By Brad Brooks and Joseph Ax
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 28 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump warned Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Wednesday he was “playing with fire” for insisting that local police would refrain from enforcing federal immigration laws, a day after the president said he intended to “de-escalate a little bit” in the city.
Amid the mixed signals from the White House, tensions remained high in Minneapolis, where observers and activists said deportation raids carried out by Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge” had not slackened but seemed more targeted on Wednesday.
The city has been convulsed by daily confrontations between protesters and heavily armed immigration agents, with unrest heightened after two U.S. citizens were shot dead by federal officers – Renee Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on Saturday.
Demonstrations have spread to cities large and small across the country in recent weeks, with Minneapolis finding its way into the pop culture on Wednesday as singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen released a protest song honoring Pretti and Good.
A day after striking a conciliatory tone in their public comments following weeks of heated rhetoric, Trump and other top administration officials were talking tough again on Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social that federal agents had arrested 16 people on Wednesday in Minnesota for allegedly assaulting, resisting or impeding federal law enforcement.
“Nothing will stop us from continuing to make arrests and enforce the law,” Bondi wrote.
At the same time, the two immigration officers who opened fire on Pretti have been placed on administrative leave, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, adding that it was “standard protocol.”
MIXED MESSAGE, NEW TACTICS?
Trump’s administration had indicated on Tuesday it would soften its approach, dispatching border czar Tom Homan to take over the operation from Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official whose aggressive tactics drew widespread criticism.
A senior administration official said Homan’s arrival would mark a shift to more traditional, targeted operations rather than the broad street sweeps Bovino has led in multiple cities. Yet it remained unclear how much would materially change in a city where federal agents have regularly clashed with demonstrators.
Observers and activists told Reuters that Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity appeared to slow somewhat on Tuesday before resuming in full on Wednesday. They said there did now appear to be more of an emphasis on targeted exercises.
On Wednesday, ICE agents were seen in several parts of the city rolling up to homes and businesses in caravans of three vehicles with six to eight agents in total, then knocking on doors and looking around, seemingly for a specific person.
If that person were not found, observers said, the agents were seen leaving. In past weeks, agents might have begun randomly stopping people and demanding documented proof of legal status, a practice that has enraged community members and led to heated encounters.
It was difficult to know precisely how many raids were taking place. Authorities do not share such information, and volunteers who track ICE and Border Patrol vehicles say many of their encrypted communications have broken into hyper-local chats among small groups, partly to avoid infiltration by federal agents.
“They definitely shift around,” said Patty O’Keefe, a community ICE observer in south Minneapolis. “[They] let up for a few days so people let their guard down, I think.”
One observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he did not believe the change in tone from Trump meant there would be a meaningful slowdown in detentions.
“Like everybody out here, though, we can hope that maybe the change of having Homan come in could mean that ICE will shoot and kill less, that they won’t attack people like us keeping watch on them,” he said.
‘PLAYING WITH FIRE’
Among the 16 individuals who Bondi said were in custody on Wednesday was Abdikadir Noor, a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit that accused immigration agents of using excessive force against protesters.
A federal judge in that lawsuit issued an injunction to restrain officers from arresting or tear-gassing peaceful protesters, but a U.S. appeals court has lifted that order while the case as a whole remains under review.
Under mounting political pressure, Trump had dialed back his rhetorical attacks on Frey and Governor Tim Walz after speaking with both Democrats in the wake of Pretti’s killing, vowing to work with them to ease friction.
But on social media on Wednesday, Trump faulted Frey for reiterating the position of local leaders that the city would not enforce immigration laws. Trump wrote: “Could somebody in his inner sanctum please explain that this statement is a very serious violation of the Law, and that he is PLAYING WITH FIRE!”
Trump has threatened to cut off funding for states that include so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, which limit how much cooperation they give federal immigration authorities.
In response, Frey wrote on social media, “The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws.”
Pretti, 37, an intensive care nurse, was shot dead during protests near his home on Saturday, and some administration officials immediately accused him of planning to kill officers, citing the handgun he was carrying.
But video verified by Reuters showed Pretti held only a phone in his hand when Border Patrol agents pushed him to the ground. Video also showed that an agent found Pretti’s gun near his waist and removed it seconds before another agent shot a restrained Pretti in the back.
The killing, coupled with the fatal shooting of Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, by an ICE officer, has become a political crisis for Trump. A growing number of Republicans in Congress, who rarely buck Trump, have called for independent investigations into the shooting.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Minneapolis; Additional reporting by Maria Alejandra Cardona, Ted Hesson, Andrew Goudsward, Jana Winter, Andrew Hay and Jonathan Allen; Writing and additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Editing by Donna Bryson, Nick Zieminski and Michael Perry)
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