The Daily Signal - Trump’s Border Czar Has a Smart Surprise for Sanctuary Cities Trying to Hide Criminals | Mehek Cooke & Tom Homan

Episode Date: May 16, 2026

The border is far more secure under President Trump, but Tom Homan says the next major immigration battle is happening inside the country. In this exclusive interview, Homan breaks down how sanctuary cities and states are obstructing ICE, releasing criminal illegal immigrants back into communities, and forcing federal agents into more dangerous street operations instead of safer jail pickups. We discuss who the worst offenders are, whether Democratic leaders are intentionally provoking confrontations with ICE, what changed after Minnesota, how the administration plans to fight sanctuary resistance, and what Americans should expect from immigration enforcement over the next six months. Homan also addresses the recent border apprehension uptick, whether cartels are testing the administration, and what success should look like by the end of the year. This is the immigration fight now: secure the border, enforce the law, and stop sanctuary politicians from putting politics over public safety. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Daily Signal podcast, where we provide intelligence for the intelligent. Now, without further ado, here's today's take. Behind every F-35 jet is a Canadian company, horizontal tails built in Winnipeg, engine sensors from Ottawa, and stealth composite panels crafted in Loonberg to name just a few. Thanks to thousands of skilled Canadian workers, the F-35 aircraft is delivering unmatched capabilities for 20 allied nations around the world and will generate more than $15.5 billion in industrial value for Canada. This ad is sponsored by the F-35 partner team, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and RTX. Learn more at www.f.f35.com slash Canada.

Americans were promised a secure border, and by numbers, President Trump has delivered a dramatic turnaround. But the next major battle is unfolding inside the country where sanctuary cities and states are refusing to cooperate with ICE, releasing the worst to the worst dangerous illegal immigrants back into our communities, and forcing federal agents into riskier street arrests. Today, I sit down with Borders R. Tom Homan to ask where he stands in terms of enforcement of immigration law, how the administration plans to fight back against sanctuary cities, and what real immigration enforcement looks like under the Trump administration. Director, thanks so much for joining me today.

Well, thanks for having me. You know, I really am excited to talk to you. I think that we look today at border safety and the first name that everybody talks about is your leadership under President Trump. I know that Americans were told under this administration, we would really work to secure the border and continue to control those numbers that are crossing. And I think they're controlled based on what we're seeing. I think now the real fight really is within the country with saying. sanctuary cities and with states refusing to cooperate with you and with ice. In your opinion, is sanctuary cities the biggest obstacle right now that we're facing an immigration enforcement, or is it still the border? No, look, we got the most secure border in history of the nation right now. Thanks to the work of those men and women wearing that green uniform. I mean, Trump 45 was the most secure border at that time, but we shattered that. Trump 47's most secure border in the history of the nation. So I would say there's two things we're fighting right now. It's the sanctuary

cities, which is a big issue. It takes away a lot of our efficiencies and the courts. Look, I think the court system, you got some radical judges who make decisions in their district they want to instill nationwide, which I think Supreme Court addressed it, but they're ignoring it. So between sanctuary cities and many of the courts, that's our struggle right now, but we're going to keep overcoming that. We're not going to stop doing what we're doing, and we'll let the court system play out. But sanctuary cities, I know the Department of Justice has filed lawsuits on many of them, but they may slow us down a little bit by taking away our efficiencies of working with the jails, but they're not going to stop us from doing the job. Well, let's expand on that because I look at

sanctuary cities today and the worst defenders, that's who I really want to get down to. I'm watching New York Democrats today, and they are moving to limit local cooperation, with ICE. They're moving to restrict you and ban you and ICE officers from even wearing masks, as I've seen a massive surge in the type of violence that's coming out against ICE officers. What can we do to ensure that ICE can do their jobs as we're having Democrats in New York? Even Boston, I mean, you talked about lawsuits. I'm seeing a lawsuit there where a judge is skeptical of authority, this clash between federal enforcement and local. How can we make sure that we can prevent a Minnesota, because that's where we don't need to be.

But I'm telling you, we're watching this. Democrats are trying to corner this administration to make another flashpoint and an issue in the next sanctuary city. So what can we do to reduce that? Look, a couple of things. First of all, you know, good luck with the law banning masks. Federal law always trump state and local law. And while threats are up over 8,000 percent, masks a non-starter. So good luck when enforcing that.

