‘We’re starting across the country on the same day’ that Trump is sworn in, Homan said.
President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border czar said that the forthcoming administration’s deportation efforts will lead to “collateral arrests.”
Tom Homan, former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in a new interview that illegal immigrants who are not accused or charged with other crimes should expect to be detained and deported.
“In sanctuary cities, expect a lot of collateral arrests,” Homan told the Washington Examiner in an article published on Dec. 18. “I mean, not priority criminal arrests. We can’t get the bad guy in jail. That means we have to go into the communities and find them, and there may be others. We expect a lot of collateral arrests.”
Collateral arrests refer to individuals who are detained during sweeps made by ICE officials, regardless of whether they were the target of the agency’s specific enforcement action. In sanctuary jurisdictions, local jails are often prevented from handing over criminal illegal immigrants to ICE, forcing the immigration agency to find those criminals in the community at large, post-release.
Homan and other Trump officials have stated that they will prioritize targeting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes or are deemed a threat to U.S. national security. They have also pledged to deport anyone residing in the country illegally, although Trump has indicated he would consider allowing so-called Dreamers—illegal immigrants who have been in the United States since childhood—to remain under certain conditions.
The deportations and immigration enforcement measures will start on the first day of Trump’s administration, Jan. 20, 2025, Homan said. Officials are already making plans on how to expand deportations.
“We’re starting across the country on the same day” that Trump is sworn in, Homan told the outlet. About 24 ICE offices ”cover two or three states“ and ”every field office will be given the direction that they are to begin looking for, arresting, detaining, removing those in the United States that have been arrested for a crime,” he said.
Homan also said he wants to obtain U.S. military aircraft to help with the effort because they would serve “as a force multiplier” in the deportation effort.
