The New York Post is reporting that incoming Border Czar and former Border Patrol agent Tom Homan will reassign U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who are currently engaged in processing asylum applications and other office work to the field.
During the Biden administration, up to 70% of ICE officers from field offices were assigned to desk jobs. Most of them will be assigned and, after training in fieldwork, hit the streets of America's sanctuary cities.
Homan put those cities on notice.
“If they’re not willing to do it then get out of the way — we’re coming,” Homan said. He noted that tougher immigration enforcement will require more manpower “so if I have to flood agents to the sanctuary cities to get the job done then that’s what we’re gonna do.”
It's unclear how Trump's mass deportation plan will work. It's a good bet that people will not be randomly stopped on the street and asked for their "papers."
But doing the job that cities refused to do — holding illegal alien criminals convicted of felonies to turn over to ICE — would be a very good start.
“If the fugitive operations street team isn’t making enough arrests, they’ll crack down on them first,” a source told the Post. He's referring to the ICE program that helps field offices locate and arrest illegal aliens who represent a threat to national security or public safety.
“And if that’s still not enough, then they’ll probably be mandated to add more officers to the arrest team to make more arrests.”
Grandstanding Democrats are waving the bloody shirt, promising to resist the federal government's efforts to arrest illegal aliens. One of the early frontrunners for the 2028 Democratic nomination, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, challenged Homan to enforce the law in Illinois.
"To anyone that comes to take away freedom and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior," Pritzker said.
"You come for my people – you come through me."
The 300-pound Pritzker would certainly present a problem trying to go through him. But Homan threw down his own gauntlet in response.
"Game on. We’ve got no problem going through him. I’ve got 20,000 men and women in ICE who are going to do their job with no apology," Homan said. "And if any governor wants to stand in the way, go ahead and do it. We’ll see what happens. We’re not gonna be intimidated."
Homan, who served in the last Trump administration as acting ICE director, said that in his first week on the job, he plans to visit the southern and northern borders and meet with Border Patrol and ICE personnel to get a sense of their greatest needs.
He also indicated that he would prioritize making arrests of illegal migrants who pose threats to national security and public safety, and bring back worksite raids, which the Biden-Harris administration halted in October 2021.
"And look, there’s some worse than others, I get that," Homan continued. "And even if they’re not a criminal alien, when you cross that border and you overwhelm the border patrol… that’s when the fentanyl comes across to kill a quarter-million people. That’s when you have a 600% increase in sex trafficking. That’s when you have a record number of terrorists crossing the border. Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime."
"We’re gonna enforce the law without apology… and if any governor wants to stand in the way, go ahead and do it. We’ll see what happens. We’re not gonna be intimidated."
I think Pritzker, Gavin Newsom, and other Democratic governors have met their match.
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