The ICE team assembled by President Trump and border czar Tom Homan has arrested around 20,000 illegal aliens in their first month of existence. That compares favorably to the 33,000 arrested during the entire fiscal year of 2024, which began Oct. 1, 2023.
Nevertheless, Homan is not satisfied with the pace of the arrests, considering the millions of illegals that remain at large in the country. Asked directly if he was satisfied with the pace, Homan recently replied, “I’m not.” He continued:
If you look at the rest of interior enforcement, it’s about three times higher than it was a year ago today. Three times higher is good, but I’m not satisfied. There are more criminal aliens that need to be arrested, hundreds of thousands. Sanctuary cities are putting roadblocks up. We’ve got leaks. So we need to increase the arrests of illegal aliens, especially those with criminal convictions. So we’re going to continue.
President Trump is not satisfied either. While praising the work of the DHS in general (they are doing an “incredible job”), Trump told aides: “The numbers are too f—— low.”
In response, the two top officials at ICE’s enforcement division — Russell Hott and Peter Berg — were recently demoted and transferred to local field offices, in Washington and Minnesota, respectively. Hott and Berg were being held accountable, a spokesperson wrote, in a way that the agency had grown unaccustomed to. In addition, Homan met with Senate Republicans on Tuesday and asked for more funds to finance the crackdown. “I am begging you for money,” he was reported to have told the lawmakers.
ICE has had some successes. In one of their sweeps this week, agents arrested 118 migrants, including child rapists, gangbangers and killers in the migrant “colonia” of Colony Ridge, Texas.
Many more such successes will need to happen and soon.
For more, see the NY Post.