President Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to take over immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. Will it make a difference?
Alex Preti monument expands amid ICE protests in Minneapolis
USA TODAY national correspondent Trevor Hughes is on the ground in Minneapolis.
MINNEAPOLIS – The replacement of Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino has given immigrant rights activists in Minneapolis and across the country a glimmer of hope that the Trump administration may reconsider its harsh approach to mass deportations.
But longtime immigration rights experts and many protesters say President Donald Trump’s decision to replace Bovino with White House border czar Tom Homan is likely more a public relations move than anything else, given Homan’s longstanding calls for tougher enforcement.
In July 2025, Homan promised to unleash a “flood” of immigration enforcement agents on Democratic-run cities, but Bovino became the public face of the effort, which swept from Los Angeles to Chicago, Charlotte, North Carolina, New Orleans, and then into Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, some supporters of President Trump’s deportation efforts are calling for the president to keep up the pressure, even if it means adjusting tactics to appease a increasingly disgruntled public.
Some on social media called on Trump to follow through on his promise of mass deportations and invoke the Insurrection Act to quell the riots in Minnesota.
“Please don’t pull out the ICE!” one user said on X (formerly Twitter). “Be clear about the people we are deporting. If Minnesota cooperates, it will be done safely and quickly.”
“Try harder,” another person wrote. “Expel everyone.”
But on January 27, outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in suburban Minneapolis, demonstrators saw Bovino’s departure as a victory and an incentive to continue their resistance.
Dan McGregor, 38, said he hoped Bovino’s resignation, which he described as a firing, was a sign that President Trump was feeling pressure from the ongoing protests.
McGregor said he believes Trump will eventually fall under continued public pressure, a phenomenon some of the president’s critics have dubbed “Trump Chickens Out All the Time” (TACO).
“I think President Trump is doing a TACO right now by firing Mr. Bovino,” McGregor said. “Even people who normally defend Trump are now speaking up and deciding that they need to distance themselves from this ideology and this incident. So I think that’s why Trump is shrinking. He’s reading the mood and he’s losing support both from his supporters and from the public.”
Bovino becomes face of Trump’s deportation campaign
President Trump said on Fox News on Jan. 27 that the decision to pull Bovino and send in Homan was more of a “bit of a change” than a setback because Bovino is “a pretty outlandish type of guy.”
“And in some cases that’s a good thing,” Trump said. “Maybe this wasn’t a good place.”
Mr. Bovino has been a near-ubiquitous presence in person, online and on television during the surge in enforcement cases across the country, sparring with Democratic politicians such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
And across the country, immigrant rights demonstrators are increasingly angry at Mr. Bovino as the face of the Trump campaign, which is running an aggressive deportation campaign. Some saw Bovino’s firing as a victory.
“It’s a victory, but it’s a very small victory,” said Alana Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, which opposed the Bovino-led Catahoula Crunch enforcement operation in the New Orleans area late last year. “Someone had to take the fall for this. Republicans know they have gone too far. It’s a victory, but it could be a disastrous one.”
Growing public backlash
Bovino’s departure comes days after an immigration officer shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti during a clash between protesters and federal agents on January 24th. Preti was carrying a concealed licensed handgun, but there was no indication he used it to threaten federal officers.
After Mr. Pretti’s death, Mr. Bovino accused him of interfering and of plotting to “inflict maximum harm and massacre law enforcement officers.”
Both Preti and Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by federal agents in a separate confrontation in early January, were white U.S. citizens. Mr. Bovino’s comments about their deaths particularly angered civil rights groups.
Protesters have repeatedly filled the streets, hundreds each day chasing after some 3,000 immigration enforcement officers temporarily stationed in the state. Protesters have sometimes likened the federal government to an occupying force, supported by tens of billions of dollars in new funding appropriated by Congress to hire officials and staff, build detention centers and remove people from the United States.
Bovino’s resignation comes after a new poll found that 39% of Americans support President Trump’s aggressive immigration policies, the lowest level since he returned to the White House. Meanwhile, more than half of Americans (53%) disapprove of President Trump’s efforts on immigration, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Michael Kagan, a professor who heads the immigration clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas law school, said it’s not yet clear whether Bovino’s resignation is just damage control by a concerned White House or represents a major change in approach to the entire deportation program.
Kagan noted that the White House replaced many of the regional ICE leaders with Border Patrol leaders last year as administration officials called for tougher action on deportation efforts. He said Bovino’s appointment to lead the high-profile Surge operation reflected the administration’s priorities.
“One scenario is that this is just damage control from the debacle that happened in Minneapolis. It’s not the first time in politics that someone has to be the sacrificial lamb when the administration finds itself in a bit of a bind, but there may not be any real policy change,” Kagan said. “I think we need to look not just at what happens in Minneapolis, but what happens after that across the country.”
Who will replace Bovino, Tom Homan?
President Trump announced on January 26 that Homan would be sent to take over in Minneapolis after meeting with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Homan served as acting ICE director for more than a year in the first Trump administration and previously served as head of ICE enforcement and removal operations under President Barack Obama. When President Trump took office last year, he returned to the White House as border czar.
Michelle Blaine, a longtime immigrant rights activist who served as the immigration detention ombudsman for the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration, said Homan was essentially the father of the family separation policy, which he began promoting during the Obama administration and then implemented during the Trump administration.
Under the family separation policy, parents and children who cross the border without prior permission are detained separately, which critics say is designed as a cruel deterrent.
“To think that Homan is really going to be the answer to a crisis of this magnitude… is a little too hopeful. But I think it’s a step,” Blaine said. “Rather than actually admitting that they did something wrong or changing their street habits, it’s almost as if they’re saying, ‘We’re sorry that what we did made you feel bad.’ But this is a sign that the pressure is working. People need to keep speaking out. This behavior by federal authorities is unacceptable.”
“Stand up and keep fighting”
Some of the president’s most ardent supporters have publicly worried that replacing Bovino with Homan means Trump is softening on his deportation goals under public pressure.
Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies said he hopes state and federal authorities can reach an agreement that would allow immigration enforcement to proceed in Minnesota without further conflict. The center advocates reducing immigration to the United States and has been a major supporter of Trump’s deportation policies.
“I don’t think they should leave, and I don’t think they will leave,” Krikorian said. “It’s just a change of tactics.”
Krikorian said he expects to see more workplace and employment-related immigration enforcement operations because he believes they are more effective and less likely to lead to violent confrontations. And he warned that Trump’s changes in Minneapolis risk emboldening protesters and Democratic politicians opposed to the president.
“The federal government cannot allow states or radicals within states to simply say they don’t want federal laws to be enforced,” he said. “That’s not acceptable.”
But outside a federal building in Minnesota, protester McGregor said he expects to see exactly that happening. President Trump is adjusting his tactics because he knows he is unpopular.
“I think I’ve got a crack and I have to work harder,” McGregor said. “Bovino was fired, which means what we’re doing is working. We have to keep working harder. This is a moment of weakness for them. We have to get back up and keep fighting.”
Contributed by: N’dea Yancey-Bragg
