MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 26 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz struck a conciliatory note after a private phone call on Monday, in a sign the two sides want to defuse a crisis over the Trump-ordered deportation drive that has left two U.S. citizens dead in Minneapolis.
Trump and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey spoke by telephone on Monday as well, and their subsequent remarks were also upbeat, a change from weeks of vitriolic public exchanges.
Another sign of a thaw was confirmation from a senior Trump administration official that Gregory Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol official who has been a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and civil liberties activists, will be leaving Minnesota along with some of the agents deployed with him.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump's designated border czar, Tom Homan, would replace Bovino in the Midwestern state, at the helm of what the Trump administration has dubbed Operation Metro Surge.
Trump himself 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 different 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 a chief patrol agent along California's El Centro sector of the U.S.-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.
Word of Bovino's demotion was first reported by The Atlantic on Monday, citing an official from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and two others with knowledge of the change. The Atlantic also said Bovino was expected to retire soon.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin disputed those reports, however, posting on X: "Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties."
FIXTURE OF DEPORTATION DRIVE
Bovino has become a leading public face and outspoken advocate for Trump's deportation crackdowns, often seen leading groups of heavily armed federal agents roving city streets.
News of his removal, and 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 tension in Minnesota and sparked a major public backlash after video footage went viral on the internet, appearing to contradict the Trump administration's account that Pretti precipitated the shooting.
Bovino was quick to characterize Pretti as the attacker in the deadly encounter, saying, "This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement."
Trump and DHS officials had similarly cast another local anti-ICE activist, Renee Good, 37, a mother of three, as responsible for her own death after a federal agent gunned her down in her car on January 7.
Like Pretti, Good was a U.S. citizen, and video images of her killing belied claims that she tried to use her car as a weapon.
In both instances, the U.S. Justice Department has yet to open an investigation of the officers and circumstances involved, as is standard practice in all such shootings.
At the same time, Minnesota authorities have accused the federal government of trying to thwart state investigators, sparking a court battle over collection and preservation of evidence.
TELEPHONE DIPLOMACY
On Monday the two sides seemed to be looking for ways to de-escalate the situation.
Following his phone call with Walz, Trump said he was "on a similar wavelength" with the Democratic governor, weeks after ordering some 3,000 U.S. immigration agents to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area over the vehement opposition of state and local leaders.
Walz's office said he and Trump held a "productive call" in which the president said he would consider reducing the number of immigration agents in the state. He said Trump also agreed to direct DHS to ensure that the state could conduct its own investigation into the Pretti shooting.
Trump and Frey similarly reported making headway toward ending the impasse. Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, the president said "lots of progress" was being made following the phone conversation with the mayor.
Frey said on X that Trump had "agreed the present situation can't continue," adding that it was understood that some federal agents "will begin leaving" the Twin Cities on Tuesday.
Public support for Trump's immigration enforcement tactics appeared to be waning in the aftermath of the Pretti shooting, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.
KEY MINNESOTA REPUBLICAN BREAKS WITH TRUMP
In another sign that support for Trump's deportation drive was softening, a leading Republican candidate for governor, Chris Madel, dropped his bid on Monday, saying the crackdown had gone too far and had made the race unwinnable for a Republican.
"I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so," he said in a video statement.
DHS officials have described the incident as an attack by Pretti, saying agents fired in self-defense after he approached them with a handgun.
But video from the scene, verified by Reuters, contradicts that account. The footage shows Pretti holding a phone, not a gun, as agents wrestle him to the ground.
It also shows officers removing a firearm from his waistband after he was subdued, moments before they fatally shot him. Pretti was a licensed gun owner.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, Jonathan Allen, Jack Queen, Susan Heavey, Katharine Jackson, Nate Raymond, Ted Hesson, Steve Holland, Bo Erickson, Jason Lange, David Morgan and Andy Sullivan; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Scott Malone, Deepa Babington and Diane Craft)
