By Kristina Cooke and Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON, Jan 28 (Reuters) – ICE officers in Minnesota were directed on Wednesday to avoid engaging with “agitators” as they carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, according to internal guidance reviewed by Reuters.
The new guidance, offering the most detailed look so far at how operations would change after two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens protesting in Minneapolis, also orders U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers only to target immigrants who have criminal charges or convictions.
That would mark a departure from the broad sweeps that have provoked backlash and legal challenges in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities.
“DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR ENGAGE WITH AGITATORS,” said an email disseminated by a top ICE official. “It serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation. No one is going to convince the other. The only communication should be the officers issuing commands.”
In response to a request to the White House for comment, an administration official said, “There are ongoing conversations on how to most effectively conduct operations in Minnesota. No guidance should be considered final until it is officially issued.”
The operational shift comes after Trump said this week that he aimed to “de-escalate” tension in Minneapolis and St. Paul after federal immigration officers killed two U.S. citizens there this month. In both cases, Trump officials swiftly portrayed the deceased as aggressors, an assertion undercut by video evidence.
Trump tasked border czar Tom Homan to take over operations in Minnesota, in what a senior official told Reuters would be a shift to a more “targeted” approach to enforcement. Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino – who led confrontational sweeps in Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities – was demoted and will soon retire, Reuters reported.
Under the new guidance outlined in the email, ICE officers will receive megaphones so that they can issue commands to the public and “need to verbalize every step of the arrest process.”
The guidance does not describe what sort of actions would trigger commands or what officers should do if commands were not followed.
‘TARGETED’ ARRESTS, BORDER PATROL MOVED TO SUPPORT ROLE
The updated guidance came from Marcos Charles, the top official in ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, the email said. It said officers could only target immigration offenders who had a previous criminal history.
“We are moving to targeted enforcement of aliens with a criminal history,” it read. “This includes arrests, not just convictions. ALL TARGETS MUST HAVE A CRIMINAL NEXUS.”
Under former President Joe Biden, ICE officers were required to focus on serious criminals, but the Trump administration rescinded that policy, allowing officers to arrest non-criminals without restrictions.
ICE officers can run license plate checks for possible targets and should make an arrest if the registered owner of the vehicle is an immigrant with a criminal history, the guidance said.
ICE will run the Minnesota operation with Border Patrol in a support role, it said, a reversal after months of Bovino-led clashes in city streets.
The guidance states that ICE has been getting more cooperation from state and local officials in Minnesota, and that the agency could have more opportunities to pick up immigrants released on parole or probation.
(Reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Edmund Klamann)
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