Is the Trump administration backing down in Minneapolis?

This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.

Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration says it will remove 700 federal immigration agents from Minneapolis, but there are few signs of the crackdown letting up.

What’s happening? The drawdown was announced by President Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan on Wednesday and will bring the federal presence in Minneapolis to about 2,000 agents — down from a high of 3,000, but still many times greater than the 150 agents who were there prior to the recent surge. 

It’s the latest step the Trump administration has taken to respond to the rare bipartisan outcry caused by the killing of Alex Pretti, which occurred only weeks after Renee Good was also killed by a federal agent. Last week, top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino was removed from his role as “commander at large” and left Minnesota; this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said DHS would deploy body cameras for federal immigration agents in Minnesota.

So far, however, there’s little reason to believe the reduced federal presence will come with a meaningful change in the often violent tactics ICE and CBP agents have used in Minnesota.

What’s the context? Trump said last week that the federal government would “de-escalate a little bit” in Minnesota. But since then, we’ve learned that ICE has told its agents they have greater leeway to arrest people without a warrant, and scenes like this one — where federal agents surround a vehicle, guns drawn, to arrest observers — continue to emerge. 

What’s the big picture? For all that the Trump administration makes conciliatory noises after killing two American citizens, it’s not clear that top Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s drive for more immigration arrests is compatible with a federal immigration force acting any differently than it has in Minneapolis. As my colleague Eric Levitz recently wrote, “the pursuit of indiscriminate, mass deportation” will inherently involve violating civil liberties at scale. The Trump administration appears set to forge ahead anyway — just with slightly fewer agents. 

And with that, it’s time to log off…

Here’s some good news from the National Weather Service: Today marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, which means we’re gaining daylight quickly — over two minutes a day for the next few months.

As always, thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you tomorrow!