Donald Trump has sacked the border patrol chief leading his immigration raids across the country after the fatal shooting of a nurse in Minneapolis, according to sources.
Gregory Bovino, 56, was removed from his role as “commander at large” of Border Patrol and is expected to retire soon, the Atlantic reported.
The removal of Mr Bovino, who has been the face of Mr Trump’s mass deportation campaign, is a signal that the US president is rethinking his administration’s most aggressive tactics.
Mr Bovino will leave Minnesota by Tuesday as Mr Trump reshuffles the leadership of his immigration policies and scales back the presence of federal agents in the city after a second fatal shooting.
The surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the deaths of two American citizens has provoked intense anger in the city, with clashes breaking out between protesters and federal agents in Minneapolis.
Tricia McLaughlin, a senior homeland security official, denied that Mr Bovino had been removed. She did not, however, specify what role he would play after leaving Minnesota, but described him as a “key part of the president’s team and a great American”.
Yet a senior White House official said Mr Bovino would leave his role and return to a previous position in El Centro, California.
Mr Bovino’s leadership of highly visible federal operations, which have led to mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis, has prompted intense criticism from local officials, rights advocates and Democrats.
The White House has been under sustained pressure since Alex Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse at a hospital for veterans, was shot dead in the street by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Within hours of the shooting, senior administration officials described Pretti as a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin”. However, extensive video evidence showed he posed no threat to the agents when he was killed and that a gun, which he was legally entitled to carry, had already been taken from him.
In comments that sparked widespread condemnation, Mr Bovino blamed Pretti for his own death, claiming – without evidence – that the victim had been planning to “massacre” law enforcement officers.
That narrative soon fell apart and Mr Trump, who watched the video in the White House, became frustrated, officials told the Wall Street Journal.
Within 48 hours of Pretti’s death, the US president decided to change course, according to the sources.
The move came amid rising concerns from his allies that what was unfolding in Minneapolis was a political liability and putting his entire immigration agenda at risk.
Bill Cassidy and Susan Collins, Republican senators, called for a “full joint federal and state investigation” into the shooting.
Gun rights advocates, unusually, criticised the administration for criticising Pretti’s right to carry a gun. The National Rifle Association responded by saying the administration should not be “demonising law-abiding citizens”.
On Monday, Mr Trump announced he had sent Tom Homan, his “border tsar”, to Minnesota.
“Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me,” he wrote in a social media post, suggesting he intends to bypass the normal chain of command. Kristi Noem, the homeland security chief, and Mr Bovino until now have been overseeing ICE operations.
Pretti was the second protester killed by federal agents in Minnesota in the past three weeks, after Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot dead at the wheel of her car.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, tried to distance the president from their remarks, stressing Mr Trump had not used such words and wanted to “let the facts lead”.
The two shootings have added to concerns about the training and discipline of ICE agents, which have been deployed to cities across the country, particularly Democratic strongholds.
Around 2,000 of its officers were sent to Minneapolis for targeted arrests, raids and investigations related to illegal immigration and suspected fraud.
Ms Noem and her allies have been pushing for more hostile tactics, including agents carrying out street sweeps in liberal cities, the Wall Street Journal reported.
However, Mr Homan and others are said to be in favour of a slower, more targeted approach, including going after immigrants with a criminal history or deportation order.
Mr Trump has also signalled a potential full withdrawal of ICE from Minneapolis, but did not offer a time frame for their departure.
“At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
In another signal of his changing attitude, Mr Trump spoke with Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, on the phone and said the pair were now on “a similar wavelength”.
The White House has blamed Mr Walz, who has been highly critical of the immigration operation in his state, for inciting the violence. Last week, the Department of Justice said it was investigating whether the governor and other officials had obstructed ICE’s actions.
In the wake of Pretti’s killing, Mr Trump struck a more cautious tone than some of his more hard-line aides, saying his administration is “reviewing everything”.
This has put him at odds with Ms Noem and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, who said the nurse was committing an act of domestic terrorism.
Source: The Telegraph
