Border Patrol Partially Withdraws From Minnesota After Pretti Shooting

Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino will reportedly leave Minnesota immediately as the Trump administration handles fallout from a fatal agent-involved shooting.

Bovino will exit the state along with a portion of Border Patrol agents, according to The Wall Street Journal. President Donald Trump has said that he will recall all Border Patrol agents from Minnesota if the state agrees to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that if Minnesota and local authorities change their approach to ICE and agree to assist federal authorities in apprehending illegal aliens, the president would withdraw Border Patrol from the state.

“If Governor [Tim Walz] and Mayor [Jacob Frey] implement these common sense cooperative measures that, I will add, have already been implemented in nearly every single other state across the country, Customs and Border Patrol will not be needed to support ICE on the ground in Minnesota,” said Leavitt. “ICE and local law enforcement can peacefully work together as they are effectively doing in so many other states and jurisdictions.”

Tensions in Minneapolis have exploded after two immigration enforcement-involved shootings this month. On Saturday, a Customs and Border Protection agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA hospital, who was allegedly interfering with immigration operations in the city. Pretti’s death came just weeks after Renee Good was shot and killed in her vehicle after appearing to drive in the direction of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis.

As Bovino withdraws from the state, border czar Tom Homan is traveling to Minnesota to take the lead in mediating between state and local authorities and federal immigration authorities, the White House announced on Monday.

“Mr. Homan is the point-person in cooperating with state and local authorities and corresponding with them, again, to achieve this level of cooperation to subdue the chaos on the streets of Minneapolis,” said Leavitt.

The president spoke with Walz and Frey over the phone on Monday and had positive reports about both calls. Of Walz, Trump said that he and the Minnesota governor “seemed to be on a similar wavelength” regarding the future of immigration operations in the state. Of Frey, Trump described the conversation as “very good” and said the mayor would be meeting with Homan on Tuesday.

Rhetoric from state leaders and administration officials flared in the aftermath of the Good and Pretti shootings. On Sunday, Walz suggested that illegal aliens in his state were experiencing a version of the tragedy of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who hid from the Nazi regime in an attic for over two years before dying in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested that Pretti was a “domestic terrorist.”

“Violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and to perpetuate violence. That is the definition of domestic terrorism,” said Noem.

Trump Admin Moves Closer To Yanking Federal Funding For Minnesota Over Trans Athletes Probe

The Department of Education referred its Minnesota transgender athletes investigation to the Justice Department on Monday, a major step toward pulling funding for the Democrat-run state’s education and high school sports agencies.

Minnesota has so far refused to negotiate with the Trump administration on the issue after the federal government found that the state violated Title IX by allowing boys to compete against girls. Now, Minnesota is close to losing its federal funding from the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, The Daily Caller reported. The DOJ referral comes as the Trump administration targets Minnesota in its immigration enforcement operation and over allegations of massive fraud.

“As Minnesota reels from a fraud scandal, @GovTimWalz is fighting to keep men in women’s sports,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote on X. “Now, he’ll have to make his case in court.”

The Education Department and HHS said last September that their investigation found the Minnesota State High School League was in violation of Title IX by allowing boys who identified as girls to compete against girls in high school sports. Minnesota was the center of a sports controversy last spring when a male pitcher dominated the girls’ state softball tournament. The Trump administration also said that Minnesota allowed boys to compete against girls in Alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, lacrosse, track and field, and volleyball.

The Minnesota Department of Education has argued that Title IX “requires schools provide transgender students with the right to participate in…athletics in a manner consistent with their gender identity” and that “transgender and gender nonconforming students should be afforded the opportunity to use the restroom of their choice” — positions that directly contradict the Trump administration’s interpretation of the law.

“Despite repeated opportunities to comply with Title IX, Minnesota has chosen defiance – continuing to jeopardize the safety of women and girls, deny them fair competition, and erode their right to equal access in educational programs and activities,” McMahon told The Daily Caller.

“The Trump Administration will not stop until accountability is delivered for Minnesota’s students,” she added.

Minnesota leftist Attorney General Keith Ellison sued the Trump administration over the president’s executive order on keeping men out of women’s sports, arguing that the Trump administration is “bullying vulnerable children.” Ellison said last year that Trump does not have the authority to override Minnesota state law that allows trans-identifying athletes to compete in sports categories that match their gender identities.

Trump signed an executive order in February banning boys and men from competing against female athletes, threatening to strip federal funding from states that don’t obey the order. The Trump administration has also gone after Maine and California for violating Title IX protections for women and girls.

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