Trump aides’ reversal on shooting: Policy change or damage control?

Minneapolis — Key Republicans in the Trump administration are retreating from their blanket defense of Border Patrol agents who fatally shot a U.S. citizen Saturday on a Minneapolis street, part of a larger effort by the White House to turn down the temperature after the killing provoked widespread outrage.

But it remains unclear whether the tamping down of Republican rhetoric is just damage control after the shooting, or whether it will usher in a more fundamental scaling back of President Trump’s hard-line immigration crackdown in American cities from Los Angeles to Chicago.

In Minneapolis, there were few signs of a reduction in force on the streets, where tensions have been high since the shooting.

On Wednesday morning, protesters gathered outside the federal Whipple Building, the epicenter of immigration activity in the city, as a steady stream of federal agents entered and exited.

“Traitor!” one woman yelled out to a car driven by masked agents.

“Murderers!” a man said.

As Richi Mead, dressed in a neon vest that labeled him as a peaceful observer (“DON’T SHOOT”), tracked federal vehicles coming in and out, he said he did not believe there had been a reduction in the number of federal immigration agents in his city. The rate of cars he saw Wednesday, he said, was “business as usual.”

“They’ve entrenched themselves here,” he said of federal agents. “There’s no end to this — and there’s no end to Minnesotans showing up.”

As a growing number of Republicans have joined Democrats to protest Alex Pretti’s killing and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faces increasing criticism, Trump has expressed a desire to “de-escalate a little bit.”

Senior officials — such as Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and Homeland Security advisor — have backtracked on their initial defense of the federal agents who fired the fatal shots.

Just a few hours after Border Patrol agents shot the 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse Saturday in Minneapolis, Miller said on X: “An assassin tried to murder federal agents.”

But that statement, along with others made by Noem, were contradicted by cellphone videos showing Pretti was holding a phone, not a gun, when federal agents shoved him to the ground and shot him.

On Tuesday, Miller issued a statement to CNN acknowledging that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents may have deviated from protocol before the fatal shooting. The White House had provided “clear guidance” to the Department of Homeland Security on how to handle protesters, or “disruptors,” Miller said.

“We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol,” Miller said.

A White House spokesperson said that Miller was referring to general guidance given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement that extra personnel sent to Minnesota for force protection “should be used … to create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors.”

Officials will examine why additional force-protection assets may not have been present to support the operation, the spokesperson said.

On Wednesday, a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson disclosed that two Border Patrol agents involved in the shooting had been placed on administrative leave Saturday.

But top Republicans in the White House have yet to announce any major rollback of their aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

Kevin R. Johnson, a professor who specializes in immigration law at UC Davis, said it was too early to determine whether senior Trump officials are rethinking federal tactics or whether the shooting of Pretti will lead the president to scale back his immigration agenda.

“We have seen a de-escalation in the last 24 hours, at least,” Johnson said. “But whether it’s going to stay with us, or be gone in 24 hours, it’s hard to say. I think it’ll stay around at least till the midterms.”

After hearing Trump and Miller use harsh language for so long to refer to undocumented immigrants, Johnson said, it was impossible to predict how long a de-escalation of rhetoric would last.

“They shift gears like they’re first-time drivers,” Johnson said of Trump’s senior officials. “They’re all over the place.”

On Wednesday morning, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, who was visiting Minnesota, announced that 16 people whom she dubbed “rioters” were arrested and charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers.

“We expect more arrests to come,” Bondi said on X. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: NOTHING will stop President Trump and this Department of Justice from enforcing the law.”

Outside the Whipple Building in Minneapolis, it was hard to tell what, if anything, had changed. Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies continued to provide security in the area. Demonstrators still showed up across the street. Encrypted neighborhood group chats continued to circulate information about possible sightings of immigration agents.

Before noon, one chat advised that observers were needed at an address where Homeland Security agents “have person trapped in home who went back to house for documentation.”

Lucas Guttentag, a professor of law at Stanford University who specializes in immigration, said senior Trump administration officials appeared to be admitting things have gone too far and “killing people in the street is unacceptable.”

“But that’s a low bar; the fundamental policy hasn’t changed,” he said, noting that the administration did not appear to be changing its policy on illegal detention, terminating people’s status or racial profiling. “This is a tactical retreat, but not a change of policy.”

Still, even as arrests continued, Johnson said it was a positive sign that Miller and Noem had turned down their rhetoric on Pretti’s killing, and that border policy advisor Tom Homan had met with the Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

“That’s what we need here: some communication and some discussion in an effort to bring down the temperature,” Johnson said. “Because it’s not surprising to me that when you have people at the highest levels, including the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, talking in harsh terms, then you have ICE officers on the ground engaging in very aggressive, maybe illegal tactics.”

Johnson said he would like to see the Trump administration withdraw some ICE officers from Minneapolis. Beyond that, he said the administration should ramp up its training of federal immigration agents and rethink roving patrols that targeted people, regardless of their legal status, based on their skin color.

“That tactic has terrorized communities,” he said.

Johnson was skeptical that the move to apparently oust Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino and bring in Homan to lead the Minnesota operation would change much.

“He’s a relatively aggressive immigration enforcement type as well,” Johnson said of Homan. “If he’s your peacemaker, it’s unclear to me whether he’s really going to make peace.”

As Christine Hebl, 45, dropped off a handwritten note at a memorial erected at the site in south Minneapolis where Pretti was killed, she said she doubted that bringing Homan to Minnesota would lead to a reduction in immigration enforcement.

The only change she had noticed so far had been an expansion outward toward the suburbs north of Minneapolis.

“It’s a PR stunt in my mind,” she said. “I think that it’s going to continue or even potentially worsen. You cannot believe a single word that comes out of this regime’s mouths. It’s going to continue and I’m scared — I’m really scared.”