Homan says ICE is 'deportation-maxxing,' set for record arrests in July | Katie Pavlich Tonight

[00:00:00]So, a lot has happened between now, we're in July, and the beginning of the year. Of course, we want ICE to improve as we go on. Do you think that ICE has improved as an agency since January?

[00:00:11]>> Yes, I mean, as far as performance, yeah, the uh you know, I I was honest with the American people and you know, in the last few months that that the uh ICE arrest numbers were down because the department was shut down, right?

[00:00:24]Uh and Democrats shut the department down mainly because of we know what occurred in Minneapolis. I was a part of the negotiation team on the hill and everything they brought up they wanted to change before they opened the government was a reflection of Minnesota vote. It was as soon as we got the reconciliation done, we got the funding, uh numbers are up. I mean, in June, uh we had the highest numbers of arrests in the history of the agency, of ICE, and July's tracking even beat that. So, we're hitting on all cylinders now.

[00:00:51]We're deportation maxing.

[00:00:54]Uh since we're fully funded, we just got to keep going.

[00:00:57]>> I know that uh this the work for you this administration was put under enormous pressure as a result of the previous administration letting letting in tens of millions of people who we had no idea who they were. We of course saw a number of of cases where criminals committed crimes against Americans, including murder of young women all across the country. Um but there has been criticism that uh there's not enough happening in terms of what the ICE agents need this point. Uh there's this astonishing headline in the Washington Examiners that says ICE melting under Trump's expectations uh and accusing the agency of not giving ICE officers enough time to train new agents or enough time for agents who are already in the field to get a break so that they don't make mistakes like we've seen over the course of the last couple of weeks uh in the last couple of months. What is your response to the accusation that morale is lower inside of ICE now than it was under the Biden administration?

[00:01:55]>> Oh, and that's That's That's That's no way. I mean by administration ICE officers were retiring and quitting a record pace they weren't able to do their job. Right now and look ICE is they're working hard. They're working 6 and 7 days a week and and I'm all supportive of giving them time off. They they got to have some you know, mental health break getting out there every day and enforcing the laws and they need time off. I'm I work very closely with Dave Venterella who's the acting ICE director talking about how we can run operations and and and still give these men and women time off but the morale is nowhere near as low as it was under Joe Biden. And as far as training, look we can never have too much training. I'm a big proponent of training. As a matter of fact, you know, in the last year, you know, training was changed and I'm a big proponent again working with Secretary Mark Morgan Mullen and and Dave Venterella, I've asked for additional training on top of what they received. So, you know, it's something we're working through but the morale of ICE is much much higher than it was during Biden administration because they see the results of their work. Again, the numbers speak for themselves. Highest numbers of arrests in June in the history of the agency.

[00:03:00]And for those who say they're not doing enough, we got a record arrest. We we we we beat last you know, the numbers right now are 40% over what they were the same time last year now that we're fully funded. Was there a month we're down? Of course, the government was shut down. But what people don't understand even though ICE is hitting record numbers, they're doing that despite the fact there's over 100 nationwide injunctions filed by radical judges that affects our arrest, our detentions and our removals. We have over 65,000 findings of habeas cases where we couldn't detain these people and had to be released. So, you know, the the the radical judges, the open border advocates have a lot of money are suing the Trump administration every day. Matter of fact, there are more nationwide injunctions against us right now that that that slows us down.

[00:03:49]Yeah. Over 100. That's more than every other president in the history of the nation combined.

[00:03:55]>> So, can you give us some transparency >> that, we're hitting record numbers.

[00:03:58]>> Can you give us some transparency into how these decisions are made when there are mistakes that do occur very publicly, you know, two separate traffic stops and a couple in the last couple of weeks resulted in the shooting deaths of individuals who are not subject to active immigration enforcement in Maine and Texas.

[00:04:17]So, on one side, you have this obligation to the country and to the people who voted for mass deportation, especially of violent criminals, but on the other side, you're hearing, according to this this reporting, that agents inside ICE are saying we we almost feel like our hands are tied in a way, but also we're being overworked, especially when it comes to traffic stops being taken away and now they're put back. Can you give us some transparency into how these decisions are being made so that the officers on the streets can make the best decisions in real time?

