On the 4th of this month, U.S. White House border affairs chief Haumann announced the withdrawal of some federal law enforcement personnel from Minnesota, while changing the work focus of law enforcement actions. U.S. President Trump also said that federal law enforcement personnel may need to adopt “more moderate measures” when enforcing law. The two released a major “cooling down” signal on the same day to the heated Mingzhou situation.
According to CNN, Hohmann announced on 4th that the United States Department of Homeland Security will “immediately withdraw” about 700 federal law enforcement personnel, including members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrols, a reduction of about 25 percent. Hohmann said his goal is to reduce the federal law enforcement forces stationed in Minneapolis to the scale before the Trump administration strengthened its anti-immigration efforts in December last year, but further withdrawals will still depend on the cooperation of local authorities. The media revealed that the state of Minnesota previously had only about 150 federal immigration law enforcement personnel stationed there, while the federal government has been sending out thousands of them continuously since the end of last year.
Members of ICE carry out immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, U.S.
Although the media generally view Haumann‘s latest statement as marking a “significant cooling down” of the Minnesota situation, he repeatedly emphasized that this move does not mean a “surrender” of the federal government, and that President Trump‘s goal of achieving mass expulsion of illegal immigrants during this term has not changed. He said: “This is a promise made by President Trump, and we have not received any instructions to go against it.” On the fourth day, Congressional Senate Democrat leader Schumer called Haumann‘s “partial evacuation” plan nothing more than “water in a bucket for the people of Minneapolis,” saying: “This is far from enough. All of them should leave now.”
When Trump was interviewed by NBC on 4, the host asked him what he thought about the immigration law enforcement death incident. Trump said he realized that the law enforcement method could be “a little gentler,” but “the attitude must be firm, because we are facing extremely vicious criminals.”
According to U.S. consumer news and business channels, there are still about 2,000 federal law enforcement officers stationed in Minneapolis, but Hohmann said at a press conference on the 4th that he will guide federal officers to “smart law enforcement” in the future, minimizing their deployment on the streets and in public places. Hohmann also declared that the federal government has achieved “precedent-breaking cooperation” with the Mingzhou Prison Department, where federal law enforcement officers can take over detainees with immigrant backgrounds from detention centers and other institutions across the state and upgrade them from “local detention” to “federal detention,” improving law enforcement efficiency while reducing conflicts with the community. However, relevant experts said “smart units will never cooperate with ICE, because following ICE‘s instructions could quickly get them sued.” (Liu Haoran)