Tim Walz and Jacob Frey say Trump is withdrawing federal officers from Minnesota in wake of Alex Pretti shooting

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said Donald Trump has committed to pulling out some federal immigration officers from the state following phone calls with the president.

Walz’s office said Trump is considering withdrawing some federal immigration officers, whose numbers have surged in the state, following a “productive” phone call, while Frey said the president “agreed the present situation can’t continue” and agreed to begin withdrawing officers as soon as tomorrow,

Monday’s statements followed Trump’s claim on Truth Social that he is on a “similar wavelength” to the governor after growing outrage in the aftermath of another fatal shooting in Minneapolis, where federal officers shot and killed a 37-year-old demonstrator.

The calls appear to reflect a reduction in tensions following months of threats against Walz, Frey and other Democratic officials whom the administration is investigating for allegedly criminally obstructing immigration enforcement in the state.

In a statement, Walz’s office said the president agreed to “look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota” and to work with the state “in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.” More than 2,000 federal officers have been brought into Minnesota in recent weeks to carry out Trump’s mass deportation push.

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Trump said Governor Walz had called “with the request to work together with respect to Minnesota.”

“It was a very good call, and we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump wrote.

Trump said that his border czar Tom Homan would be calling Walz, “and that what we are looking for are any and all criminals that they have in their possession.”

“The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future,” he added. “He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!”

In a separate post Monday, Trump said “lots of progress is being made” after his call with Frey.

Earlier, Trump announced he was deploying Homan to the state, where he will be “managing” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations as officers “continue arresting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“He has not been involved in that area, but knows and likes many of the people there,” Trump wrote Sunday. “Tom is tough but fair, and will report directly to me.”

Homan’s deployment hints at a shift in strategy after weeks of ongoing demonstrations in Minneapolis and political blowback against a surge of officers accused of violently targeting non-citizens and citizens alike, as well as protesters, some of whom have outlined attacks against them in lawsuits backed by state and city officials.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem placed border patrol official Greg Bovino at the helm of the administration’s boots-on-the-ground operations in Democratic-led cities. He is overseeing roughly 3,000 agents from ICE and border patrol in the Minneapolis area.

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Following the killing of Pretti, who was fatally shot by border patrol officers who wrestled him to the ground Saturday, Noem and her agency’s top officials, including Bovino, immediately defended the officers’ actions.

Bovino baselessly alleged that Pretti had intended to “massacre law enforcement.” Noem suggested during a press conference Saturday that she believed Pretti was engaged in “domestic terrorism” — a statement refuted the next day by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism. What we saw was a very violent altercation, and I’m not going to prejudge the facts,” said Blanche during an interview with Fox News.

Trump also distanced himself from the shooting in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, saying that officials were investigating the incident. “We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” he said.

The president has agreed to “impartial investigations of the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents,” according to the statement from Walz’s office.

New oversight from the Minnesota operation under Homan, a career immigration enforcement officer who led ICE during Trump’s first administration, also follows weeks of speculation that Noem could be replaced, with bitter public opinion polling against Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

A federal judge is now mulling whether Trump’s Operation Metro Surge is illegal altogether.

Walz, meanwhile, has repeatedly urged Trump to “turn the temperature down” in Minneapolis, including in the wake of the killing of Renee Good, who was shot by an ICE officer three times while she was behind the wheel of her car earlier this month.

“We want calm and peace and normalcy back to our lives. They want chaos,” Walz said in remarks Saturday afternoon.

He called on Trump directly to “remove this force from Minnesota” and warned that law enforcement officials in the state are maintaining records of clashes for the “future prosecution of ICE agents and the officials responsible for this.”

“We’ll keep the peace ... and we’ll see this occupation end,” he said. “We’ll continue to be the adults in the room, the decent human beings in the room, who keep the peace.”