The Japan Times - Trump says to 'de-escalate' Minneapolis, as aide questions agents' 'protocol'

The comments came the same day a man sprayed Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with a syringe of unknown liquid at a Minneapolis town hall meeting, where she called for curbing the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told AFP the administration is evaluating whether the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who gunned down 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday failed to follow "clear guidance" to "create a physical barrier between the arrest teams and the disruptors."

"We are evaluating why the CBP team may not have been following that protocol," Miller said in a statement, though the White House later said Miller was referring to "general guidance" to immigration agents in Minnesota.

Trump, meanwhile, told Fox News that the administration was "going to de-escalate a little bit" its operations in Minneapolis, adding that the plan was not a "pullback."

He admitted that Gregory Bovino, a hardline Border Patrol commander who is now expected to leave the city, was "a pretty out-there kind of a guy" whose presence may not have helped the situation. He sent top US border security official Tom Homan to meet with officials there.

Trump also told reporters that he rejected the "assassin" label previously used by Miller to describe Pretti, adding that he wants "a very honorable and honest investigation."

Still, tensions remained high in Minneapolis after Omar, a Democratic congresswoman, was attacked by a man at a constituent town hall Tuesday night.

Omar had just spoken about the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and demanded that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem "resign or face impeachment," when the man sprang from the front row, made a remark and sprayed the lawmaker with liquid from a syringe as security leapt to grab him.

Omar raised a fist and stepped toward the attacker before returning to the podium to say: "Here's the reality that people like this ugly man don't understand: We are Minnesota strong. And we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw on us."

Omar is a frequent target of Trump, who continues to defend Noem despite her oversight of federal immigration agents who shot and killed two US citizens this month.

Trump said Noem would not step down and was doing a "very good job."

- 'Serious negative impacts' -

After meeting with Trump border czar Homan Tuesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement that they discussed the "serious negative impacts this operation has had on Minneapolis."

He said the city "will not enforce federal immigration laws."

Just weeks after federal immigration agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good in Minneapolis, Pretti's death sparked national outrage and added to a litany of complaints of abusive tactics.

The killings capped months of escalating violence in which masked, unidentified and heavily armed ICE and border patrol agents have grabbed people they accuse of violations off the streets.

Despite multiple videos showing that Pretti posed no threat, Bovino and Noem initially claimed Pretti had intent to kill federal agents, calling him a "domestic terrorist."

- 'Incompetent' -

Republican Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that agents involved in the shooting should be put on administrative leave, later adding that the immigration enforcement leaders would testify before the Congress next month.

Centrist Democratic Senator John Fetterman said "grossly incompetent" Noem should be fired.

The turmoil could result in a fresh US government shutdown, with Democrats calling for broad reforms to federal immigration operations at DHS and threatening to block approval of its funding, as part of the spending bills that go up for votes in the Senate later this week.

The judicial branch also pushed back on Trump's actions in Minneapolis Tuesday, when a US judge blocked the deportation of a five-year-old boy and his father who were detained last week in another incident that went viral.

Liam Conejo Ramos -- wearing a fluffy blue hat and his school backpack -- was photographed being detained by a federal agent, who school officials said was using the preschool student as "bait" to draw out his family, asylum seekers from Ecuador.

At a protest at the Minnesota State Capitol Tuesday, veteran Brian Furgen, 55, told AFP that Americans need immigration and customs enforcement agents who "know how to do the job without harming the community, without killing people, without hurting people, without imprisoning people that are law abiding."

"That's what they are doing here, that's ridiculous."

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T.Kobayashi--JT