“Mass deportations are coming,” border czar Tom Homan declared Tuesday during his keynote speech at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix, Arizona.
“If you think last year’s historic number was good, wait until next year, when we have 10,000 agents,” he told the more than 2,200 attendees. “You ain’t seen (expletive) yet.”
Homan specifically put New York on notice after the state refused to enter a 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a formal partnership that delegates to state or local law enforcement certain immigration authority functions.
“We’re going to flood the zone. You’re going to see more [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents than you’ve seen before,” Homan said. “You forced us into this position.”
Homan served as acting director of ICE during President Donald Trump’s first term. Trump picked him as border czar after his election victory in 2024.
Homan used Tuesday’s speech to respond to several Democrat talking points, including moves to keep ICE agents away from schools, polling places, and churches.
“If you’re a significant safety threat or national security threat, you have no sanctuary in this nation,” he said.
“The only people that violated the sanctity of a church was Don Lemon and that bunch,” he added, referring to an incident in January in which the former CNN host, along with a swarm of anti-ICE protesters, invaded and disrupted Sunday services at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, terrorizing worshippers.
KTAR reportsopens in a new tab Homan also attacked public figures who accuse ICE agents of being Nazis and racists.
“The men and women of ICE … who strap their guns to their hip and wear their Kevlar vest every day to go out there and put their lives on the line for this nation, they don’t deserve that (expletive),” Homan said. “For any member of Congress to compare them to the Nazis or racists is the ultimate insult.”
Critics have also tried to ban ICE agents from wearing masks to protect their identity from doxxing.
“I wish [they] didn’t have to wear them,” Homan said, “but because of the hateful rhetoric of members of the media and members of Congress and governors and mayors who don’t know what the (expletive) they’re talking about, that’s necessary.”
“Threats are up over 8,000%,” he added.
In an interview with CBS News on Tuesday, the border czar admitted mistakes were made during large-scale immigration efforts in Minneapolis under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Things weren’t perfect,” Homan said. “We addressed it. We fixed it.” Homan was sent by Trump to Minnesota in January, where he oversaw a drawdown of immigration enforcement agents from the state.
“And I said on the stage my first time, I didn’t go up there looking for photo ops,” Homan further explained. “I didn’t go up there looking for TV cameras. I went up there to fix a problem because President Trump sent me there to fix that problem. And we fixed it. And as I sat up there, we’re going to do smarter enforcement. Smarter enforcement don’t mean less enforcement.”
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