US not giving 鈥榓n inch鈥� on immigration arrests, says border czar
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Sarah Matusek Staff writer
| Phoenix
President Donald Trump鈥檚 border czar said Tuesday that the administration is hiring 10,000 new deportation officers to remove unauthorized immigrants from the U.S. interior 鈥� part of an ongoing hiring spree at the Department of Homeland Security. The move signals that even without the high-profile arrest and detention operations previously seen in U.S. cities, the mass deportation goal 鈥� and efforts 鈥� remains in place.
The Trump administration is not giving 鈥渁n inch,鈥� Tom Homan told a crowd at a border security conference and trade show in Phoenix. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to enforce the laws of this country without apology.鈥�
After the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by Department of Homeland Security law enforcement in Minneapolis in January, the administration reined in what had become large-scale, public immigration raids. But border officers have continued to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the nation鈥檚 interior, Rodney Scott, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), recently to the Washington Examiner. That collaboration has continued with a relatively low profile, sparing the Trump administration protests and other disruptions related to those arrests.
Why We Wrote This
Even though high-profile immigration operations in U.S. cities have eased, President Donald Trump鈥檚 border czar says the administration is hiring more deportation officers and will not back down.
Border officers and agents are sending interview data 鈥渨ithin minutes鈥� to ICE special agents, Mr. Scott said Tuesday at the Border Security Expo.
鈥淚n many cases now, we鈥檙e doing follow-up arrests at houses way away from the southwest border, ICE is, based on the information they got 鈥� 30 minutes, two hours ago 鈥� from Border Patrol agents and CBP officers,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are putting that thing on steroids.鈥�
Mr. Homan said that the Trump administration, between ICE and the Border Patrol, has made some 800,000 removals.
How exactly the government is calculating that removal count is unclear, as it has not been providing detailed, regular reports on how it counts deportations. As a result, the public, journalists, and researchers cannot verify the accuracy of certain immigration enforcement numbers.
The and some of its supporters have aimed for 1 million deportations a year.
Mass deportations are coming, and criminals, public safety threats, and national security threats must be prioritized, Mr. Homan said. At the same time, he reaffirmed the policy of detaining unauthorized immigrants encountered during operations, even if they weren鈥檛 the original targets.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 care how long you鈥檝e been here,鈥� Mr. Homan said.
Mr. Homan, who began his federal career as a Border Patrol agent in the 1980s, has long made a humanitarian case for tighter border security, which he reiterated Tuesday. Deterring illegal crossings means fewer migrant deaths and less abuse of women and children along the way, he has argued.
Immigrant advocates counter that hard-line and militarized border enforcement pushes border crossers into more remote and dangerous areas.
After record-high illegal border crossings during the Biden administration, the southern border has never been more secure than it is now, Mr. Homan said.聽
Individuals are now 鈥渞eturned鈥� or detained rather than released into the country to await court dates.
The media want 鈥渢o say our policy is inhumane; we鈥檙e cruel,鈥� said Mr. Homan. 鈥淣o. We鈥檙e saving thousands of lives.鈥�
