Walz and Trump speak by phone as White House appears to soften tone on ICE crackdown

Ryan Faircloth and Walker Orenstein, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jan 26, 2026

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MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke to President Donald Trump by phone Monday, a conversation both parties hailed as productive and signaling a possible path toward de-escalating the tense immigration standoff in the state.

It was the first call in more than a year between Walz and Trump, who have become bitter political foes since the governor’s failed run for vice president, and came after two Minnesotans were shot and killed this month by federal immigration agents.

The governor’s office described the call as “productive” and said Walz emphasized the need for “impartial investigations” of the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. Walz also asked Trump to reduce the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota.

“The President agreed that he would talk to his Department of Homeland Security about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, as would ordinarily be the case,” the governor’s office said in a statement. “The President also agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota and working with the state in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.”

Federal agents blocked investigators from the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension from accessing the shooting scene after Pretti was killed.

In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump described his call with Walz as “very good” and said the two seemed to be “on a similar wavelength.” Trump said he told Walz that White House border official Tom Homan, who is traveling to Minnesota to oversee ICE operations in the state, would call him, and that “what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession.”

“The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future. He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I!” Trump wrote. “We have had such tremendous SUCCESS in Washington, D.C., Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and virtually every other place that we have ‘touched’ and, even in Minnesota, Crime is way down, but both Governor Walz and I want to make it better!”

Trump’s statement came as he and officials in his administration appeared to shift their tone on Operation Metro Surge, the name the administration has given to its deployment of thousands of ICE agents to Minnesota.

In the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting of Pretti, homeland security adviser Stephen Miller claimed Pretti was a domestic terrorist and a “would-be assassin.” Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino said, without evidence, that Pretti was intent on massacring law enforcement.

Videos of the shooting of Pretti do not show him pointing a firearm, attempting to fire a weapon or advancing on agents with a gun raised. Rather, the videos showed Pretti holding a cellphone, appearing to record the actions of ICE agents.

Trump administration officials seemed to back away from those initial claims on Monday. In an interview on Fox News, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “I don’t think anybody thinks that they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism.”

“I am not going to prejudge the facts,” Blanche said.

Trump’s Monday decision to send his border czar Homan to Minneapolis was interpreted by some Republicans as a move to sideline Miller, Bovino and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Some Republicans view Homan coming to Minnesota as another sign of de-escalation.

“Tom Homan’s arrival in Minnesota is an opportunity for a reset through the collaboration that President Trump has been pushing for between the federal government and state/local law enforcement,” said Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, a Cold Spring Republican, in a social media post.

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