Watch: Minneapolis immigration enforcement could use "softer touch", Trump saysUS President Donald Trump has said immigration agents could use a "softer touch" as his administration began pulling about a quarter of its force out of Minnesota, where two American citizens died last month in confrontations with federal officers."I learned that maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch," Trump told NBC News, adopting a rare conciliatory tone on his political touchstone. "But you still have to be tough."US border tsar Tom Homan said earlier 700 federal immigration agents would be withdrawn from the Minneapolis area.He said 2,000 agents would remain, and that he aimed to cut their presence in the city to its level before Operation Metro Surge began in December.In his interview with NBC News, Trump insisted that his operations were highly targeted at criminals."We are totally focused on criminals, really bad criminals," the president said. The president also said he was "not happy" with the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis."He was not an angel, and she was not an angel," Trump said. "You look at some tapes from back, but still, I'm not happy with what happened there."When pressed whether that justified what happened to two American citizens, Trump said, "No, it should have not happened. It was very sad to me. It was a very sad incident. Two incidents."During a news conference on Wednesday, border tsar Homan said that the US government had made providing body-worn cameras to all officers in Minneapolis a priority, and was planning to deploy the equipment to agents across the country.Homan said federal immigration agents in Minnesota had been arresting "bad people" in the Minneapolis area, including 14 charged with homicide and 139 with assault, as well as 87 sex offenders and 28 gang members. But Operation Metro Surge has sparked protests after two residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were fatally shot during encounters with federal agents.And a five-year-old boy, Liam Ramos, was caught up in the deportation dragnet as he was detained along with his Ecuadorean migrant father until a judge ordered their release at the weekend.US border tsar: 700 federal agents to 'draw down' in MinneapolisWhat is ICE and what powers do its agents have to use force?Agents in Minneapolis could be pulled back if local officials co-operate, border tsar saysHoman acknowledged it was not a perfect operation and said it had become "more streamlined" with an "established, unified chain of command"."It's not that it wasn't good before, but we improved upon it," he said.Homan said he was cutting the federal presence after receiving "unprecedented" co-operation from state and local officials in Minnesota. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, welcomed the drawdown, while emphasising that further action was needed."Today's announcement is a step in the right direction, but we need a faster and larger drawdown of forces, state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and an end to this campaign of retribution, " Walz wrote on X.Also on Tuesday, a government lawyer who complained that her job "sucks" during a court hearing about the immigration operation in Minnesota was removed from her role at the justice department. Citing a person familiar with the matter, the BBC'S US partner CBS reported that the lawyer, Julie Le, told a judge on Tuesday that she hoped to be held in contempt of court "so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep". "What do you want me to do?" she said. "The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need." The justice and homeland security departments have not publicly commented on Le's departure. Meanwhile, the White House stood by Trump adviser Stephen Miller amid a report that cracks had formed in Trump's relationship with the immigration hawk. The US president told aides he was not comfortable with how far Miller had gone on the issue on some fronts, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Miller was "intelligent, hardworking, and loyal".MinnesotaUS immigrationDonald TrumpUnited States
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