After the Minneapolis shootings, Trump says his administration could use 'a softer touch' on immigration

President Donald Trump told NBC News on Wednesday that he believes his administration could use “a softer touch” in its immigration enforcement operations after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens last month in Minneapolis.

“I learned that maybe we could use a little bit of a softer touch. But you still have to be tough,” Trump said in an Oval Office interview with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas. “We’re dealing with really hard criminals. But look, I’ve called the people. I’ve called the governor. I’ve called the mayor. Spoke to ‘em. Had great conversations with them. And then I see them ranting and raving out there. Literally as though a call wasn’t made.”

Tune in for even more of Tom Llamas’ interview with President Donald Trump on Super Bowl Sunday on NBC.

Trump has been engaged in a weekslong feud with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, two Democrats who have been highly critical of his immigration crackdown in the city and condemned the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, in separate incidents in January. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other high-ranking administration officials had been quick to blame the fatal shootings on Good and Pretti, at several points characterizing them without evidence as domestic terrorists.

Video footage of the incidents also contradicted some initial claims that administration officials made to suggest the shootings were justified.

Trump’s remarks to NBC News on Wednesday reflect his continued shift in tone as national outrage over the killings takes hold. At a Jan. 20 White House briefing, Trump said that federal agents “make mistakes sometimes.”

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. border czar Tom Homan announced a withdrawal of 700 federal immigration agents from Minnesota. Asked by Llamas if that call had come from Trump, the president affirmed that it had.

“But it didn’t come from me because I just wanted to do it,” Trump added. “We have — we are waiting for them to release prisoners, give us the murderers that they’re holding and all of the bad people, drug dealers, all of the bad people. We allowed in our country, I say, 25 million people with an open-border policy for four years under [President Joe] Biden, and that group, the autopen group, I call them. We allowed to come into our country people the likes of which no country would accept. And we’re getting ‘em out.”

Trump’s claim about 25 million undocumented immigrants, which he has made before, is false. During the Biden administration, 7.4 million undocumented immigrants crossed the border outside of legal checkpoints, according to data from Customs and Border Protection.