Second thing is you talk about New York. You know, I met with Governor Hoko a couple months ago. And I told her about what happened in Minnesota that, you know, we were able to draw some resource out of Minnesota because the local jails cooperated with us. And I told her the same thing because I knew this legislation was coming. I said, look, you end cooperation in the jails. We're going to have to send more agents to do the job because now rather than one agent, arresting one bad guy in the jail, which was safer for the agent,

safer for the aliens, safer for the community, of course. You're going to release him. Now we've got us on the whole team, six or seven agents to go find him. So it's going to result more agents in the community. Totally briefed on the whole thing, but she decided to go ahead and do it anyways. Well, I made a statement that we're going to send more agents to New York. We have to, as a response to this, to go arrest those public safety threats. I also told there's going to be two things you may not like.

Number one, in addition to more agents in your communities, that's going to mean, one, that when we find the bad guy, and we usually do, they may be with others. Others that weren't a criminal target, but they're in a country illegally. Well, guess what? We're going to arrest them, too. We're not going to turn a blind eye illegal immigration, which means there will be more collateral rest because of your decision to force us in the community. And second of all, part of her legislation prevents ICE from leasing beds from sheriffs across the state, which we use a lot of those beds. that means every illegal animal we arrest,

we're simply going to fly out of state to New York or Arizona or Florida, one of those states, because we're going to detain them. We're going to arrest them. We're going to detain them. So you want to lock us out in New York jail for detention,

then we'll simply fly them out. And I explained to her, how does that benefit the people you're saying you're trying to protect? How does that protect the immigrant community moving them away from their family and their attorneys while they go through the immigration proceedings? It doesn't.

So look, this is just a political spitball and they're not going to stop us from what we're doing. We're just going to have to do more of it now because of those the legislation that was passed. But what's the motivation here, Director? What is the true motivation here? Because you worked for the deporter in chief. You worked under President Obama. Is it because we have a different president and his name is Donald J. Trump? Like, what is the motivation where you're going to get so much pushback for common sense? The truth is, whether it's Governor Hockel or any other governor in America, their first

duty is to protect citizens. Why are you getting so much pushback to remove illegal criminals off of our streets? What's the real motivation for Democrats? Well, you just, you just said it. They hate Trump more than they care about their communities. They don't want President Trump to get a win. Second reason is we're spoiling their long-term plan. They've got a long-term strategy here. Open the border up, release millions of people into the United States to go to sanctuary cities. But remember when Biden opened the border, it also overturned the Trump census rule, which illegal amity to be counted next census. So they think, you know, send millions of sanctuary cities.

The next census is done. It's going to result in more seats in house with the Democrats. They sold this country's national security out for future political benefit. Plus, they think these millions will be, you know, future Democratic voters. That's why they're putting all the roadblocks up. They're hoping before we can move too many, another Democratic administration comes in. They award amity to millions of people that think they're future Democratic voters. They're having a fit right now for removing record numbers of people that they don't want to remove.

Because they, like I said, they got a long-term plan. So, but I got a surprise for them. We're going to keep removing people. We're going to keep arresting record numbers because that's what President Trump's elected for. And the reason there's mass deportation operation because there's a mass illegal immigration crisis on the border. So the appropriate law enforcement response to that is the mass deportation program. And that's why we're doing it. They set the stage.

We're responding to their incompetence the last four years. So you're saying there's a clear choice today for any sanctuary jurisdiction. You either cooperate with ice or you're going to put more boots on the ground. Is that accurate? Absolutely. And let me say this, because they like to say, Sanctuary cities are welcoming community because we want illegal aliens who are victims and witnesses of a crime to feel safe coming to law enforcement

to report those crimes without fear we're working with ICE. That is such a false narrative because we're not looking to talk to the victim witness of crime. We're looking to talk to the person you locked in a jail cell. That's what you want access to. But at the same time, they're the ones pushing the false narrative about ICE officers, separating families, arresting people in churches,

arresting people in elementary schools, arresting people in hospitals. They're putting fear in immigration. community. If they're honest with them, that ICEA has never arrested somebody in a church. We've never arrested somebody in an elementary school. We've never arrested someone in the hospital. They won't say that because there'll be less fear in the immigrant community. So they're playing both sides. They want to say, well, they're afraid to come report crimes, but the reason they're afraid is because the false narrative you put up against ice. Let's be clear. If they went to the

immigrant community and asked them a simple question, would you rather have ICE operating in the jail? Would you not ICE in the community? the community is going to stay to jail every time. Right. So they're lying to the American people. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals. Hard stop. It isn't about protecting victims and witnesses.

