bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

US President Donald Trump announced on Monday he is sending a top official to Minnesota as outrage grew over his administration’s militarised immigration raids and the shooting dead of a second protester in Minneapolis.
Trump said that Tom Homan, his point man for border security, would arrive in the state later and “will report directly to me”.
The high-profile assignment suggested that the 79-year-old Republican president is seeking to regain control over a rapidly deteriorating political and security situation.
Minneapolis has become ground zero in the clash between Trump and growing numbers of Americans over his nationwide immigration crackdown.

A federal judge in Minneapolis was to consider on Monday whether the deployment of federal officers – many of them masked, heavily armed and unidentified – violates the state of Minnesota’s sovereignty.
And in Congress, Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the US government unless immigration enforcement agencies are reformed.
Point-blank shootings by ICE agents
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has been transformed under Trump into the United States’ most heavily funded law enforcement body. But polls show growing anger over its frequently brutal tactics.
A huge rally took place in bitter cold in Minneapolis on Friday to protest the raids and the point-blank shooting by an ICE agent of protester Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, on January 7.

Then on Saturday, immigration agents gunned down Alex Jeffrey Pretti, also 37, after having already tackled him to the ground. Like Good, the intensive care unit nurse was a US citizen.
New rallies erupted after his death in Minneapolis, New York and other major cities.
Trump has so far dismissed concerns.
His first reaction to Pretti’s killing was to suggest that the nurse had come intending to shoot at the police.
Pretti was carrying a pistol with him at the time but never removed it and had apparently already been disarmed when he was shot. He was licensed to carry a weapon.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Sunday accused Trump of pushing a “flat-out insane” narrative.
Trump repeated the insinuation that Pretti was to blame when he told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday: “I don’t like any shooting... but I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun.”

Republican criticism
Monday’s court action will open a new front in the stand-off.
The judge will hear arguments from state and city lawyers that the federal deployments amount to an occupying force. Also under consideration is a bid to force federal officials to preserve evidence related to Pretti’s killing.
The lawsuits highlight the deep rift between local and federal law enforcement over the deployment, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge”.
Trump’s immigration raids have focused deliberately on Democratic-run cities, pitting mayors and governors against the president.
Local police have repeatedly confronted federal agents and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has even suggested he could call out the state’s National Guard to push back against the federal forces.

Trump will also be watching signs of growing disenchantment from his Republican Party in Congress. The party is usually in lockstep with Trump but it has only a slender majority.
One of the most prominent cautions came from House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, who signalled Sunday that federal agents should withdraw from Minneapolis – an intervention that would normally be unheard of from a figure considered one of Trump’s staunchest loyalists.
Trump told the Journal that the immigration agents would leave Minneapolis “at some point”.


Senior diplomat resigns as Norway investigates Epstein links

Romania, Argentina leaders invited to Trump’s Board of Peace meeting in US

Iran sentences Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi to over 7 more years in prison

Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney quits over Mandelson-Epstein fallout

United States

Trump sends border tsar Homan to Minnesota after second fatal ICE shooting

Federal agents try to clear demonstrators near a hotel, using tear gas during a demonstration in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis on January 25. Photo: AP

White House border ysar Tom Homan is interviewed on the Fox Business Network, in New York earlier this month. Photo: AP

People take part in a demonstration a day after Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Photo: Reuters

Renee Good speaks while sitting in the driver’s seat of a car, moments before she was shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7. Photo: Alpha News/Reuters

This undated photo shows Alex J. Pretti, the man who was shot by a federal officer in Minneapolis on January 24. Photo: Michael Pretti/AP

‘Wake-up call’: Obama and Clinton speak out as latest Minneapolis killing shocks US

Clashes at the scene where federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

The moment the first shots were fired at Alex Pretti. Photo: Video via Reuters 

Alex Pretti, the man who was shot in Minneapolis. Photo: Michael Pretti via AP

The Department of Homeland Security says this is the gun that Alex Pretti brought to the scene in Minneapolis when he was shot. Photo: Department of Homeland Security via TNS

People gather during a vigil for Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Photo: AP

US nurse shot dead by ICE officer in Minneapolis amid Trump crackdown

A federal agent shoots tear gas cannisters during scuffles at the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Alex Pretti, the man who was shot dead by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, is seen in an undated image provided by his father. Photo: Michael Pretti via AP

Federal immigration officers use pepper spray on observers after a shooting in Minneapolis on Saturday. Photo: AP

People gather at the intersection of 26th Street and Nicollet Avenue after a fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday. Photo: AFP

A handgun said to have been recovered from a man who was shot in Minneapolis is seen in an image released by the Department of Homeland Security. Photo: DHS via Reuters

A woman cries as people gather around a makeshift memorial at the site where Alex Pretti was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

Federal agents tie police tape on a pole to block off the scene of a shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Minneapolis ICE shooting: mayor urges activists not to take Trump’s ‘bait’

Two people sit in the street with their hands up in front of Minnesota State Patrol during a protest in Minneapolis on Friday. Photo: AP

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference in Minneapolis on Saturday. Photo: AP

ICE agents detain a protester in Minneapolis on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Minnesota, US officials clash over investigation into ICE agent’s killing of woman

A demonstrator protests outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Washington on Thursday. Photo: AFP

A makeshift memorial for Renee Nicole Good. Photo: AP

Renee Nicole Good, who was shot dead in her car by a federal agent in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Photo: Social media via Reuters

Border Patrol agents use chemical irritants to disperse a crowd trying to prevent them from leaving the scene where Renee Nicole Good was shot. Photo: Reuters

Gregory Bovino, a US Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns. Photo: AP

Man shot by federal officer in Minneapolis as tensions flare over crackdown

A federal agent walks through tear gas smoke after it was used on protesting community members in  Minneapolis on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Law enforcement officers at the scene of a new shooting in Minneapolis. Photo: AP

Law enforcement at the scene of the latest shooting. Photo: AP

A protester attempts to protect themselves as federal agents fire munitions and pepper balls on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

News

World

United States & Canada

President tasks Tom Homan with overseeing operations as outcry grows over the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis


President tasks Tom Homan with overseeing operations as outcry grows over the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.


Trump sends border tsar Homan to Minnesota after second fatal ICE shooting

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}President tasks Tom Homan with overseeing operations as outcry grows over the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis

President tasks Tom Homan with overseeing operations as outcry grows over the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis