As Democratic leaders in “sanctuary” cities and states vow to openly defy federal immigration laws, incoming Border Czar Tom Homan announced plans to seek support beyond traditional law enforcement agencies for executing mass deportations. Homan has consistently expressed his readiness to confront Democratic leaders who obstruct federal immigration enforcement. During an appearance on Hannity on Fox News last Friday, Homan directly addressed Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s threats to deploy city police against federal agents. Homan declared he is prepared to “double manpower” in sanctuary cities to ensure enforcement efforts are not hindered.
“[M]y plan is, and I’ve been very vocal about this, we’re going to contract as much work out as we can, work that doesn’t require a badge and a gun, because I need badges and guns on the street to do the deportation operation,” he said. “So, when it comes to driving a bus, transportation, whether it’s ground or air, whether it’s processing, whether it’s other administrative duties, contract that work out, because right now, we’ve got badges and guns doing that work. Get them out of that administrative work, put more on the street, and that’s what we’re going to do. And if these sanctuary states and cities keep pushing back, I’ll have the extra resources to double manpower in those sanctuary cities.”
This, the incoming border czar continued, will allow Department of Homeland Security resources to be freed up in order to focus on more deportations. “Because if we can’t arrest the bad guy in the jail with one agent, it means I’ve got to send a whole team out into the field to find this person, and, for officer safety reasons, we need a whole team, rather than just one person.” The former acting ICE director during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term has emphasized that his top priority will be deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes or have outstanding deportation orders that were not enforced under the Biden administration or in “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
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In September, ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner informed U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales (R-TX) in a letter that, as of July 21, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on the agency’s non-detained docket (NDD). This means they were not in detention while awaiting asylum or immigration processing. “Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” the letter stated. Under President Biden, the federal government has expanded the use of “catch and release” policies, allowing asylum seekers to be issued court dates before being released into the U.S. interior. A 2017 analysis from the Heritage Foundation found that 37 percent of migrants released under such policies never show up for their court dates.