It's about protecting criminals. And that's what you're doing. Well, and I think that as you talk about your focus in jails, and we're seeing sanctuary cities that are unwilling to work with you, our biggest concern today as Americans is we don't want another Minnesota. And you have specifically talked about, using smarter and more targeted enforcement approaches and mechanisms. Can you talk about what's different as you're going into these jurisdictions?

What can we expect from ICE and from your team in terms of enforcement? Well, look, we're going to, well, I mean targeted enforcement after. That's exactly what we do. It's what we've done for decades. When we leave the office in the morning to do our job, we know who we're looking for because we did our research. We have an immigration file. If they're a criminal, we have a criminal file.

We have photographs. We have leads from various databases where we may find them. It's a well-planned operation. You know, we're not going to drive around and look for them with people different to us. I mean, we got it. We got to know who we're looking for. That's the way we've always done it. We can still hit mass deportation numbers because of smarter enforcement.

It's not less enforcement. It's smarter enforcement. And you don't have all these other issues happening. And in sanctuary cities, like I said, when we said, I've sent a whole team out in Minnesota, the hate got so high that not only do you send a... three jobs team of six or seven agents go arrest somebody now we got to send another team to protect that team because you don't know what's happening behind you when a couple hundred people are gathering and and threaten the officers so what would have took the work of one agent in jail

now we got 12 13 people on the scene and that causes a lot of chaos we're going to do well-playing operations we're not going to have the chaos we're going to have one chain of command i mean board patrol working the interior on on several of these operations they have a different chain of command i've been doing this for four years years. I've run a lot of big national operations. I've never seen a situation where there wasn't a single chain of command in that city who has control of the operation and who people are reporting to. What's the strategy? What's the operational plan? Who to report to? What is the targets? What's the priorities? That didn't occur. When I went to Minnesota, I put that in place. And that's where we're

going to do these operations because it's safer, it's more cohesive, it's less chaos. And we can stand on, we can stand at every press briefing saying, here's what we, here's what we tend to do, and here's what we did. We need to be transparent to the American people. We can't lose faith in the American people that were professional law enforcement agency. And we go out and do these things, there's a well-plan operation we're following. Well, and didn't you also add body cameras as a level of transparency so that the American people and the agent can be protected? Because there's questions when there's incidents. I'm a big proponent of body cameras. I'm a big proponent of body You know, body cameras clear all enforcement officers like 90% of the time.

I want to tell the story because when people make these fake, you know, fake stories or people make acquisitions that ICE, you know, ice was unprofessional on me, ice attacked me, ICE assault to me, body cameras clear law enforcement officers about 90% of the times. I'm not proponent. I guess, again, like I just said, we need to be transparent in the American people. We need to show them what we're doing. So they have faith in how we do this job. But in one of the reasons I get upset with the DHS being shut down right now

because I was up on the hill trying to negotiate with lawmakers, the Democrats, and they kept saying they wanted body cameras. I said, well, there's like $120 million for body cameras and the funding you're holding out. Right. So we've already started deploying cameras nationwide, and I want to do it. Pass the budget and give me that $120 million.

is we can finish the program. But, you know, the body cameras, identifiers, it should be identifying every law enforcement officer. And we had that, but, you know, Border Patrol is different insignia than ICE. They need to be identified. If they're out there arresting somebody, they clearly know who the officer needs to be. So I agree with the identifiers. We believe in the body cameras. And as far as roving patrols, we don't roll patrol. We do, we target enforcement operations. So yes, everything we worked for in Minnesota was not only transparent, but we were able to walk out of Minnesota with unprecedented cooperation from almost every jail in the county in some way or fashion. All the county jails in some manner were helping us

some more than others, but that's something we didn't have before. So, you know, and that was a huge win. We went up there. We got the chief of police responding to our 911 calls. We got the sheriff's guarding, you know, taking care of protests across the line in our federal buildings. We have jails helping us. We've got the state prison system helping us. So we walked out of Minnesota with a win, but you need to, I'll say it over and over again. When we end an operation, the American people need to see exactly what we did. So they said, okay, that was a well-planned professional operation, and I stand by ICE because the data also show we're prioritizing public safety trusts and national security threats and data needs to show that. Again,

