Border czar Tom Homan on Sunday defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents against accusations of racial profiling, which Democrats have alleged as part of their raft of reforms necessary to pass Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding.
“They want to say stop racial profiling, that’s just not occurring,” Homan said during an appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation. “ICE will detain, briefly, to question somebody based on reasonable suspicion. Has nothing to do with racial profile.”
He added: “I’ll let the White House and the members of Congress fight that out, but I think some of these asks are just unreasonable because there is no racial profile. There is identifying marks.”
Why It Matters
The tactics ICE has employed as part of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation have drawn sharp scrutiny after multiple U.S. citizens and legally present immigrants said they were detained or questioned during operations. Civil rights groups and local officials have argued these tactics have disproportionately targeted Latino, Somali, and other minority communities, fueling allegations of racial profiling the administration has repeatedly denied in court filings.
Federal judges initially pushed back, with a district court in Los Angeles ruling ICE had unlawfully detained people based on factors such as “apparent race or ethnicity,” accent, job type, or location, but the Supreme Court ultimately intervened and lifted those restrictions.
However, lawmakers have demanded reforms to ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) operations after Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, two Americans, were fatally shot by federal agents during a fraught and often chaotic operation in Minnesota in January. Homan ultimately intervened in that operation to cool tempers and effectuate a substantial drawdown of the federal presence in the state.
What To Know
Congressional Democrats successfully negotiated with the White House and Republican counterparts to split out DHS funding from a larger funding bill last month as part of an effort to avoid another prolonged government shutdown.
The agreement provided two weeks of a continuing resolution (CR) of funding for the DHS based on the most recently approved budget while lawmakers debated reforms, which Democrats have prioritized in order to support any further funding.
Those reforms include mandatory body cameras, standardized uniforms, a ban on masks, an end to racial profiling, and requiring agents to show ID upon request and to have a judicial warrant to enter any private property.
The administration and Republican lawmakers have pushed back against some of those measures even as others, as House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, recently said, are “obviously reasonable and should happen,” adding that “others are going to require a lot more negotiation.”
Homan made clear he is not part of reform negotiations but said while he doesn’t like such elements as face masks worn by officers, there remain concerns of threats against federal officers, citing a figure that such threats have increased “up over 1,500 percent,” while “actual assaults” have also increased by a similar margin.
“These men and women have to protect themselves,” Homan said Sunday. “As far as identifying themselves, they all have placards, they identify themselves as ICE, HSI, DEA, FBI, so they all have placards on them, so I’ll let the White House and the members of Congress fight that out.”
He added that while he insists there isn’t racial profiling taking place, that if lawmakers passed legislation that banned doxxing agents “or something like that,” he would support prohibiting facemasks and other measures, citing previous laws already in place against injuring, harming, or threatening federal authorities in the course of carrying out their duties.
What People Are Saying
Representative John Garamendi, a California Democrat, said in a statement last week: “Congress needs to pass the Freeze ICE Act to impose a hiring freeze at ICE and put proper accountability measures and procedural reforms in place to ensure the safety of Americans. I am gravely concerned about the steps Trump has taken to try and turn ICE into a secret police force, something that should never happen here in America.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, wrote on X on Saturday: “Here we go again. The new Democrat shutdown — this time of the Dept. of Homeland Security — will hit some VERY important programs like FEMA disaster response, TSA security lines, and Coast Guard operations. That means delayed disaster aid, airport chaos, and weakened law enforcement. Democrats are once again risking public safety just to stage a pointless political stunt.”
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin previously told Newsweek: “This funding supports national security and critical national emergency operations, including FEMA responses to a historic snowstorm that is affecting 250 million Americans. Washington may stall, but the safety of the American people will not wait.”
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