Washington, Jan 15 (IANS) Outrightly dismissing comparisons of ICE arrests to authoritarian tactics, Trump border czar Tom Homan has defended federal agents operating in US cities, and said sanctuary policies were forcing immigration enforcement into local communities rather than jails.
Homan, in an interaction with reporters at the White House on Wednesday (local time), rejected criticism over recent enforcement images from Minneapolis and elsewhere, where federal agents were seen pulling suspects from vehicles or conducting neighbourhood arrests.
“That’s ridiculous,” Homan said, pushing back against suggestions that the actions resembled policing in authoritarian states.
Homan blamed the previous administration and sanctuary jurisdictions. “The Biden administration let millions of people release millions of illegal aliens in this country in violation of the law,” he said, arguing that many were criminals because they “weren’t properly vetted.” He said ICE was now arresting “thousands of them” as part of President Donald Trump’s enforcement push.
When questioned about President Trump’s recent claim that ICE was pursuing “hundreds of thousands of murderers,” Homan declined to confirm or quantify the figure. “I have no idea,” he said, adding that he did not have specific data in front of him.
Homan said that while he could not provide precise numbers on murder convictions, a significant share of ICE arrests involved criminals. “Anywhere between 65 and 70 per cent, everybody we’re arresting is a criminal,” he said.
He noted that there had been “about 650,000 formal deportations since President Trump’s been in office,” and argued that applying that percentage meant “that’s a lot of bad people being deported.”
Homan refused to speculate when pressed whether there were “hundreds of thousands” of people on ICE lists who committed murders in the United States. “I don’t have that data in front of me,” he said, adding, “I’m not gonna comment on the president’s comment.”
Homan argued that releasing suspects from local custody forces agents into neighbourhoods, increasing risk. “Now we gotta go in the community and find them,” he said. “It makes it dangerous for the officer, makes it dangerous for the alien. Certainly makes it dangerous for the community.” He contrasted this with non-sanctuary jurisdictions, where “one agent can walk into a jail and arrest one criminal, illegal alien.”
Homan said ICE and Border Patrol agents were operating in a hostile environment, citing threats and attacks. “Death threats are 8000 per cent actual assaults up to 1300 per cent,” he said, adding that threats against him and his family had “tripled in the last couple of weeks.” He described the job as “dangerous” and said agents were facing “a very unfriendly area” with limited law-enforcement backup.
He acknowledged that community enforcement leads to additional arrests beyond primary targets. “More officers in the street means more collateral arrests,” Homan said, adding that if agents encounter others who are in the country illegally during operations, “they’re getting arrested too.”
--IANS
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