Trump Border Czar Spars With Reporter Outside the WH Over Whether Or Not He’s ‘Punishing’ New York

Associated Press/Screenshot

Border czar Tom Homan took reporter questions outside the White House on Tuesday that centered on his threat to send a “surge” of ICE agents into New York.

Homan originally made the threat after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) worked to end ICE’s 287(g) program that would have allowed local law enforcement to assist ICE in detaining migrants.

A reporter asked Homan, “I know you said you were going to surge ICE agents there. Can you tell us when we can expect that to happen?”

“No,” Homan answered bluntly.

“What can we expect to happen?” the reporter followed-up.

“You can expect more ICE agents go to New York because Governor Hochul assigned legislation that ended our 287(g) agreements where one agent can arrest one bad guy turned over by a jail,” Homan said. “Now we gotta send a whole team to look for that guy. So, she took the efficiencies of the jails away and 287(g) agreements. So it’s only — it’s math! One agent can arrest one bad guy in the safety and security the jail, which is safer for the aliens, safer for the agents, safer for the community. But she decided to kill all that. So now we got to send more agents to do the job that worked with one person.”

Hochul signed legislation in late May that barred local law enforcement “from entering into 287(g) agreements or similar agreements with the federal government that allow for state and local law enforcement personnel and facilities to be used for civil immigration enforcement purposes,” the governor’s office said in a press release.

“They can still honor detainers in jails, so aren’t you just punishing New York?” asked another reporter.

“Who honors detainers in New York? Give me a name!” Homan shot back. “Give me a county that honors immigration things.”

“I’m saying that’s separate from 287(g). It’s not the same thing,” the reporter argued.

An immigration detainer is a request from ICE asking law enforcement agencies, including jails and prisons, to hold the undocumented migrant “for up to 48 hours beyond the time they would ordinarily release them so DHS has time to assume custody in accordance with federal immigration law,”  according to ICE procedures.

Homan argued that the 287(g) program is a “force multiplier that allows us to find criminal aliens” on a larger scale.

Homan continued to rage about Hochul, saying, “Since she’s been governor, thousands of criminals hit the street. She says she supports [detaining] criminal aliens, but she locks us out of jails, she ended 287(g) grants. You can’t square that! You can’t square, ‘We believe that criminal aliens should be arrested, and then lock us out of the jails. It’s ridiculous! She’s lying to the people in New York state!”

Homan added, “We’re going to surge resources in New York if we have to. We have to!”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN on X.

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