In possible thaw, Trump and Minnesota governor talk after fatal shooting

US immigration agents face backlash after Minneapolis killings

President Donald Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz struck a conciliatory note after a private phone call on Monday, signalling an effort to defuse a crisis over a Trump-ordered deportation drive that has left two United States citizens dead in Minneapolis.

Trump also spoke by phone with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Monday, and their subsequent remarks were upbeat, a sharp change from weeks of vitriolic public exchanges.

Another sign of a thaw came with confirmation from a senior Trump administration official that Gregory Bovino, a top US Border Patrol official who has drawn heavy criticism from Democrats and civil liberties groups, will leave Minnesota along with some of the agents deployed with him.

Read More: Minneapolis locals protest ‘inhumane’ US agents after second killing

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump’s designated border czar, Tom Homan, would replace Bovino in Minnesota, taking charge of what the administration has dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

Trump said earlier that Homan was being sent to Minnesota, adding that Homan had “not been involved” in the crackdown but “knows and likes many of the people there”.

Change in command

Later on Monday, a person familiar with the matter said Bovino had been stripped of his specially created title of “commander at large” of the Border Patrol and would return to his former job as chief patrol agent in the El Centro sector along the US-Mexico border. The source said Bovino would then soon retire.

Another source confirmed Bovino would return to the El Centro sector but gave no further details.

The Atlantic first reported Bovino’s demotion on Monday, citing a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official and two other people with knowledge of the change. The publication also said Bovino was expected to retire.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin disputed those reports, however, posting on X: “Chief Gregory Bovino has not been relieved of his duties.”

Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties. As @PressSec stated from the White House podium, @CMDROpAtLargeCA is a key part of the President’s team and a great American. https://t.co/qj3E9B8uzg

— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) January 27, 2026

Fixture of deportation drive

Bovino has become a leading public face of Trump’s deportation crackdown, often seen leading heavily armed federal agents through city streets.

Also Read: Second Minneapolis death intensifies pressure on Trump

News of his removal, along with Trump’s phone calls with Walz and Frey, came two days after a 37-year-old ICU nurse, Alex Pretti, was shot dead by federal agents in Minneapolis during a weekend confrontation between immigration officers and protesters.

The killing heightened tensions in Minnesota and sparked a major backlash after video footage went viral online, appearing to contradict the Trump administration’s account that Pretti precipitated the shooting.

Bovino characterised Pretti as the attacker, saying: “This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”

Trump and DHS officials have similarly blamed another local anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activist, Renee Good, 37, a mother of three, for her own death after a federal agent shot her in her car on Jan. 7.

Like Pretti, Good was a US citizen, and video footage of her killing appeared to contradict claims that she attempted to use her vehicle as a weapon.

In both cases, the US Justice Department has not opened investigations into the shootings, as is standard practice.

Minnesota authorities have accused the federal government of obstructing state investigators, prompting a court battle over the collection and preservation of evidence.

Telephone diplomacy

On Monday, both sides appeared to seek de-escalation.

Following his call with Walz, Trump said he was “on a similar wavelength” with the Democratic governor, weeks after ordering roughly 3,000 immigration agents to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area over state and local objections.

Walz’s office said the call was “productive”, adding that Trump would consider reducing the number of agents in the state and would direct DHS to allow Minnesota to conduct its own investigation into Pretti’s death.

Trump also reported progress after speaking with Frey, writing on his Truth Social platform that “lots of progress” had been made.

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115963713974102712

Frey said on X that Trump had agreed “the present situation can’t continue” and that it was understood some federal agents would begin leaving the Twin Cities on Tuesday.

Some federal agents will begin leaving the area tomorrow, and I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go.

— Mayor Jacob Frey (@MayorFrey) January 26, 2026

Public support for Trump’s immigration enforcement appeared to be weakening after the Pretti shooting, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Key Minnesota republican breaks with Trump

In another sign of softening support, Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Madel dropped his bid on Monday, saying the deportation drive had gone too far and made the race unwinnable.

“I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state,” Madel said in a video statement.

I am ending my campaign for Minnesota Governor. I describe why in the below video. Please watch until the end. (It is 10 minutes, 52 seconds.)

Thank you,
Chris pic.twitter.com/2nfyAyTzNZ

— Chris Madel (@CWMadel) January 26, 2026

DHS officials have described the Pretti incident as self-defence, saying agents fired after he approached them with a handgun. But video verified by Reuters shows Pretti holding a phone, not a gun, as agents wrestled him to the ground.

The footage shows officers removing a firearm from his waistband after he was subdued, moments before they fatally shot him. Pretti was a licenced gun owner.

US immigration agents face backlash

The fatal shootings have reignited accusations that federal agents enforcing Trump's militarized immigration crackdown are inexperienced, under-trained and operating outside law enforcement norms.

Thousands of masked agents from ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have been roving Minneapolis streets, despite protest of local leaders and residents in the wake of the killings and conflicts that occur in the course of their enforcement activities.

"These untrained, masked agents aren't making communities safer — they're occupying cities, inciting violence, and violating the Constitution," wrote New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, in a post on X.

Alex Pretti's death is a tragedy – and the result of a reckless operation.

These untrained, masked agents aren't making communities safer – they're occupying cities, inciting violence, and violating the Constitution.

There must be accountability for their lawless actions.

— Governor Mikie Sherrill (@GovSherrillNJ) January 25, 2026

A national recruitment campaign for ICE — promising $50,000 bonuses for new signups amid a flood of increased Congressional funding — has seen the controversial force more than double in size, rising to 22,000 from 10,000, according to DHS figures.

The glut of new recruits has caused the standard training course to be shortened from five months to 42 days, causing backlash and accusations of under-training agents before giving them firearms.

DHS in a statement released on Thursday defended the changes, saying it "has streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements without sacrificing basic subject matter content".

The six-week training programme focuses on "arrest techniques, defensive tactics, conflict management and de-escalation techniques, extensive firearms and marksmanship training, use of force policy and the proper use of force", DHS said, denouncing the criticism as "smears and lies".

However, a report in US magazine The Atlantic said one ICE official found many candidates who became agents under the expansion "would have been weeded out during a normal hiring process", with some appearing physically unfit for the demands of the job.

Even with the critiques of poor training, federal authorities have said the agents who shot and killed Good and Pretti were veterans of the force, with multiple years under the belt.

John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director under former president Barack Obama, said the lack of preparedness for ICE and CBP agents, especially when faced with protesters, "created a very high-risk situation".

He added that dispatching Border Patrol agents to control crowds in Minneapolis "is just so far outside of their normal experiences. They work at dawn in the middle of the Arizona desert, in the middle of the night.

"There's a thin line between what constitutes impeding a federal officer doing his job and what is protected First Amendment activity. But we're using Border Patrol agents who just never have to encounter that," he continued.

"You put those agents en masse in a city like Minneapolis, you encourage them, you talk about 'absolute immunity,'" Sandweg said, referencing Vice President JD Vance's characterization of the agent who shot and killed Renee Good, "you talk about how these are domestic terrorists they are confronting, how everything that impedes them is a crime, and — I hate to say it — this is what you need to expect to happen."