Border Czar Tom Homan said Thursday that ICE will not be intimidated by the left’s anti-ICE attacks and will continue its mission of deporting criminal illegal aliens. “They won’t stop the men and women of ICE,” he told Fox News host Harris Faulkner.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs has seen a 1000 percent increase in violence against agents as they carry out their operations.
In the latest episode on Wednesday, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn managed to kill an illegal alien detainee and wound two others before shooting himself in the head. Police found unspent bullet casings with the words “anti-ICE” written onto them at the scene. While ICE was clearly the target, no agents were harmed in the targeted attack.
Homan said there are about 600,000 illegal aliens with criminal histories walking the streets, mostly because of sanctuary cities. He explained that because authorities in sanctuary jurisdictions do not cooperate with ICE, agents are forced to go into neighborhoods to find criminal illegals, endangering themselves, and often causing nonviolent illegal aliens to get swept up with them.
“In sanctuary cities, they force us to go into communities to find the bad guy and if we find them with others, they’re coming too,” the Border Czar explained. “We’re not going to turn our back, we’re not going to turn out back on the law Congress enacted,” he continued. “If you want less collateral arrests, then let us into the damn jail where it’s safe for the agent, it’s safe for the alien and it’s safe for the community. But they won’t do it,” he lamented.
“Throughout my career, I’ve buried Border Patrol, I’ve buried ICE agents. I’ve handled too many folded flags for spouses and children of those who died in the line of duty! For God’s sake, stop the rhetoric!” he pleaded. “These men and women are patriots. They’re moms and dads too. And I want every one of them to go home to their families each night.”
Rather than moderating their tone, however, leading Democrats have doubled down on their inflammatory rhetoric, even as attacks on federal law enforcement officers have increased. Fox News provided just a sampling of the invective being spewed by Dems toward ICE in recent days:
In a post on X several hours after the shooting, Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., accused ICE agents of unleashing “dangerous and reckless immigration operations” on the public.
“I’ve joined the Illinois delegation in demanding answers about DHS’s dangerous and reckless operations in our state,” wrote Budzinski. “We refuse to stand by while masked agents trample on due process, indiscriminately arrest our neighbors, and threaten immigrant communities.”
In a since-deleted post, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., also criticized ICE agents after the attack, accusing them of “picking up moms as they drop off their kids to daycare or people going to work.”
Just days before the attack, Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., who is also a Democratic senatorial candidate, accused ICE of using “Gestapo tactics” against the American people, saying their actions “are a betrayal of the values we swear to uphold.”
Leading Democrats have also taken a similar tone against ICE agents, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who accused Trump border czar Tom Homan of working to “unleash masked ICE agents on the American people.”
Last week, former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., accused ICE of intentionally stoking fear and tearing communities apart.
“ICE is targeting community members with no criminal record,” Warren wrote on X. “Agents are sitting outside of churches and schools. Driving unmarked vans and breaking car windows. These violent ICE arrests don’t make us safer — they intentionally stoke fear and tear communities apart.”
Speaking on the Senate floor last week, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., accused federal officials of targeting anyone with “brown skin and a Hispanic surname.”
“ICE is arresting first and asking questions later,” Durbin said. “I’ve seen the devastating impacts of these policies in my state of Illinois. People are fearful of masked men in unmarked vans who can grab them at any time because of how they look or their voice, accent.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom described the Trump administration’s deportation effort as “authoritarian” during an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s late night show Tuesday.
“That’s happening in the United States of America, Newsom fumed. “Masked men jumping out of unmarked cars, people disappearing, no due process, no oversight, zero accountability!”
The Border Czar said he prays for the safety of his agents, as well as “the safety of those we’re looking for.”
As for the anti-ICE protesters, Homan said they don’t even know what they’re protesting.
“If you ask them why they’re protesting, they’re going to say things they heard in the fake media,” he explained. “If the media would tell the truth about what ICE is actually doing, maybe so many people wouldn’t get inflamed!”