Protesters shout slogans against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside of the office of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz at the State Capitol Building in St. Paul, Minn., on Tuesday.ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
Protesters in Minnesota are declaring victory after U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to replace the man leading his immigration crackdown in the state, even as they vowed to keep up the fight and baton-wielding officers continued to break up protests.
Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol commander-at-large who has been the public face of the 3,000 federal forces dispatched to the state, was expected to leave as soon as Tuesday. White House border chief Tom Homan, meanwhile, opened talks with local Democratic officials on pulling back some officers and allowing independent investigations into the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents.
At a Monday night protest outside a hotel in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove, Minn., where demonstrators believe Mr. Bovino has been staying, they credited their furious resistance for Mr. Trump’s partial climbdown. And they said they would keep fighting for federal agents to leave entirely.
“We’re putting pressure on them and we’re telling them we’re not standing down. They’ve all got to go,” said Amy Wolter, a 36-year-old teacher. “We’re gaining momentum right now.”
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The President appears to have been rattled by the mounting public backlash after Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, was gunned down by Border Patrol in Minneapolis on Saturday. His was the second killing in less than a month by federal agents near protests in the city, after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot dead Renee Macklin Good, a mother of three, on Jan. 7.
In the aftermath of Mr. Pretti’s death, Mr. Bovino, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and top White House adviser Stephen Miller falsely accused him of wanting to attack or kill officers, despite video evidence that contradicted them.
But within days, Mr. Trump signalled a partial retreat. He dispatched Mr. Homan to Minneapolis and pulled Mr. Bovino out.
“We’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” the President said on Fox News on Tuesday, describing Mr. Bovino as “a pretty out-there kind of guy.” Speaking with reporters at the White House, he called for an “honourable and honest” investigation of the killings. He also, however, blamed Mr. Pretti for his death. “You can’t walk in with guns,” he said.
Officers said they recovered a gun from Mr. Pretti, who had a permit to carry one, but video does not show him holding the gun at any point before Border Patrol shot him repeatedly in the back.
U.S. media, citing unnamed government sources, widely reported that Mr. Bovino would return to his previous job in California. The Atlantic magazine said he was also expected to soon retire from the force entirely.
Mr. Bovino was also in charge of Mr. Trump’s roving surges of federal forces into Los Angeles, Chicago and New Orleans. In Minneapolis, he daily defended agents’ tactics in Operation Metro Surge – the largest of Mr. Trump’s immigration sweeps so far – which have included ramming cars, arresting legal immigrants and U.S. citizens, and taking children into custody.
Outside the hotel where protesters believed Mr. Bovino was staying, they banged pots and pans and blew whistles after dark in -20 C weather. A loudspeaker blared ‘NSync’s Bye, Bye, Bye. One woman played a trombone.
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Matt Buechler, 39, said he hoped Mr. Bovino’s demotion would rattle agents and lessen their morale.
“This is Trump TACOing again,” he said, using the acronym for Trump Always Chickens Out, popularized last spring when he rolled back tariffs in response to market uproar. “He’s scared, he’s a narcissist, he only cares about himself, and the second things don’t look like they’re going to go great for him, he’s going to back off because he’s a coward.”
His mother, Jill Buechler, said protesters have to keep up the pressure. “If they pull out tomorrow, we still have to fight for other states,” Ms. Buechler, a 68-year-old retired pharmacist, said as she held an American flag.
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Some protesters threw snowballs at police and one banged on a metal sign for the hotel with a shovel.
A little more than an hour after the protest began, police in riot gear declared it an unlawful assembly and, without waiting for people to disperse, charged into the crowd. With a series of rushes, they pushed protesters first off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, then out of a strip plaza across the street. Officers tackled several people to the ground and led them away.
On Tuesday, Mr. Homan met with Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Mr. Walz’s office said afterward that they had discussed drawing down federal forces in the state and allowing state investigators to probe the killings of Mr. Pretti and Ms. Macklin Good.
Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol leader behind President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown across the U.S., has risen in prominence in recent weeks after escalated enforcement and mass deportation initiatives.
The Associated Press
At the spot on Nicollet Avenue where Mr. Pretti was killed, people gathered around a growing memorial to him on Tuesday said Mr. Bovino leaving was purely a matter of optics and it wasn’t clear that anything would really change.
“He needs to pull the rest of them out. You can’t just pull one,” said Fiona Duncan, 45, a food-truck owner who brought 300 Cornish pasties to feed protesters.
Polling shows support for Mr. Trump’s immigration roundups falling and even Republican legislators have signalled a rare break with the White House over Mr. Pretti’s shooting. The country’s gun lobby has spoken out against attempts to tarnish Mr. Pretti for legally carrying a pistol.
Democratic senators, meanwhile, are threatening to partly shut down the government later this week by blocking a spending package that includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
On Monday evening, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the downtown Minneapolis building housing Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office to demand that she follow through on her pledge to vote against the bill.
Jaylani Hussein, chair of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Mr. Bovino’s ouster should motivate protesters by showing that standing up to Mr. Trump gets results.
“This is a major victory for the community. They’re sending him packing. They were defeated by the people,” he said.