doesn't mean we don't arrest illegal animals we do that split right now is about 60 40 60% criminal 40% non-criminal I like that percentage I think it's better than 40% criminal and 6% non-criminal so I think what we're doing right now is is good and I think in the future operations you're gonna see a better plan a better operation and be even more transparent in American people we're doing the right thing and look there's no doubt I think that you have a a plan in place, but what happens when sanctuary jurisdictions like a New York City or Chicago are unwilling to work with your officers and there put in danger? Are you looking at additional litigation in terms of courts to step in so that you can do your job? Because there's a difference between

obstruction and just getting out of the way. And today, many of these sanctuary cities are actually obstructing. So what's the legal path you can take in addition to putting more boots on the ground, which is more of an operational path. Well, I can tell you, the Department of Justice is they're pursuing litigation on sanctuary cities. I know they filed many lawsuits. We have to see how that plays out. In the meantime, we're going to keep doing our job. And those that impede, I mean, the record number of prosecutions we have for 18 U.S.C. 11,

which is interference, impediment, so on. So we're at record numbers of prosecutions. So in sanctuary cities, we simply got to be prepared. for those people, look, I support protests and protests all you want. You got that constitutional right. But when you cross the line to interference, impediment, assault, and threats, that's a crime. And we're going to prosecute you for it. We'll prosecute you federally.

So in future operations, we'll make sure we have enough boots on the ground to make sure we video circumstances to get out of control. So we have evidence of someone impeding, interfering, and prosecuting them federally. We won't prosecute them in the sanctuary state. We're not going to prosecute them in the sanctuary county. We're going to prosecute them federally. And we already got a record in number of those prosecutions, and we're going to continue. So in operations going forward, you can bet on it.

You impede, you interfere, you put hands on an officer, you will be prosecuted federally, and will ensure there's resources available on the ground to set those people for prosecution as soon as possible. So it really does look like a multi-step plan in terms of immigration enforcement, whether it's sanctuary city or not, as we look at the future, director,

what does success look like to you? How can the American people actually judge what President Trump and this administration have done? Is it less border crossings? Is it higher deportations? Is it more criminal alien arrest? What is success? How do we define that?

I think it's all of it. I mean, President Trump made three promises. When he called me and brought me back, he wanted me to do three things. Secure the border. run a mass deportation operation, and find almost 300,000 missing children that the last administration lost track of that we're smoking into the country. We've got the most secure border in history of the nation right now.

Numbers went from 12,000 a day to less than 200 a day. The difference is that 200 we got today, nobody got released in the United States. So, accomplished, but we'll continue building infrastructure off the big, beautiful bill, finish the wall, finish technology, to make that fix permanent. Number two, deportation numbers. We've already got record numbers and arrest deportation numbers. We've got to continue doing that. We just hired 10,000 more agents.

About 7,000 are on the ground now. We've got about 3,000 more incoming. So you're going to see more arrests deportations. The children, this administration under President Trump's leadership, has already found 146,000 of these children. So we're hitting on all similar. Promises made, promises kept. I personally think I will feel somewhat satisfied and we can say that every illegal alien criminal

has been targeted arrest and deported, number one. But then we start, then we talk about the other, the other, you know, 20 million illegal aliens in the country. And a lot of people believe, well, if they've been there for a while, we shouldn't be looking for them, shouldn't be arrested. Well, let me say this. People say they're innocent illegal immigrants that came for a better life. and you shouldn't target them. Well, a couple of things. Number one, they cheated. Let's remember.

They cross the border league, which is a crime, and they cheated the system. They put themselves in front of millions of people who are taking their test, doing their background investigation, paying their fees to be part of the greatest nation on earth. You can't be a part of the greatest nation on earth. The first thing you do violate our laws. So number one, they broke the law, they cheated the system, they put themselves in front of the line. Let's not forget that. Second of all, if we want to send a message that cross the border illegally, don't worry about it. Get order removed by a judge, don't worry about it. As long as you don't commit another crime and you hide out successfully for 10, 15 years,

no one's looking for you, we're not going to arrest you. If that's the message we send to the whole world, they're going to keep coming. Right. And I think one of the reason we have the most secure border in history of the nation right now is because what ISIS is doing. ISIS sent a strong message. There's no free rider anymore. And because of these ICE operations nationwide,

a lot of people around the world saying, okay, well, I'm not going to give my life savings of the cartel to come to the United States not to be released at the border. So that simply is working. We got our DHS reporting over 2 million self-deports. That wasn't an accident. That was a part of the plan.

