WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The White House has attempted to ease tensions over the latest fatal shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal immigration officers in Minnesota, even as investigations continue and questions grow among state officials, lawmakers and other groups.
According to local media, U.S. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino and some agents deployed to Minneapolis are expected to leave the city as early as Tuesday. The announcement came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was dispatching White House border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to oversee Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
CHANGING NARRATIVE
Bovino is viewed as the face of Trump's immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota. His departure comes amid rising criticism after a Border Patrol agent fatally shot 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, following the January killing of Renee Good, also 37, a mother of three who was shot and killed during an encounter with ICE officers.
Trump spoke by phone with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Monday. In a post on his social media platform after the call, he said Walz had sought to "work together" and that the two "seemed to be on a similar wavelength," a noticeably softer tone than his sharp criticism of the Democratic governor over the weekend.
Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that the federal government was reviewing the shooting incident. According to the Washington Post, a Trump administration lawyer assured a federal judge Monday that investigators have preserved body-camera footage and other evidence from the shooting, but stopped short of promising to share that evidence with state investigators.
According to local media, bystander footage showed that Pretti was pushed by an officer and then a half-dozen agents descended on him. During the scuffle, he was holding a phone but was not seen brandishing the 9mm semiautomatic handgun police say he was licensed to carry.
The Minnesota Attorney General's Office and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office on Saturday filed a lawsuit accusing federal authorities of irregularities in the evidence-gathering process, seeking to bar the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and related agencies from destroying or altering material connected to the shooting.
Keith Ellison, Minnesota Attorney General and a Democrat, said the state had not been provided with information about key evidence and called for a full, transparent investigation.
MOUNTING DIVISIONS WITHIN
The death of Pretti has also brought rising internal divisions within the Republican Party over immigration policy and federal intervention.
According to Time magazine, some Republican lawmakers and governors have begun calling for investigations or for a pause in the surge of agents into Minnesota. Vermont Governor Phil Scott called the killing in Minneapolis unacceptable and asked to "pause these operations and de-escalate the situation," while Senator Dave McCormick expressed support for immigration enforcement but called for a thorough review of what happened in Minneapolis.
Chris Madel, a Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota who previously provided legal counsel in a separate fatal shooting case involving a law enforcement officer, withdrew from the race Monday in protest at the Trump administration's immigration operation. He criticized the current federal operation for creating fear among U.S. citizens and eroding civil liberties.
Gun rights advocates were surprised and disappointed by the Trump administration's initial statements following the Pretti shooting. William Sack, legal director of the Second Amendment Foundation, said the administration's shifting public posture was "very likely to cost them dearly with the core of a constituency they count on."
FUNDING AT RISK
The fallout from the shooting has spilled into Congress as well. Lawmakers are locked in negotiations over a six-bill government funding package, including the DHS bill, that accounts for more than 70 percent of federal operations and has raised the risk of a partial government shutdown.
The package was sent to the Senate last week following a House vote, in which almost all Democrats voted against the DHS bill. Pretti's death has hardened Democratic senators' resolve to withhold funding for immigration enforcement operations unless new restraints are imposed.
"I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis," Tom Suozzi, one of seven Democrats who had voted to approve the DHS funds, said Monday, reversing his earlier position in a Facebook post.
Some Republicans suggested breaking apart the six-bill package, removing the homeland security funding while allowing the others to go forward. But many GOP lawmakers still strongly reject stripping the DHS of its funding.
According to local media, the White House is reaching out to Congressional leaders behind the scenes in search of a way out of another government shutdown.
"We absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. ■