White House “border czar” Tom Homan criticized Illinois officials for falsely claiming a Chicago elementary school was raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) and Chicago Public Schools officials sparked alarm after suggesting that ICE agents had shown up at Hamline Elementary School to conduct a sweep for illegal immigrants.
After revelations that the agents in question were Secret Service personnel inquiring into a TikTok threat against the school, Homan claimed Monday that Pritzker and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez knew all along that their publicly expressed concerns about ICE were false.
“Pedro Martinez lied. He lied to the city of Chicago. Because he knew it was Secret Service agents, because I talked to the people involved. They left their credentials. He knew exactly who they were,” Homan said during a Fox News interview. “Again, sowing fear in the immigrant community. And Gov. Pritzker, rather than calling ICE and asking, ‘Did this happen? Did it not happen?’ He goes on social media and terrifies elementary schools.”
Pedro Martinez CEO of Chicago Public Schools and Governor Pritzker Falsely Claim Ice Went to a School
— Steve Gruber (@stevegrubershow) January 27, 2025
"Well, Pedro Martinez lied. He lied to the city of Chicago 'cause he knew it was Secret Service agents because I talked to the people involved."
"Governor Pritzker, you know,… pic.twitter.com/nzdnHff8yv
Pritzker initially responded to reports of the alleged ICE operation on Friday, saying that “after a week of Republicans sowing fear and chaos, the first reports of raids in Chicago are at an elementary school.”
“Targeting children and separating families is cruel and un-American,” he continued.
Although CPS has issued a statement on the “misunderstanding” over the controversy, Pritzker had not commented on the affair as of early Monday evening. The governor’s office did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for a statement.
Homan on Monday called for Pritzker to give ICE an apology.
“What he did was just plain wrong, and by doing that, he put fear in the community that shouldn’t have to be there. Children shouldn’t have to fear ICE agents walking into their elementary school,” Homan said. “He accused me of terrifying the community. No, he terrified the community. He terrified the children. You know what ICE did yesterday? They saved children. We arrested nine sexual predators. … We saved children.”
Similar to Prizker’s warning about ICE, Martinez said during an MSNBC interview last Friday that “we had individuals that came to one of our schools … that presented credentials that shared that they were from ICE.”
Martinez has headed the CPS since 2021. However, the Chicago Board of Education voted unanimously to fire him last month.
His recent claims reporting ICE activity at Hamline school came despite a later statement from the Secret Service saying the agents clearly identified themselves and left business cards with the Hamline Elementary School principal.
“Agents identified themselves to the school principal and provided business cards with their contact information. The agents left without incident. The Secret Service investigates all threats made against those we protect, we do not investigate nor enforce immigration laws,” the Secret Service said.
CPS has released a statement saying that its original comments were a result of a “misunderstanding.”
“After our District officials shared public statements, we learned that the agents who visited the school were from the U.S. Secret Service,” the Chicago school system said. “Our original communication was a result of a misunderstanding, reflective of the fear and concerns in the community amid the new administration’s focus on undocumented immigrants.”
Since President Donald Trump took office earlier this month, Homan has become the face of the new administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. With the goal of first removing people in the country who have criminal records, ICE has conducted multiple operations that have resulted in the arrests of over 2,000 people.
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Under new orders from the Trump administration, the agency has the power to sweep schools, churches, and other locations deemed “sensitive” as it searches for illegal offenders.
However, it has not yet deployed force at any schools, ICE officials told Newsweek.