ICE teams are targeting those who have been convicted of a serious crime and are in the country illegally, Tom Homan said.
President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said Tuesday that U.S. immigration officials have already started carrying out deportations, targeting illegal immigrants who are deemed a threat to public safety.
“ICE teams are out there as of today,” he said, without providing details on where. Homan then made note of leaks to the media about ICE targeting areas in Chicago and suggested that a different plan was initiated.
That includes people who are in the country illegally who have been convicted of a serious crime, he said. He said that anyone who is in the United States illegally has been put on notice.
“We got to go into the neighborhood to find” an individual deemed a public safety threat, Homan said. When immigration officials “find others” who are in the country illegally, they “will be arrested” by ICE officials, he said, suggesting that officials are targeting sanctuary cities with illegal immigrants.
“When the president gets sworn in, ICE officers are going to have a new priority of seeking out those who are considered a public safety threat and a national security threat,” Homan said to ABC News before the inauguration.
On Day One of Trump’s administration, the president signed a number of immigration- and border-related executive orders, including ending automatic birthright citizenship, declaring an invasion at the U.S.–Mexico border, and declaring a national emergency at the border.
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted,” Trump said at the Capitol minutes after being inaugurated on Monday. “And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
Legal challenges have already been filed against Trump’s order. Several Democrat-led states on Tuesday filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive order, arguing that it violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Another order issued by Trump was to designate Mexican drug cartels and Latin American gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organizations.
As he signed those orders, Trump reiterated that he favors legal immigration and acknowledged an imminent legal challenge to overturning birthright citizenship. He called automatic citizenship “just ridiculous” and that he believes he is on “good [legal] ground” to change it.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
