President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said he would consider pulling Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers out of Minneapolis if Minnesota Democrats allow the agency access to its jails.
Homan, the former acting director of ICE, said on Thursday evening that Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s demands that federal agents and officers leave their communities could be resolved “real quick” if the city agrees to let ICE into its jails so that it may take custody of illegal immigrants with criminal records in a safe setting.
“Minnesota, the mayor and the governor, could fix this real quick,” Homan said during a telephone town hall with Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX).
“Let us in the jail. Stop being a sanctuary jurisdiction, sanctuary state, sanctuary city. Give us access to your jail so we can arrest these criminals in the safety and security of the jail. That way, we don’t have to go into the neighborhood and find them,” Homan said.
ICE has surged 3,000 personnel to the Twin Cities this month following the discovery of billions of dollars of fraud within state assistance programs that involved primarily Somali illegal immigrants in Minneapolis, according to the list of federal defendants indicted in the fraud scheme.
Since arriving in the city in large numbers, ICE has arrested 2,400 people to date, including murderers and child rapists, Homan said.
“These are bad people who were taken off the streets of the city,” Homan said. “So work with us. I’m begging people to work with us. ‘Cause I’d rather have a public safety threat arrested in the safety and security of a jail other than going into the neighborhoods.”
Sanctuary zones do not hand over illegal immigrants in police custody for criminal offenses to federal immigration officers, which means ICE must go into communities nationwide to find and arrest those individuals.
Sanctuary cities and states have said they protect people from ICE and that it is not the local government’s responsibility to detain people for 48 hours until ICE can show up and take custody once the individual is released.
The situation in Minneapolis has grown fiercely tense in recent days following the fatal shooting of local resident Renee Good, who an ICE employee fatally shot during an altercation in Minneapolis last week.
Earlier this week, another ICE officer opened fire after he said he was attempting to make an arrest and was attacked by three men, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed in a statement.
Gonzales said the situation in Minneapolis, with protesters attempting to interfere in federal immigration operations, has put the United States in an inflection point.
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“It is a very much an inflection point in our nation’s history where it’s either, are we for law enforcement, are we against law enforcement?” Gonzales said on the call. “I think now more than ever … we have to show support for ICE as they go out there and just do their job, and they’re doing an amazing job.”
Gonzales represents the largest district on the U.S.-Mexico border and is seeking a fourth term in office this November.
