Republicans offer early support for Trump’s Minnesota pivot

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill expressed relief after President Donald Trump announced Monday he would send border czar Tom Homan to handle immigration enforcement in Minnesota after Department of Homeland Security agents shot and killed a second U.S. citizen there.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) praised the move Monday, saying “we need a new set of eyes and someone with his experience to help turn around the problems of the moment and the future.”

“Tom is the right man to find a way to de-escalate the situation,” he added.

A growing number of Hill Republicans have been pushing publicly and privately for a lowering of the temperature, including from the federal government, after DHS agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday.

GOP lawmakers largely view Homan as a more practical enforcer of Trump’s mass deportation plans as some grow increasingly wary of how Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino are handling the campaign, according to six GOP lawmakers granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

“There needed to be a change,” said one of the GOP lawmakers. But other at-risk Republicans have been wary to publicly embrace Homan, who has denied reports that he took a $50,000 bribe from federal agents.