White House border czar Tom Homan said Monday federal law enforcement officials are targeting violent illegal immigrants in their Los Angeles sweeps, but other migrants get caught up in the raids if they are here illegally.

Mr. Homan said that the media coverage has glossed over the fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents took “a lot of bad people off the street” — including a murderer, a sex offender, and an armed robber.

“What ICE did the last couple of days was make Los Angeles safer by taking public safety threats off the street,” Mr. Homan said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats. However, we will enforce the law.”

Mr. Homan said that applies in sanctuary cities, including Los Angeles, where local officials refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and “where we can’t get the bad guy in the safety and security of the jail.”

Mr. Homan said that ICE, under federal law, is obligated to go after the illegal immigrants released back on the streets.

“When we find them many times they are with others, others that are in the United States illegally, may not be a criminal target, but guess what? If ICE is there to arrest a bad guy and other illegal aliens are in there, we are going to arrest them,” he said.

• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.