Trump’s border czar Tom Homan reveals ICE teams are already arresting ‘threats to public safety’
Border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that a mass deportation operation has already begun as the Trump administration seeks to fulfill promises to tackle the border crisis and crack down illegal immigration.
“No, it has started [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] teams are out as of today,” Homan told “America’s Newsroom.” “We’ve instructed them to prioritize the public safety threats we’re looking for. We worked on a list of goals.”
The administration has vowed to launch a “historic” mass deportation operation, and sources told Fox News Digital that arrests are underway planned on “day one”. Some media outlets reported the operation in Chicago on Friday, but Homan said it was being re-evaluated due to leaks.
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“There was some discussion about Chicago because the specific operational plan was released. So we had to look and reevaluate, ‘Does this raise an officer safety concern?’ And it is, but we’ve dealt with it and the teams are out there, they’re out in force today,” he said.
As for who will be targeted in the operation, Homan said the priority is threats to public safety, but has repeatedly said that no one is “off the table” when it comes to arrests if they are in the U.S. illegally.
“Right at the door it’s threats to public safety, those who are in the country illegally who have been convicted, arrested for serious crimes,” he said. “But let me be clear. It’s not just threats to public safety that are going to be arrested, because in sanctuary cities we’re not allowed to get that threat to public safety in jail, which means we have to go into the neighborhood and find him.”
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Thomas Homan speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington DC, Monday, July 8, 2024. (DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
“And when we find him, he might be with others. And unlike the last administration, we’re not going to tell ICE officers not to arrest an illegal alien. So if they do, others will be arrested. So sanctuary cities will get exactly what they they don’t want, more agents in their neighborhoods and more collateral arrests,” he said.
Homan spoke hours after Fox News reported on two DHS memos, including one that overturned the 2021 memo. then DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — which provided an expanded list of areas that were “protected areas” where ICE could not participate in immigration enforcement. It said the policy was designed to ensure that implementation did not restrict “people’s access to essential services or participation in essential activities”.
These areas include schools, universities, health care facilities, places of worship, “children’s gathering places,” social service agencies, food banks, religious or civil services, and disaster or emergency relief centers.
letter published Monday, he rescinded those guidelines and said common sense should be used instead.
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“Going forward, law enforcement officials should continue to exercise that discretion with a healthy dose of common sense,” the new memo said. “However, it is not necessary for the agency head to create clear rules about where our immigration laws may be enforced.”
