Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino is expected to leave Minneapolis on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter, following the fatal shooting of an ICU nurse by federal immigration officers. The departure marks a significant shift in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, which has drawn legal challenges and intense criticism from local officials and civil rights advocates. President Trump said he was placing border czar Tom Homan in charge of the operation, with Homan reporting directly to the White House.
The Saturday killing of Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis hospital nurse, and a series of legal challenges have raised fresh questions about the scope and conduct of Operation Metro Surge, the federal immigration enforcement operation that has drawn a federal lawsuit seeking to halt it.
The Shooting and Political Fallout
Saturday’s killing of Pretti, an ICU nurse, ignited political backlash and raised fresh questions about how Operation Metro Surge was being run. Bovino drew condemnation for claiming Pretti had been planning to “massacre” law enforcement officers — a characterization that authorities had not substantiated.
Bovino’s leadership of highly visible federal crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, and Minneapolis has drawn fierce criticism from local officials, civil rights advocates, and congressional Democrats.
Court Challenges and Judicial Skepticism
The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul filed a lawsuit seeking to temporarily halt the operation, arguing it was designed to punish them for sanctuary policies. An attorney for the administration said about 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and at least 1,000 Border Patrol officers were on the ground in Minnesota as of Monday.
During a hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez questioned the government’s motives and expressed skepticism about its legal authority. “I mean, is there no limit to what the executive can do under the guise of enforcing immigration law?” the judge asked.
She also questioned a letter from Attorney General Pam Bondi asking the state to provide access to voter rolls, Medicaid records, and food assistance records, and to repeal sanctuary policies. “That begins to feel very much like I am deciding which policy approach is best,” the judge said, noting that the federal requests were themselves the subject of litigation.
Menendez said the case was a priority but ordered the federal government’s attorneys to file an additional brief addressing, among other issues, the assertion that Operation Metro Surge is designed to punish the state and cities for their sanctuary policies.
Political Developments and a Softer Federal Tone
Trump spoke by phone Monday with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, and the conversation marked a departure from their past critical exchanges. Trump wrote on social media that they “seemed to be on a similar wavelength.”
Walz said the call was “productive” and that impartial investigations into the shootings were needed. Trump said his administration was looking for “any and all” criminals the state had in its custody. Walz said the state Department of Corrections honors federal requests for people in its custody.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he asked Trump in a phone call to end the immigration enforcement surge, and Trump agreed the present situation cannot continue. Frey said he would keep pushing for others involved in Operation Metro Surge to depart Minneapolis.
Homan is expected to take charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Homan would be “the main point of contact on the ground in Minneapolis” during continued federal immigration enforcement operations.
Evidence Preservation in Dispute
In a separate matter, U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud took under advisement a request from the Justice Department to lift an order he issued Saturday blocking the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to Pretti’s shooting.
Attorneys for the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension told the judge they could not trust the federal government to preserve evidence, citing what they described as a lack of cooperation from federal authorities after they said they were blocked from the scene of the shooting.
The federal government’s attorneys argued the temporary restraining order should be dissolved, saying their investigators were already following proper preservation procedures and objecting to what they characterized as judicial “micromanaging” of which evidence the state could examine while the federal investigation was ongoing.