[00:04:47]>> Well, you know, to be clear, you know, ICE and CBP both fall under uh control of [snorts] Secretary Mayorkas. They They work for the secretary. Uh I'm the White House czar, I work very closely with Stephen Miller.

[00:04:59]We We develop develop strategies and push them down to the programs to enforce immigration law, whether securing a border, whether that's making ICE arrests, or whether that's dealing with citizenship and immigration services. What What What's What's the strategy looks like there?

[00:05:17]Well, Mayorkas made you know, he made a decision that he wanted to put a a temporary pause on on traffic stops. I think I think one of the main reasons he did that, consider that, was the safety of the officers.

[00:05:31]Do they have what they need? Do they have the equipment they need? Do they have Does everybody involved at traffic stop have the same level of training?

[00:05:39]Because it's only a matter of time until when you weaponize that two-ton vehicle, where officers not going to be able to react in time, then we're going to be burying an ICE officer. Uh so, I think he did a temporary pause. President said he wanted to continue, so that's where they're at and they're continuing. So, the the the vehicle stops are back on.

[00:05:59]>> Uh so, you talked about equipment, making sure that agents have what they need. Um DHS, and again, that's run by Secretary Mayorkas, says that about half of ICE field offices have body cameras, with the rest deploying in 60 days. Um do you think that will be helpful in terms of operations as a result? Because there's been a lot of accusations when we've had these things happen on the streets of of what did or did not happen, and it's always better to show people with body cam footage exactly what the situation was.

[00:06:29]>> Look, I'm a big proponent of body cameras, always have been. Because you look at studies, they exonerate officers like, you know, like almost 90% of the time.

[00:06:39]Um but I also I'm a big proponent because I want the American people to see what that officer sees when he takes some action.

[00:06:47]Yeah, you people from the you know, the side view, you know, you can do city cameras that see stuff. You can, you know, have witness statements, but nothing's going to be more meaningful than a body camera of an officer who's making that arrest, who takes an enforcement action, because American people are going to see exactly what he sees in real time. And I think that's important. And look, if if and if the body camera shows someone, you know, an officer's acting inappropriately or illegally, then he'll be handled. And these two the two shootings I referenced earlier, they're both under investigations. I'm not going to comment comment on the investigations or what I think it's a good or bad, you know, actions. We'll let the let the investigation play out and where the chips fall. If someone was violating policy, the law they'll be held accountable, just like we held people in Minnesota accountable. Uh you know, there's been agents in Minnesota been indicted for for, you know, things there. So, we'll hold the agents accountable if they act inappropriately, and the body cameras does that, plus it helps exonerate those who acted appropriately.

[00:07:46]>> So, in terms of the body camera footage being released publicly, I understand that when there's an ongoing investigation, some of that evidence may be sensitive, especially if there's a a fatality involved. Um but do you think that information should be released to the public as soon as possible to kind of alleviate those the uh speculation on some of these situations?

[00:08:06]>> I think all evidence should be available uh on any criminal case that that's allowable by law and allowable this law can not violate any privacy acts and protecting, you know, certain privacy issues, but no, I mean uh I think the administration needs to be totally transparent on on what they do, and I think I think it's a good story to tell. Are mistakes made? Of course there are mistakes. I'd be a fool to say that, you know, there's 30,000 officers out there and no one ever makes a mistake.

[00:08:35]Every law enforcement officer uh every law enforcement agency has officers that make mistakes, and and we learn from mistakes, and and I think the body cameras are going to be a great tool to what could have done better What could we done better? Or what could different can we do? Or was it performed well, and we can share that with other, you know, training programs. So, I'm a big proponent, and the reason we don't have body cameras across the field right now is because the Democrats shut down the government, which shut off the funding to buy those cameras.

[00:09:06]>> So, uh Tom, there's been a a couple of headlines in the usual suspects. The New York Times is accusing uh the you know, saying the FBI has been told not to investigate uh these confrontations that people have had with ICE. The Washington Post is accusing ICE of, you know, packing their centers with people that there aren't beds or showers or medical staff. Uh is that true? Um and if it's not, you know, do you have a perception problem because so many people are reading those articles and saying, "Well, they must be doing something wrong."

