Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino will no longer oversee immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, a senior Trump administration official told MS NOW, as the White House scrambles to deal with the outrage over Alex Pretti’s killing in Minneapolis.
Bovino has served as the face of President Donald Trump’s immigration operations in Democratic-led cities, positioning himself as an enforcer and a provocative mouthpiece for the administration. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a high-level personnel matter, said Bovino’s departure was not a demotion. He wanted to leave Minnesota because of death threats, the official said, and his return to his post as chief of the El Centro, California, sector was a mutual agreement.
There will also be a reduction of Department of Homeland Security officers in Minnesota, two officials briefed on the matter told MS NOW on condition of anonymity to discuss law enforcement deployment details.
Trump has deployed border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to oversee immigration operations. Homan met with Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey separately Tuesday.
Bovino’s departure and the decrease in DHS personnel mark a notable shift from the administration in its aggressive crackdown in Minnesota after Pretti’s shooting by federal officers Saturday, though it’s unclear just how much it will change the government’s overall approach to immigration operations.
Trump met with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her top aide Corey Lewandowski for almost two hours Monday to discuss their approach in Minneapolis, a White House official told MS NOW.
The president is concerned about how things have played out in Minneapolis, including some of his top cabinet officials’ responses, added another White House official. Trump is looking for a strategy shift but is relatively fond of Noem, so it doesn’t necessarily mean she will be fired soon, that official added.
Trump himself appeared to reject his staffers’ framing of the shooting, telling reporters Tuesday that he did not believe Pretti was acting like an “assassin” as White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller had claimed. But — in a possible sign the administration is still sorting through its messaging — Trump suggested Pretti put himself in harm’s way because he had a firearm on him, even though Pretti had a pistol permit.
“With that being said,” Trump said, “you can’t have guns — you can’t walk in with guns, you just can’t.”
The National Rifle Association has pushed back on suggestions that federal law enforcement officers are “justified” in shooting people who carry firearms legally.
Trump ignored a question from reporters about the Second Amendment.
Despite the shakeup of federal operations in Minnesota, the changes may be more focused on optics. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the Border Patrol, has not said whether the officer who shot at Pretti will be placed on leave.
The Justice Department will not open a civil rights investigation into the shooting and will instead leave it to DHS to conduct two separate probes — one into whether CBP officers followed policy in the shooting, and another into whether Pretti broke any laws, MS NOW reported Tuesday.
Pretti was the second U.S. citizen killed by federal officers in Minnesota this month. Renee Good, a Minneapolis mother of three, was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7. A federal officer also shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis two weeks ago.
As it did with Good, the White House initially painted Pretti as the aggressor in his encounter with federal officers despite multiple videos contradicting that account. Miller and Noem falsely labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist,” and Bovino similarly blamed Pretti, an intensive care nurse, for his death.
As bipartisan criticism — and a partial government shutdown threat — over the shooting intensified, the administration appeared to soften its tone.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt distanced the president from his staffers’ accusations against Pretti.
Trump also made calls to Frey and Walz and struck what appeared to be a somewhat conciliatory tone toward the two Democrats he previously blamed for the chaos since thousands of federal agents arrived.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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Carol Leonnig and Marc Santia contributed to this report.
Jake Traylor is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.
Vaughn Hillyard is a senior White House reporter for MS NOW.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.