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.
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.
Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-send-border-czar-homan-minnesota-2026-01-26
