Border czar Tom Homan retorted to CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz’s accusations on Thursday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is instilling “fear” in American communities.
During the press conference in Minnesota, Prokupecz asked Homan who in charge is responsible for the current unrest in the wake of the death of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis. Homan argued that the massive immigration enforcement operations are in response to the release of millions of illegal aliens by former President Joe Biden’s administration and the need for officers to be protected while arresting public safety threats.
“And then finally, it really took the death of Alex Pretti for us to get here. How did that happen? Who made the decisions to allow this kind of operation to proceed in this way and to create such fear?” Prokupecz asked.
“Well look, the border patrol, the last four years, Joe Biden, we have an open border or 10, 12,000 people a day are coming across the border, border patrol got overwhelmed, which means we sent thousands of ICE agents down there to help deal with that humanitarian crisis, to help secure the border. Now we have millions of people released in this nation, many unvetted. Now we got to find them. Before the big, beautiful bill, we had a total just under 5,000 deportation officers to look for millions of people, many in public safety threats.”
“So yes, we needed more to come and help on our mission now,” Homan continued. “And the reason for the massive deployment is because of the stress, because of the violence. Our officers need to be protected.
WATCH:
Homan added that there will be fewer personnel in Minnesota once the violence decreases and public safety threats are off the streets.
The Biden administration oversaw a record-high surge of illegal border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border and released approximately 3.18 million illegal aliens into the U.S. between Jan. 2021 and Dec. 2023. Trump enacted hawkish immigration policies that have led to more aggressive immigration enforcement operations and to record-low border crossings.
Widespread riots escalated throughout Minneapolis following the death of Renee Good on Jan. 7, who got shot by an ICE agent after she hit him with her car. The unrest continues to prevail in response to a Border Patrol agent shooting Alex Pretti on Jan. 24, an armed anti-ICE protester who was detained by a group of agents.
New footage released on Wednesday showed Pretti spitting at immigration enforcement and breaking a taillight on their vehicle just 11 days before his death. The footage further showed agents body slamming and holding Pretti down to the ground.
Democrats have collectively called to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem due, in part, to calling Pretti a domestic terrorist by approaching Border Patrol with a firearm. Noem’s accusations reportedly came from top White House officials, specifically White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who called Pretti an “assassin” in a statement on X, sources told Axios.
While Noem faced scrutiny, Trump sent Homan to Minnesota to speak with officials and oversee ICE operations. After Noem met with Trump in the Oval Office for about two hours on Monday, Trump told reporters on Tuesday that Noem is not stepping down.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
