Border Czar Tom Homan Tells Fox He’s Going to ‘Deal With’ Alleged Leaks of Media Ride-Alongs With ICE Raids After Operation Goes Bust
Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar, said media ride alongs with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may be coming to an end due to safety concerns.
“It’s all about OpSec, operation security, so we may have to stop the media ride alongs, because I’m not pointing the finger at it, but the less people that know about these operations, the safer this for our agents,” Homan told reporters on Thursday.
Dr. Phil McGraw was one of the first in the media to tag along for ICE raids in Chicago, a sanctuary city, for his fledgling media company Merit TV.
Homan’s announcement follows reports of concerns about “media leaks” on ICE raids as Trump and Homan carry out their mass deportation plan. Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported on Thursday after an exclusive ride along with ICE in Aurora, Colorado that officials felt media leaks were compromising their operations.
Melugin reported that ICE officials said it felt like their Colorado operation was “compromised from the very beginning.” They were seeking to detain around 100 of the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua on Wednesday, but only ended up capturing one person. Officers raided an apartment complex that was allegedly taken over by the gang, but found they had evaded the area. Footage showed walls streaked with blood at the empty complex.
At a second complex allegedly taken over by the gang, activists taunted ICE agents.
“You assholes! What the fuck is wrong with you!” one woman screamed at officers. “Get out of our community!”
“There’s no safe harbor, there’s no sanctuary for those folks,” Homan told Fox News before the raid.
Acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello said there he believed there were “intel leaks” ahead of their raids.
“Just because something leaks now and then, it’s not going to stop us,” he said.
Homan told Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner he’s already identified where the Wednesday leak came from and he’s consulting with the Department of Justice on how to move forward.
“I’m addressing OpSecs today, operation security, how these leaks are happening. We’ve already identified how this operation got leaked. I’ll deal with that today,” he said.
Homan praised Melugin, but said it’s become clear that there needs to be less media involvement in ICE raids.
“We can’t be having all of these different news outlets out there with us on raids,” he said. “Bill Melugin, great guy, but we’ve got a lot of OpSec issues we’re dealing with.”
Watch above via Fox News.