We knew if we surged operations nationwide and sent a strong message not only around the world, they stopped coming, but also sends a message to those illegally in the United States. Leave on your own. Don't be formally deported, which is going to bar you from coming back on the legal program. Leave and try to come up through a legal program. Because we have to go through the process of locating you and get a formal deportation, a formal removal.

There's statutory bars anywhere from five to forever that you're going to ever come back to the United States on illegal and illegal programs. So all this plan, the strategy is working. And we can continue doing it. We had a great first year. We're going to have a better second year, third year, and fourth year. Well, that's great to hear, and I got to tell you, I'm a legal immigrant and an American today. I came to this country legally, and there's so many people like me that are proud to be American, but that waited in line. And we've been waiting for a president now for four years because we've watched illegals come here and continue to live off of our system, commit crimes, continue violence against women. And it's unacceptable. So what you're doing through President Trump is critical, not only for a safety and security, But to honor what this great country gives so many immigrants like my family. And I think that's important, that messaging and that continued spirit.

The one thing I did notice was the last couple months, I think there was a increase, or I would say a small uptick in terms of cartels crossing the border. Do you think that's just a random event that happened in the last couple months? Or do you think that the cartels are once again testing you and the president in terms of whether you have slowed down deportations, or that we're not being strong on this? No, I think the cartels, look, they're a multi-billion dollar business. And that's why President Trump wants to play the away game. That's why he designated a terrorist organization. He wants to wipe them all faith years.

There's some things happening. I can't discuss here. But look, making billions of dollars a year on smugging narcotics in the United States, they're just not going to go away. We knew when we locked the border down, for instance, they'd be taking maritime. They'd be going to the water. And that's why you see DOD working close to the Coast Guard and Border Patrol maritime operations. Their apprehensions and drug seizures are increasing maritime.

We know they do that. But right now I can tell you that we went from 12,000 entries a day, crossings a day, to less than 200. I got 200 crossed 2,000 miles of border. Think about that. And the difference is no one's being released. So no, they're going to keep testing us. Okay. But I can tell you this, cartels are hurting right now.

Right. They're going broke because with a secure border like this right now, we're hurting a business. Because they're thinking every way they can to get their product into the United States, we're beating them on the border, we're beating them maritime. So we're going to keep going at it. And I think President Trump designated the terrorist organization adds so much more meat on the bone. And I think they're smart. It's always smart to play the away game.

get them before they even get here. So there's some things happening right now. I think you're going to see a huge impact on drug cartels down the road here. So we're going to keep doing what we're doing. The plan's working. Well, we look forward to seeing it. And as I close, I just want to ask you about National Police Week this week. What's your message to the brave men and women that continue to show up for law,

to provide law enforcement to communities, border patrol, local agents across America? And then I also want to ask what your message is to those individuals in Democrat cities and states that are obstructing. As we look at National Police, we can wrap up. What I would say is those on left that want to attack ICE and orbitero and are not supportive of law enforcement. Show some courage and walk the wall like I did this morning. Look at 25,000 names on the wall people made the ultimate sacrifice. There's over 300 people from Customs Board of Protection on that wall. Ice alone has 49 names on that wall.

These are ICE agents and Border Patrol agents who made the ultimate sacrifice. They died trying to protect this country. These are the same people that Chuck Schumer stood on the house floor the other day and says no one respected ice and board patrol. While he grow back, bone, go walk the wall like I did. While he go talk to the surviving spouses and children of these Americans, heroes because that's what I do every year. And it's not only about honoring the 25,000 roughly names on the wall and the sacrifices they made. It's about their families who made that sacrifice

too, who's going to live the entire of their life knowing they lost a loved one. But it's also a salute to the men and women who are still carrying that badge and gun today who know any shift could be their last shift, but they're still out there doing it. I said this morning, it's the finest 1% the country has, because none of them are rich from this job, none of them are making a lot of money, but they put it all in the line. For people, they'll never meet, people they'll never know, but they're out there doing it to protect them. So God bless them. This is a week we recognize not only the following, we recognize the families, we recognize those still doing the job, because it's a special job. It takes a special person to want to do this job. So it's a, it's a

God bless them to all of them. Well, you're in that league director. So God bless you. And thank you so much for all your work and your time today. You got it. Thanks for having me. Thank you.