WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's decision toshake upthe leadership of his immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota is the latest twist in a monthslong power struggle inside his administration over one of his top policy priorities, according to two law enforcement officials, one administration official and a person familiar with the situation.
It marks a triumph for one camp of immigration enforcement officials — namely border czar Tom Homan and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott — who have publicly advocated for a targeted approach focused on arresting criminals who are in the country illegally.
And it is a comedown for the other faction, led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, her top adviser Corey Lewandowski and Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino, whopushedfor large sweeps of immigrants and aggressive tactics such as using chemical agents andrappellinginto apartment buildings from Black Hawk helicopters.
How long the shift in fortunes will last is unclear. Trump's shake-up in Minnesota suggests he's cooling to the enforcement tactics that have shaped Americans' view of his immigration agenda for most of his term, withpolls showingmany voters think it's gone too far.
At the same time, the president's aides have said he's still committed to his deportations policy — Trump polls better on the question of border security — even if he's for now pivoting away from the strategy led by Bovino following the deadly shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday and of Renee Good earlier this month.
"Career law enforcement have not agreed with this strategy of deploying Bovino to do these roving encounters," one of the law enforcement officials told NBC News.
Bovino publicly defended the shootings and framed Pretti and Good as the aggressors. Noem, Trump and deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller struck a similar public tone initially as well. Now many administration officials, including Trump, point to an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.
Miller, in particular, has been a leading voice inside the administration and demanded more arrests and deportations of immigrants who are not legally in the U.S., including berating and threatening to fire senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials if they did not begin detaining 3,000 migrants a day, NBC News hasreported. The White House has said Miller retains the support of the president and remains in his position as the architect of Trump's immigration policy.
Trump on Monday stripped Bovino of his "commander" title and sent him back to his previous job in El Centro, California, at the border. "Bovino is going back to El Centro and in El Centro he will stay," the law enforcement official said.
Asked for comment on the competing factions, a senior DHS official said, "There is only one page: the president's page. Everyone's on the same page."
"Secretary Noem is focused on restoring law and order and executing on the president's agenda for mass deportations — not publicity," the official said, and pointed to Noem's post on social media calling Trump's decision to supplant Bovino with Homan "good news for peace, safety, and accountability in Minneapolis."
The jousting between the two factions within the administration has been ongoing since the summer, the two law enforcement officials, the administration official and the person familiar with the situation said.
Homan, Scott and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons were sidelined in June amid White House frustrations that under their leadership migrant deportation numbers weren't high enough,NBC News reported. Miller, Noem and Lewandowski at the time elevated Bovino instead, viewing his more aggressive approach to immigration enforcement as the solution to disappointing deportation numbers, NBC News hasreported.
Until Monday, Bovino reported directly to Noem and Lewandowski rather than Scott, who is the head of CBP, the two law enforcement officials, the administration official and the person familiar with the situation said.
Noem, Lewandowski and Miller pulled him out of relative obscurity from his position as Border Patrol sector chief in El Centro in early June. He was on the cusp of reaching Border Patrol's mandatory retirement age of 57.
His performance over the past seven months leading Border Patrol agents — first in Los Angeles, where they used such tactics as jumping out of rental trucks in parking lots to surprise and then arrest people — won him favor with Noem and Lewandowski, the two law enforcement officials said. They said Lewandowski even flew to Los Angeles a few days after Bovino began overseeing operations there to personally ask him to continue immigration enforcement efforts there and elsewhere.
At the time, DHS moved more than 1,500 Border Patrol agents to the interior of the country and tasked them with arresting migrants, Border Patrol Chief Mike Bankstold NBC Newsin September.
Bovino was then tasked with leading Border Patrol agents in operations in Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans and, most recently, Minneapolis.
Bovino was a fixture on the ground in each city,personally taking partin tactics that the White House defended against protests and backlash: deploying tear gas canisters into groups of protesters and demanding papers from people who appeared to be immigrants as they went about their day.
Noem and Lewandowski welcomed his approach and sought to amplify it.
NBC Newsreportedin October that Noem and Lewandowski forced out six ICE field office directors against Lyons' wishes and replaced at least half of them with individuals who had Border Patrol experience, a nod of approval to Border Patrol's tactics in Chicago that month, according to two Homeland Security Department officials, one former DHS official and one federal law enforcement official.
In recent months, Homan was increasingly kept out of meetings about decisions to deploy ICE and Border Patrol to cities around the country, the two law enforcement officials and the administration official said.
This was unusual, given that Homan, as Trump's border czar, is responsible for implementing the president's immigration policies — from securing the southern U.S. border to arresting individuals who are in the country illegally.
Tensions between the two factions reached a boiling point late last year as Scott, the Border Protection commissioner, expressed concern that Lewandowski was reading his emails, NBC Newsreportedafter speaking with two DHS officials with direct knowledge of the allegation. DHS at the time did not respond to a request for comment about Scott's concerns about his emails.
Without Scott's prior knowledge or approval, his three most senior supporting officials— his chief of staff, his legal counsel and his deputy — were subsequently replaced by people who were close to Lewandowski, one of the law enforcement officials and a person close to Scott said.
And earlier this month, Scott learned from news reports, not from administration officials, that Border Patrol agents had shot at two Venezuelan immigrants in a vehicle in Portland, one of the law enforcement officials and a person close to Scott said.
Joseph Mazzara, who is close to Lewandowski, was brought in after Scott's aides were fired. Mazzara had authored a legalopinionthat allowed immigration agents to enter homes without a warrant signed by a judge, according to two law enforcement officials.
When asked for comment on the memo and Mazzara's involvement in it last week, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, said: "In every case that DHS uses an administrative warrant to enter a residence, an illegal alien has already had their full due process."
That opinion has drawn criticism this month from opponents of Trump's immigration policy.
What the rise of Scott and Homan and the return of Bovino to his previous position at the border mean for Noem and Lewandowski's future at DHS remains unclear. NBC News confirmed with two White House officials and a DHS official that Noem and Lewandowski had a two-hour meeting with Trump in the Oval Office on Monday. The White House officials said the president does not plan to remove them.
