2026-01-26 15:35
publication
2026-01-26 15:35
US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he would send Tom Homan, the representative for immigration policy called the “border czar”, to Minnesota after protests against immigration services in that state. He also announced that an investigation into Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota Ilhan Omar is ongoing.
“Tonight I am sending Tom Homan to Minnesota. He has not been involved in that area, but he knows and likes many people there. Tom is strict but fair and will report directly to me,” Trump wrote in a morning post on his Truth Social social networking site.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Homan would lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations on the ground and “continue to apprehend the worst offenders – illegal immigrants.”
Homan was initially the main public face of the Trump administration's deportation efforts, but has been sidelined in recent months. As Fox News reported, this was the result of a dispute within the administration between those who favored focusing on detaining immigrant criminals – including Homan and ICE chief Todd Lyons – and those in favor of broader, more aggressive and more visible actions by the services. The latter group included the head of the Ministry of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, her informal adviser Corey Lewandowski, and the commander of the Border Patrol, Greg Bovino. It was Noem and Bovino who were recently the main officials explaining the Trump administration's policy. After Border Patrol killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, they were also criticized for pushing false narratives about the incident and calling the victim a terrorist.
Trump himself spoke more cautiously about the case, and on Sunday, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he refused to answer a question about whether the federal agent who shot a man in Minneapolis had acted appropriately. He also signaled that federal services may leave Minnesota.
In the same post, Trump also announced that an investigation was underway into welfare fraud by representatives of the Somali diaspora, claiming that the scandal, which has been under investigation for months, “is at least partially responsible for the violent, organized street protests.”
The US president also announced that the Ministry of Justice and Congress are “investigating the case” of Somali-born left-wing Democrat congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar, who – according to Trump – “left Somalia with NOTHING and her net worth reportedly exceeds $44 million.”
“Time will tell everything,” he noted. (PAP)
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