[00:09:36]>> Well, when it comes to the FBI, you know, I first of all, the FBI, DHS both refuted that story, right? I'm not in the weeds on that, but I can tell you based on you know, the four decades I've been doing this, FBI investigates any shooting along with the internal affairs department. Uh they take a lead. When it comes to other confrontations, maybe assault on an officer, uh most of the time that's handled by Homeland Security Investigations, the the criminal investigation side of the of ICE along with internal affairs. When it's when it's you know, a significant case, you know, FBI may be involved. But I I don't see any changes in policy that I've heard of. And I you know, like I said, what what I what I was told, FBI and DHS both refuted that information.

[00:10:19]As far as the detention standards, look, they've been you know, they've been pushing back against the detention uh ICE detention since I started.

[00:10:28]>> Yeah.

[00:10:28]>> And the thing is, they make all these accusations, then when the investigation's done, they find out the accusations are not true, the detention standards are pretty good, but you never see a story saying, "Okay, we were wrong." They they just throw it out there. For instance, let's talk about the Delaney Hall hunger strike. No, there wasn't. I went there.

[00:10:45]Uh there was people not eating because you're buying food from the commissary.

[00:10:49]Food is rancid and terrible. I went there unannounced and sat there and ate amongst the detainees the same meal they had.

[00:10:56]>> Yeah.

[00:10:56]>> It wasn't bad at all. Was it a five-star cuisine? No, but I ate it.

[00:11:00]>> probably shouldn't be.

[00:11:01]>> When these complaints are made, they're investigated.

[00:11:04]>> Yeah. Uh Tom, maybe you can take me with you sometime so I can uh see it for myself. Um I've been covering this issue for almost 20 years and find that a lot of the time the accusations are completely false and made to push a certain narrative rather than to actually report the facts about what's going on. Um finally, just one more time about the morale issue. You say that morale is fine. Obviously, people are trying to sign up to become ICE agents from local law enforcement. Um but what would you say to those who are well documented on the record saying that things are the pressure's just too high, which is why agents are making mistakes.

[00:11:36]They need some time off.

[00:11:38]They you know, their holidays are getting pulled, their time off with their families in order to make sure they can do a good job for the mission.

[00:11:44]>> Like I said, they've been working hard since the day one of the Trump administration. The record the numbers prove it. But they do need time off. I mean, we all need time off. So I've asked the acting director to look at that and see you know, are our agents getting proper rest? Are they is the the training curriculum changed? Are we adding additional training curriculum? We want to address >> What about the training? I mean, there's been a lot of accusation that training has been lackluster and that they're pushing people ICE is pushing people through and not doing proper training.

[00:12:16]Is there any any truth to that?

[00:12:19]>> No, last year last year training what's changed. I mean, Todd Lyons was the acting director. Again, I'm been to training academy. I just tell you what I've been being advised by the programs. But when Todd Lyons was acting director, he testified several times under oath that the training remained appropriate. I'm a big proponent and I've been working with Secretary Mullen and and Dave Anceravage saying, let's let's add some post academy training.

[00:12:42]Academy once you get to the field with a journeyman, get out in the field and do some post academy training on the field.

[00:12:47]So again, it's it's a it's a ever changing thing evolving thing. But the the training curriculum is being reviewed at the highest levels right now. I have not been involved with that but again because ICE has got their own management and they work for the DHS. But they're reviewing that right now, Katie. They're they're going to make sure and I'll make sure that the agents get proper training and also that the agents get the proper rest they need. Because you know, >> Yeah.

[00:13:11]>> a tired agent can make mistakes and we we just don't we don't want we don't want that to happen. We we want every agent to go home safe at night. We want every illegal alien that we're targeting to be safe, too. I don't want to see anybody die. I don't want to see anybody get hurt. So whatever it takes to get that, well, that's what we'll get.

[00:13:26]>> Absolutely. All right, Tom Homann, thank you for your time today. We appreciate it. Talk to you soon.

[00:13:30]>> All right. You got it.

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