Donald Trump has sent his “border tsar” to Minneapolis as the White House seeks to ease unrest after two people were killed by federal agents.
Tom Homan arrived in the midwestern city on 27 January to replace US border patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who was overseeing ICE (immigration and customs enforcement) when Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good were shot dead.
The shake-up could be a sign the White House is trying to reset relations, replacing one agent who is known for robust tactics with one who is seen by some as a voice of restraint and moderation.
Mr Trump said himself the administration was “going to de-escalate a little bit”, calling the appointment of Mr Homan a “little bit of a change” rather than a “pullback”.
So who is Tom Homan, and how will he try to change things in Minneapolis?
Four decades of experience
Having started his career as a police officer in West Carthage, New York, Mr Homan became a border patrol agent in 1984.
He moved to ICE when it was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 and worked his way up to being acting director from 2017 to 2018, turning down the permanent job after being nominated by Mr Trump.
Under the Obama administration, Mr Homan was a relatively low-key but influential figure. As head of the agency’s enforcement and removal operations arm, he was tasked with tracking down people with outstanding deportation orders and removing them from the country.
In 2013, the year Mr Homan took on the role, the US carried out the highest total of deportations since records began.
He had planned to retire in 2017, just before Mr Trump began his first term in the White House, but was urged to stay at ICE by the incoming chief of staff John Kelly.
In November 2024 Mr Homan was named “border tsar”, which he said at the time was an honour.
The position is directly appointed by the president and is responsible for deportation efforts across multiple agencies.
Read more:
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Advocate of Trump immigration policy
Mr Homan is perhaps most widely associated with policies that separated thousands of parents from their children at the border during Mr Trump’s first term.
While Mr Trump defended the practice, in 2023 a federal judge ruled against the separation of families at the border after the American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued to halt it.
In the build-up to Mr Trump’s second term, Mr Homan vowed that immigration policy would focus on the “worst of the worst”.
“You concentrate on the public safety threats and the national security threats first, because they’re the worst of the worst,” he told Fox News in 2024.
Speaking to Sky News’ US correspondent Mark Stone in September last year, Mr Homan reiterated that the administration was not out “sweeping neighbourhoods” but that if they “run into a non-criminal during these operations, they absolutely are going to be taken into custody”.
However, there are numerous recent examples of people with legal residency, as well as people within the asylum process – and even US citizens – being detained across the country.
Unlike other top immigration officials, Mr Homan has not publicly spoken about the death of Mr Pretti, and after Ms Good’s death he told CBS to “let the investigation play out and hold people accountable based on the investigation”.
Backed by the White House
In September, the Trump administration defended Mr Homan following reports he accepted $50,000 (£36,000) from undercover agents posing as businesspeople during an FBI operation.
Mr Homan was accused of accepting the cash during a 2024 encounter with the agents who were undercover seeking government contracts that Mr Homan suggested could help them get in a second Trump term.
The claims led to a bribery investigation that was ultimately shut down by the US Justice Department last year.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time the encounter with the undercover agents was an effort by the Biden administration to “entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position”.
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What is his plan for Minneapolis?
Mr Homan’s aim in Minneapolis is to move away from the broad, public neighbourhood sweeps that Mr Bovino had conducted in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and other cities and adopt a more traditional, targeted approach, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters.
Discussions between Mr Trump and his advisers also included reducing the number of agents in Minnesota, focusing the mission more narrowly on deportations, and exploring greater coordination with state authorities.
On his first day in the city, Mr Homan met with Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, the city’s police chief and, separately, Minnesota governor Tim Walz.
Mr Frey said he had reiterated to Mr Homan his request that the enforcement action, known as Operation Metro Surge, “come to an end as quickly as possible”, and that city leaders would remain in touch with the tsar.
While Mr Walz said he had outlined the state’s priorities, including impartial investigations into the two shootings and a reduction in the 3,000-strong force of federal agents deployed to the city.
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Mr Homan said afterwards that talks were a “productive starting point” for additional conversations.
While tensions remain high among the city’s residents, Mark Amodei, the House Republican who oversees federal funding for the Department of Homeland Security, said Mr Homan’s deployment is “an encouraging indicator that a pivot is happening”.
