President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he is sending Border Czar Tom Homan to Minnesota following the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol agent, an incident that has sparked renewed protests in a state already facing heightened tensions over recent law-enforcement shootings.
Trump said that Homan will “directly report to me” and help run the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Trump says that the Justice Department and Congress are also looking into Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
“I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota tonight. He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there. Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“Separately, a major investigation is going on with respect to the massive 20 Billion Dollar, Plus, Welfare Fraud that has taken place in Minnesota, and is at least partially responsible for the violent organized protests going on in the streets,” he continued.
“Additionally, the DOJ and Congress are looking at ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, who left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars. Time will tell all,” he added.
Homan’s deployment comes at a time when there is a lot of unrest in the Twin Cities because of ICE’s deployment. Federal agents have killed two people this month who were protesting against ICE: Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
There is a new investigation into Pretti’s death over the weekend.
“Tom Homan will be managing ICE operations on the ground in Minnesota and coordinating with others on the ongoing fraud investigations,” Leavitt told Fox News.
The Trump administration says that organized protesters are getting in the way of ICE operations, which are going after illegal aliens who are criminals.
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Federal officials say that violent protests in Minneapolis stopped one immigration arrest last week. An ICE agent lost part of his finger when a protester bit it off.
During a press conference on Sunday, U.S. Border Patrol Commander at Large Greg Bovino said that Border Patrol and ICE agents had to stop a planned operation because crowds got in the way, attacked officers, and made the situation chaotic.
He said that because of this, the suspect got away from the police. He said that the choices made by politicians, activists, and people who stood up to police were the only things that caused this.
“This individual is still roaming the streets today,” Bovino said. “This individual walks the streets today because of those choices made by politicians and those, perhaps, weaker-minded constituents that chose to follow directions of those politicians. Sad state of affairs.”
Minnesota political leaders are vowing to hold federal officials accountable following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.
Gov. Walz and other Minnesotans have vowed that the state “will have the last word” on the fatal shooting that they see as the result of the Trump administration’s controversial deployment of agents who are there to do immigration enforcement operations, all of which have been resisted by the governor and other Democrats.
“I have a strong statement here for our federal government,” Walz said. “Minnesota’s justice system will have the last word on this. It must have the last word.”
Minnesota National Guard members were deployed on Saturday at the governor’s request to secure the site of the shooting and the Whipple Federal Building, which is a known staging area for immigration authorities and has become a hotspot for protesters, according to the statement.
Pretti, a U.S. citizen and intensive care unit nurse for the VA, was killed during an encounter with federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.
Federal authorities said Pretti was armed with a handgun and claimed he intended to use it against law enforcement. Officials said a struggle occurred before an agent fired.
The incident follows the recent fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, 37, who was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer earlier this month.
