The Trump administration plans to double down on targeted immigration enforcement, taking Tom Homan’s playbook in Minneapolis and applying it to multiple cities nationwide, according to current and former Homeland Security officials.
It’s a marked departure from the highly visible and aggressive tactics employed by top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino. That approach, documented in Hollywood-style social media videos and touted by senior Trump officials at the time, is being tabled, for now, following the scenes that unfolded in Minneapolis, including the shooting deaths of two American citizens.
“No more Bovino bullsh*t. That show is shut down,” a Homeland Security official told CNN.
The return to ICE’s typical immigration enforcement tactics, which include identifying targets ahead of time, instead of broad sweeps in areas trafficked by immigrants, comes amid waning public support for how the administration has been conducting immigration arrests.
The protests and images coming out of Minneapolis late last month prompted concerns from some Trump administration officials over the optics of the immigration crackdown. That included President Donald Trump, who privately expressed frustration that his immigration messaging was getting lost. The debate over federal immigration enforcement has also sparked a partial government shutdown affecting portions of DHS, as Democrats have pushed for ICE reforms in exchange for supporting funding for the department.
“Targeting public safety threats is nothing new. … Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement, citing more than 700,000 deportations under the Trump administration.