US President Donald Trump has deployed his border tsar Tom Homan to lead on-the-ground immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, after two US citizens were shot dead by federal agents in the city in less than a month.
The White House has said Homan, who arrived in Minneapolis on Tuesday, will now be the main point of contact on the ground and will meet with city officials.
It comes as Gregory Bovino, the US border patrol chief and public face of the Trump administration's mass deportation drive in cities across the US, is expected to leave the city along with some of his agents.
Homan, 64, is seen both as a key Trump ally and someone with decades of experience in immigration policy across both Republican and Democratic administrations.
He is also one of the most vocal defenders of Trump's immigration policy and mass deportation drive.
A rising figure in immigration law enforcement, Homan started his career as a police officer before joining border patrol in 1984 in Southern California.
In 2013, he held the influential post heading the Enforcement and Removal Operations arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Homan briefly retired in 2017 but was brought back to run ICE upon Trump's request.
The informal title of border tsar refers to an executive-branch role overseeing border and immigration policy across various agencies, directly appointed by the president.
While Bovino has been criticized for his aggressive tactics in immigration enforcement, including his controversial turn and burn strategy, Homan's strategies remain to systematically enforce all immigration laws.
Political analysts view Homan's appointment as a response to growing public concern over federal immigration actions but predict little change in the broader immigration enforcement approach. Immigration activists highlight Homan's role in contentious policies like family separation, suggesting that both he and Bovino share similar hardline views on immigration.
