It was shortly after 7 p.m. on Monday evening when the… New York Times and the magazine The Atlantic reported that Greg Bovino, the martial commander of the US border agency ICE, is being withdrawn from Minneapolis. Given this news, not even temperatures of 17 degrees below zero could stop Minnesotans from going out the door again in the dark.
In the same place where the nurse had been two days before Alex Pretti After being shot, a crowd gathered in no time. A jazz combo had their instruments with them, and like at a funeral in New Orleans, people danced their bodies to a lively Dixie.
Bovino’s departure was a stage victory for Minneapolis. Through fearless protests and relentless surveillance, the people had managed to expose the abysmal cruelty of ICE in their city and to maneuver the administration of US President Donald Trump into a public relations dilemma. Even Republicans in Congress, otherwise unconditionally loyal to Trump, have now called for an independent investigation into the incident.
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The Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota withdrew from the race because he could no longer reconcile his conscience to stand for this party. Trump called Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Gov. Tim Walz to discuss how to defuse the situation.
But the Minneapolitans’ joy did not lead them to become complacent. That same evening, union leader Kieran Knutsen took the microphone at a meeting: “We must not forget what we are dealing with here,” said Knutsen, and you can follow the speech in a video. “This is not a matter of changing personnel or changing course. We are fighting a vile enemy. And we cannot give in until we defeat him.”
The new one is hardly less worrying
They’re incredibly nervous. They are afraid
Adam Levy, dedicated musician, about the ICE agents
Adam Levy, 60 years old, musician, educator and involved in the resistance against ICE from the beginning, reflected these feelings on the phone: “Yes, it feels good. It feels like the power of the streets can do something. But we can’t let up now.”
Caution is certainly warranted. Tim Homan, the man who is now supposed to replace Bovino, seems more civilized at first glance. Trump’s previous “border czar” does not appear in uniform, especially not in one Gestapo look like Bovino was wearing lately. Homan is wearing a suit. And he already served under Barack Obama.
However, all of this hardly makes it any less worrying. Reporter Caitlin Dickerson describes him as the father of the government’s tactic of separating immigrant families from their children – a tactic that Trump in his first term used en masse.
Under Obama, Homan was responsible for a record number of deportations – a record that Trump has yet to break. Obama deported more than three million people. Trump only reached 605,000 in his first year in office. For the second year, Stephen Miller, Trump advisor and architect of the deportation policy, has given the number one million.
What it was like under Obama
Trump critics have to repeatedly complain about the fact that Obama deported so many people. The only difference, it is claimed, was the optics. And Tim Homan was ultimately responsible for that.
In your dossier for The Atlantic Dickerson described how ICE, which was created along with the Department of Homeland Security after September 11, 2001, operated under Obama. Every single undocumented immigrant was carefully screened before officials knocked on the door. Obama’s policy was to adhere to strict priorities: people who had lived and worked in the USA for a long time should, if possible, be spared deportations. Families should not be torn apart.
Most of the arrests did not take place on the street, but in the early hours of the morning. At the start of Trump’s second term, Homan reiterated his continued preference for such targeted action. He doesn’t believe in large-scale raids on entire neighborhoods.
Obama was often accused of deporting people so zealously. “I understand the outrage,” he once said. “But it’s easy to be outraged. It’s much harder to go through the institutions and change the legal basis for immigration.”
Obama tried that. With his hard line, he wanted to create the basis for getting immigration reform through Congress. But the calculation didn’t work out. Like all presidents since Ronald Reagan, reform failed due to party discord. That hasn’t changed to this day. For the 14 million undocumented immigrants in the USA, a large majority of whom are well integrated and who keep the US agriculture sector afloat, there are still hardly any paths to legal residence.
ICE was inflated in no time
Trying to deport all of these people was considered a senseless undertaking until Donald Trump was elected. The costs and effort did not seem justified and the damage to the economy was too great. Quite apart from the obvious cruelty, which Trump’s conservative predecessors such as George W. Bush also shied away from because they feared damage to their image.
However, the image of cruelty is now a central part of the government’s strategy. One of Stephen Miller’s stated goals was not only to deter immigration by sowing fear, but also to encourage undocumented residents to “self-deport.” The Department of Homeland Security even initiated a PR campaign with videos that primarily showed Bovino in action.
At the same time, with the incredible budget of 170 billion dollars that Congress approved in the summer of 2025, the ICE force was expanded at lightning speed – from 7,000 to 22,000 men. Recruits were lured with a $50,000 bonus. The training period was shortened from five months to 47 days – to allude to the fact that Trump is the 47th President of the USA.
In official statements, ICE claimed that the quality of training had not suffered; arrest tactics and crowd control and de-escalation were being trained. However, insiders told the Atlantic, that out of 47 days of training, just four hours were spent practicing de-escalation. An ICE veteran confirmed that in the past, most recruits probably wouldn’t have made it through training. There are often problems with the physical fitness of the new recruits. Very few people manage to run a mile and a half in the required 14 minutes.
The poor training of the new ICE troops was probably also a reason why things escalated so catastrophically on the streets of Minneapolis.
Trump is changing strategy
Musician Adam Levy, who is an observer in Minneapolis every day, believes: “They are incredibly nervous. They are afraid.” At the same time, Stephen Miller publicly and emphatically certified that the ICE agents had complete immunity after the death of the committed citizen Renée Good. A dangerous mix.
With the death of Alex Pretti, Trump’s strategy of deterrence through cruelty now appears to have reached a limit, at least temporarily. Bovino’s departure and the fact that Trump appears to be putting his Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on a shorter leash suggests that the White House is rethinking the spectacle of violence.
This path does not pay off politically: 61 percent of Americans now believe ICE’s tactics are excessive. Republicans in Congress are now worried about the November midterm elections. And before the vote on the federal budget on Friday, they were also concerned that the Democrats could paralyze the government again with a shutdown. The vote took place after the editorial deadline.
Thomas Friedman from the New York Times believes that the intervention of J. D. Vance, who has now offered talks to the authorities in Minnesota, suggests that the resistance of congressional Republicans is greater than previously assumed. As Vice President, Vance is also a representative of Parliament.
Still, Minnesotans and resisters across the country are right to remain skeptical. A fundamental change of course by the Trump administration remains unlikely. A temporary tactical withdrawal is more plausible.
The resistance continues
There’s too much at stake for Trump, commented Ed Kilgore in New York-Magazine. Mass deportation was a central campaign promise, and Trump’s base expected him to deliver. In addition, he is running out of time to achieve his deportation goals. As early as the midterm elections in November, his ability to devote enormous resources to ICE could be severely limited.
The inhumanity of the Trump regime continues. The resistance in Minneapolis and in other cities in the USA too.