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(Minneapolis) Donald Trump’s emissary in Minneapolis, Tom Homan, announced Wednesday the withdrawal with immediate effect of 700 immigration police, a gesture of de-escalation after weeks of high tensions in the city marked by the death of two demonstrators shot dead by federal agents.
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As President Trump himself has been doing for several days on this highly flammable issue, his emissary and proclaimed “border czar” blew hot and cold during a press conference during which he praised collaboration with local authorities while assuring that he would not leave Minneapolis until “everything” was “finished”.
Of the thousands of agents often operating masked in the streets of Minneapolis, which for several weeks has lived to the rhythm of these raids aimed at arresting illegal immigrants, a priority objective of the American president, Mr. Homan affirmed that the federal authorities were going to “remove 700 people”, “members of the police” from the field with “immediate effect”.
He did not specify whether this was a withdrawal from the city of Minneapolis alone or from the state of Minnesota more broadly.
Around two thousand police officers will therefore remain on site, compared to 150 before the launch of these raids.
“We have never had this kind of cooperation at this level” with the local authorities, despite the winds against the presence of these immigration police officers, Tom Homan again welcomed.
“Bloodbath”
The presidential emissary, however, was firm, at the same time: “I will be clear. President Trump intends to carry out mass deportations during his term in office and immigration enforcement operations will continue every day.”
“We have made significant progress,” he added, saying that federal agents had arrested 139 people convicted of assault, 87 sex offenders as well as 28 gang members.
“I will not leave until we have finished everything,” he said again, martially.
Tom Homan also denounced the “anti-ICE rhetoric”, the federal immigration police at the heart of the controversy in Minneapolis.
The methods of its agents, seen as brutal, as well as the death of two demonstrators, caused great emotion in the country.
“I said in March that if this hateful rhetoric did not stop, I feared it would end in bloodshed. And it happened. “Neither President Trump, nor me, nor Secretary (of Homeland Security Kristi) Noem wants to see a bloodbath” again, he said.
Mr. Homan was referring to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti – the latter shot to the ground ten times – two protesters who opposed the presence of immigration police who were killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
“In addition to tearing families apart and terrorizing our neighborhoods, this massive ICE presence has also had disastrous consequences for Minneapolis businesses. We need ICE to go away,” said Tuesday on the X network the mayor of the large northern city, Jacob Frey, who has been scrambling for weeks with the central administration to loosen its grip.
Police operations have disrupted the lives of residents in this Midwestern city, where many residents are holed up in their homes for fear of being arrested while thousands of others continue to demonstrate against the police presence, as at the end of last week despite the freezing cold.
