MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A senior Border Patrol commander and some agents are expected to leave Minneapolis as early as Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Watch White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s remarks in the video player above.
The expected departure of Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been at the center of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement surge in cities nationwide, comes as President Donald Trump dispatched border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to take charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
The person familiar with the matter was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the operation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Bovino’s departure marks a significant public shift in federal law enforcement posture amid mounting outrage over the fatal shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents.
WATCH: Border Patrol chief Bovino touts immigration operations in Minneapolis
His leadership of highly visible federal crackdowns, including operations that sparked mass demonstrations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte and Minneapolis, has drawn fierce criticism from local officials, civil rights advocates and congressional Democrats.
Criticism has increased around Bovino in the last few days after his public defense of the Pretti shooting and disputed claims about the confrontation that led to his death.
In other developments, Trump declared that he was now on a “similar wavelength” as the governor following the second fatal shooting by federal immigration officers this month.
Border czar to Minnesota
Trump posted Monday on social media that Homan would report directly to him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Homan would be “the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis” during continued operations by federal immigration officers.
In court Monday, an attorney for the administration said about 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were on ground, along with at least 1,000 Border Patrol officers.
The lawsuit asks the judge to order a reduction in the number of federal law enforcement officers and agents in Minnesota back to the level before the surge and to limit the scope of the enforcement operation.
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