Trump appeared to soften his approach to Minneapolis after a second deadly shooting by federal immigration agents, but enforcement actions and clashes continued as federal agencies carried out operations in the Twin Cities, according to reporting from Minneapolis and St. Paul. The political messaging arrived alongside a visible management change: Trump sent his top border adviser to Minnesota to take charge of the immigration crackdown after weeks of harsh rhetoric and public clashes with protesters.
In conversations described by Trump, he and Gov. Tim Walz were on “a similar wavelength” after a phone call, and after talking with Mayor Jacob Frey the president praised the discussion and said “lots of progress is being made.” Trump’s remarks suggested a willingness to reduce tensions, but the day’s events on city streets, as well as responses from residents and court-watchers, pointed to limited immediate change.
On Wednesday, protesters blew whistles and followed a federal officers’ vehicle for several blocks before the officers stopped again, where confrontations continued. When Associated Press journalists got out to document the interaction, officers from the federal Bureau of Prisons pushed one of the reporters, threatened arrest, and told them to return to their car even after the journalists identified themselves as members of the press. From inside their vehicle, the journalists reported seeing at least one person pepper sprayed and one person detained, though they said it was unclear whether the detained person was the target of the operation or a protester, and they also reported officers broke car windows.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, visiting Minnesota, said 16 people were arrested Wednesday on charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement, and that more arrests were expected. Bondi also posted online that “NOTHING will stop President Trump and this Department of Justice from enforcing the law,” and messages seeking comment were left with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.
In a separate operation in Brooklyn Center, a half-dozen agents went to a house in a residential neighborhood after an agent told the AP the agents were seeking a man who had been twice deported and convicted of domestic abuse. The agent said the man had run into the home and that the agents lacked a judicial warrant to get inside. Activists at the scene blew whistles, and one agent told the AP, “They’d rather call the police on us than to help us. Go figure.” As agents prepared to leave, Kari Rod called out, saying the people there were “good neighbors,” though Rod told the AP she did not know them well personally.
Rod said she believed federal officers were not telling the truth about whom they arrest, and she cited her own account of interactions with neighbors, including another neighbor she said was deported to Laos last summer. “I don’t trust a single thing they said about who they are,” Rod said, adding, “From my interactions, I know them way better than anyone else does, any one of those federal agents.”
Fear continued to shape the community’s daily life, Daniel Hernandez said, describing residents as “still very worried and afraid” and noting that Latino businesses remained closed. Hernandez, who owns the Minneapolis grocery store Colonial Market and runs a Facebook page for the Hispanic community in the Twin Cities, said Colonial Market stayed open but that all but one of a dozen immigrant-run businesses that had rented space inside the store had closed since late December. He said none planned to reopen, and he referenced Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who helped lead the administration’s crackdown in the Twin Cities and who Hernandez said had been assigned elsewhere; Hernandez said Bovino “was removed, but the tactics so far are still the same.”
In federal court, the compliance dispute between ICE and judges also came to the fore. Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said ICE violated 96 court orders in 74 cases during January 2026, and he wrote that the list should give pause to anyone concerned about the rule of law, adding that ICE had likely violated more court orders in January than some agencies have violated in their entire existence. Schiltz had also ordered ICE’s acting director, Todd Lyons, to appear in his courtroom on Friday after ICE failed to obey an order to release an Ecuadorian man from detention in Texas; Schiltz canceled the order after the agency freed the man, and he warned that future noncompliance may result in orders requiring personal appearances by Lyons or other officials.
A separate federal judge granted a temporary restraining order preventing federal officers from arresting and detaining resettled refugees in Minnesota. The order responded to a lawsuit challenging a Homeland Security operation to reevaluate the refugee status of nearly 5,600 people, and it called for the immediate release of refugees detained in Minnesota and the release within five days of those transferred to Texas. Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller criticized the judge’s decision in a social media post, saying the “judicial sabotage of democracy is unending.”
The enforcement actions and legal disputes were also unfolding alongside community mourning after the death of intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti. Hundreds gathered for a vigil Wednesday night, where nurse Harmonie Pirius, who said she had been feeling depressed, heartbroken and enraged, told the AP that “It could have been any of us,” and that he was “trying to help someone and that’s kind of what we’re all about.” The Department of Homeland Security said two federal agents involved in Pretti’s death had been on leave since the shooting.
More information: Reporters Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis, Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, Michael Biesecker in Washington, Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City contributed to the report.