Patricia Lopez, Columnist

Homan Should Give This Mass Deportation Campaign a Hard Reset

January 29, 2026 at 10:30 AM UTC

Updated on

January 29, 2026 at 4:48 PM UTC

Patricia Lopez is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. She is a former member of the editorial board at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where she also worked as a senior political editor and reporter.

A cooler head must prevail.
Photographer: Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

The siege of Minneapolis is not ending, but it may at least be easing. President Donald Trump has removed US Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Greg Bovino, promised a still-unspecified drawdown of the 3,000 federal agents blanketing the area, and has sent border czar Tom Homan to provide new leadership.

But that is the barest beginning of what should happen to turn around the mess that Trump’s mass deportation drive has become. Nowhere is that more clear than here in the Minneapolis-St Paul area, where I live. Like many of my friends and neighbors, I now carry a passport on my person, though I am an American-born citizen. My neighborhood bank’s parking lot has become a staging area for ICE vehicles. The local cafe closed the other day to protect its staff.