Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan has suggested “targeted operations” for ICE officers in Minneapolis, designed to focus their efforts on apprehending immigrants who have committed crimes.
This came as Homan addressed reporters for the first time since the president sent him to Minneapolis after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a protester on Saturday.
Homan is taking over from US Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino who, alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, has been criticised for ICE operations – and comments made after Alex Pretti was killed.
Homan disclosed that the ICE officers would conduct “targeted strategic enforcement operations” prioritizing “public safety threats.”
“We will conduct targeted enforcement operations. Targeted. Like we’ve done for decades.”
Tom Homan
He stated that federal agents have a good idea of who they are looking for and where they can find them due to factors such as criminal records, and “numerous databases out there.”
He emphasised that there will a prioritisation on those that that pose a risk to public safety. “We are not surrendering the President’s mission on immigration enforcement,” he asserted.
Homan added that he wants “common sense co-operation that allows us to draw down on the number of people we have here.”
Also, Homan said that he has “zero tolerance” for those who assault or impede law enforcement, referring to the protesters who have flooded the city’s streets as “agitators.”
Homan acknowledged that immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota haven’t been perfect but was also adamant that the administration isn’t surrendering their mission.
Homan doubled down on the need for local jails to alert Immigration and Customs Enforcement to people in their custody whom ICE can remove from the country, and that transferring immigrants to ICE while they’re still in jail is safer for the officers and means they aren’t out on the streets.
Homan said that would mean fewer officers have to actually be out on the streets looking for immigrants in the country illegally. “Give us access to illegal aliens, public safety threats in the safety and security of a jail,” Homan said.
Homan said that ICE will now work with county jails to apprehend undocumented immigrants that the state has already detained in what he describes as a “common sense” approach. “It’s safer for the community, it’s safer for the agent, and it’s safer for the alien,” he said, adding that witnesses and victims “don’t want the bad guy back in their neighbourhood.”
Homan argued that the new agreement with county jails would mean “less agents in the street, and more agents in the jail.”
He adds that state officials acknowledge that ICE is a legitimate law enforcement agency, and says they’re enforcing laws enacted by Congress.
“That said, I’m not here because the federal government has carried out its mission perfectly.”He says “nothing’s ever perfect”, and they are working on making the operation “safer, more efficient, by the book”.Internal changes will improve the mission, he says, without outlining the changes.
ICE Officers In Minnesota To Be Reduced
Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said that the number of immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota will be reduced only after cooperation from state officials.
Homan did not give a specific timeline for how long he would stay in Minnesota. “I’m staying until the problem’s gone,” he said,
He added that he has met elected officials and law enforcement leaders across the city and state, seeking to find common ground and suggested that he’s made some progress.
After taking over the immigration operation in Minnesota three days ago, White House border tsar Tom Homan disclosed that he is working with local leaders and law enforcement to mitigate problems the state has had in recent weeks. “We didn’t agree on everything, we didn’t expect to agree on everything,” he said, but added, “I came here to seek solutions.”
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