United States President Donald Trump and Minnesota governor Tim Walz struck a conciliatory tone after a private phone call about immigration enforcement, a sign the two sides were seeking a way to end their stand-off over a deportation drive.
In another apparent signal of a thaw in the crisis, a senior Trump administration official confirmed reports that Gregory Bovino, a top US border patrol official who has been a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and civil liberties activists, will be leaving Minnesota along with some border patrol agents.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, would be tasked with overseeing Minnesota operations in Bovino's absence. Trump said earlier in the day that Homan was being dispatched to Minnesota.
In a sharp reversal, Trump on Monday said he was "on a similar wavelength" with Walz after the pair had a "very good call".
Trump's comments come weeks after he ordered thousands of heavily armed federal immigration agents to the Minneapolis-St Paul area in a deportation drive, with the staunch opposition of state and local authorities.
Trump said he had also spoken to Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey.
Trump has spent the past month accusing Walz and Frey, both Democrats, of incompetence for failing to stop a state welfare fraud scandal that the Republican president portrayed as fomented entirely by criminal immigrants.
Walz and other Democrats have countered that Trump was seizing on the issue of welfare fraud as a pretext for a mass federal deployment — one they've characterised as a reckless, lawless invasion.
The fatal shooting of a 37-year-old nurse, Alex Pretti, on Saturday by immigration agents — the second US citizen killed in the state by federal officers this month — has prompted sharp public backlash.
Opinion polls show waning support for Trump's immigration enforcement tactics.
Earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed reporters after the killing of Pretti on Saturday.
"Let's be clear about the circumstances which led to that moment on Saturday. This tragedy occurred as a result of a deliberate and hostile resistance by Democrat leaders in Minnesota for weeks," Leavitt said.
Video from the scene, verified by Reuters, contradicts the Trump administration's account that immigration agents fired in self-defence after Pretti approached them with a handgun.
Footage shows Pretti holding a phone — not a gun — as agents wrestle him to the ground. It also shows officers removing a firearm stored near his waistband after he was subdued, moments before they fatally shot him. Pretti was a licensed gun owner.
Leavitt said Trump "will never back down from his promise to deport violent criminal illegal aliens and make America safe again, and he welcomes all cooperation in that effort".
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