We’re doing a big investigation,” he said. “I want to see the investigation. I’m going to be watching over it. I want a very honorable and honest investigation. I have to see it myself.”
“You can’t walk in with guns, you can’t do that,” he added, calling the killing “a very unfortunate incident.”
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 the goal, they disapproved with how it’s being implemented.
Still, Trump and his inner circle have been reluctant to remove officials in his second term, after frequent firings and resignations became a regular feature of his first presidential stint.
That appeared to still be the case on Tuesday, as the president drew some of his embattled administration officials close. Noem and her top aide, Corey Lewandowski — the first campaign manager of Trump’s 2016 presidential bid — met with the president Monday night for nearly two hours at the White House, the New York Times reported. Separately, Miller traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One as he flew to Iowa.
But even as Trump appeared eager to calm the palace intrigue, he also signaled a desire to find compromise with state and local officials. Homan was set to meet with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. And the president indicated in a radio interview that aired Tuesday morning he hoped to work with them.
“All I said: just give us your criminals, and if you give us the criminals, it all goes away,” Trump told WABC.
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.
In Washington, Senate Democrats have warned they would 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 more restraint and a clearer strategy on immigration from the administration.
Meanwhile, a judge in Minnesota 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.
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