President Donald Trump is finally getting serious in Minnesota. He’s tapped White House Border Czar Tom Homan — a seasoned immigration enforcer with decades of experience — to take direct charge of the situation on the ground. Even more significant: Homan answers directly to the president, not to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
That decision dovetails with the growing frustration inside federal law enforcement over how DHS has handled the aftermath of the Alex Pretti shooting. More than half a dozen immigration agents have privately expressed exasperation with DHS messaging — especially the exaggerated, politically charged claims pushed publicly about the incident — arguing it has damaged morale and credibility.
They’re fed up with spin that makes their job harder, apparently, while giving critics more ammunition, and now Trump’s move to put a seasoned leader in charge speaks to the recognition that the status quo wasn’t cutting it.
Here’s what Melugin reported:
Since yesterday’s deadly shooting in MN, I’ve talked to more than half a dozen federal sources involved immigration enforcement, including several in senior positions, who all tell me they have grown increasingly uneasy & frustrated w/ some of the claims & narratives DHS pushed in the aftermath of the shooting.
Specifically, I’m told there is extreme frustration with DHS officials going on TV and putting out statements claiming that Alex Pretti was intending to conduct a “massacre” of federal agents or wanted to carry out “maximum damage”, even after numerous videos appeared to show those claims were inaccurate. While they say it was a terrible decision to show up with a gun and inject himself into a federal law enforcement operation, there is no indication Pretti was there to murder law enforcement, as videos appear to show he never drew his holstered firearm.
These sources say this messaging from DHS officials has been catastrophic from a PR and morale perspective, as it is eroding trust and credibility – comparing it to when Democrats falsely claimed the border was closed or that Haitians were being whipped at the border.
Some of these sources have described DHS’ response to the shooting as “a case study on how not to do crisis PR”, one said they are so “fed up” that they wish they could retire, another said “DHS is making the situation worse”, and another added that “DHS is wrong” and “we are losing this war, we are losing the base and the narrative.”
These sources all believe this is going to end up being what they call a “bad shoot”, a “shitty” situation that happened in seconds where agents likely heard “gun!”, then the disarmed firearm may have had an accidental discharge that spooked the agents, and they shot. The agents do not have the luxury of multiple slow motion angles – and had to make split second decisions.
All of the sources support the mass deportation agenda, but have serious hesitations about the way it is being carried out and the messaging that comes with it. Many of the sources have expressed frustration that ICE is routinely blamed for the actions of Border Patrol, a completely separate agency.
I reached out to DHS for comment on concerns that their rhetoric and comments have damaged their credibility.
To put it plainly, the agents actually risking their lives on the streets didn’t believe DHS messaging was helping them — and some felt it was actively making their jobs more dangerous. They saw political talking points coming out of Washington that didn’t match what they experienced on the ground, and that disconnect matters when tensions are already high.
In particular, agents bristled at the rush by DHS leadership to label Alex Pretti a “domestic terrorist” who supposedly intended to cause “maximum damage” or carry out a massacre. Whatever one believes about the shooting itself, there is no evidence to support the claim that Pretti arrived with a premeditated plan to murder CBP officers — and considerable evidence that cuts against it.
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If Pretti had intended to open fire, he had multiple opportunities to do so long before he ended up pepper-sprayed and on the ground. Instead, video shows that when the physical struggle began, he was being pulled backward for detention — not reaching to draw a weapon. Inflated rhetoric may play well politically, but agents know it doesn’t survive contact with reality, and it only escalates an already volatile situation.
Trump clearly understands this and is tuning out the distractions from many voices online to implement this change:
Nowhere in that statement does President Trump suggest he’s “surrendering” or backing down — that’s a fantasy cooked up by people who confuse volume with strategy. Smart leadership isn’t about smashing your head into the nearest brick wall and calling it strength. It’s about knowing when to adjust tactics without abandoning the mission.
Trump understands something many right-wing influencers chasing clicks clearly don’t: you don’t win enforcement battles if you lose the public first. Strategy matters — both on the ground and in how actions are communicated. The president knows that enforcement without legitimacy collapses, and legitimacy without enforcement is meaningless. Winning requires both, and Trump is playing the long game, not the engagement-farming short one.
Sending Tom Homan — who I’ve long said is a far more credible and effective voice on immigration enforcement than many others — is a clear signal that Trump wants things tightened up, not abandoned. Some of that tightening will happen operationally, on the ground and day to day. But the bigger issue is messaging and discipline.
Trump understands that the last thing this effort needs is to hand the Left easy propaganda. Every misstep becomes campaign fuel for Democrats eager to turn enforcement into an electoral weapon, win races, and then use that power to tie Trump’s hands and shut the whole effort down. Homan’s role isn’t just enforcement — it’s ensuring the mission stays focused, defensible, and effective, so immigration laws can actually be enforced without gifting the Left the narrative victory they’re desperate for.
