President Donald Trump’s “border czar” has defended the increasing number of arrests of non-violent migrants, saying “that’s our job.”
On Monday, Tom Homan said that although public safety threats were a priority, those who were in the country illegally were “not off the table.”
“We’re gonna enforce immigration law,” he said.
Homan’s remarks follow public backlash to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. White House senior advisor Stephen Miller told Fox News last month that Immigration and Customs Enforcement set a goal of a “minimum” of 3,000 arrests a day.
Miller also reportedly told ICE officials to target community hubs, Home Depot parking lots and 7-Eleven convenience stores to find suspects, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Homan offered a similar hardline stance on Monday. “National security threats, public safety threats are always the priority,” he told reporters. “But if you’re in the country illegally you’re not off the table. “
“I mean I see people saying we’re arresting non-criminals. Well, they’re in the country illegally, that's our job,” he said. “We told ICE agents in the process of going out looking for the bad guy — and this is the problem with sanctuary cities. When we go to a community to go find the criminal, many times they’re with others. Others that may not be a criminal target, but they’re in the United States illegally they’re coming too. We’re gonna enforce immigration law.”
Homan went on to claim that former Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, had instructed ICE agents not to arrest “illegal aliens for simply being here illegally… ‘They’ve got to be arrested [or] be convicted of a serious criminal offense.’ He re-wrote the law. That’s not what the law says.”
“We’re gonna enforce the law,” Homan added. “That’s why the people put President Trump in office to do and that’s what we’re doing.”
Despite the president’s pledge to aggressively pursue “the worst of the worst,” among immigrants in detention now, 47 percent have no criminal record whatsoever, and fewer than 30 percent have been convicted of crimes, according to analysis from The Independent.
The number of people without a criminal record being arrested by ICE agents and held in detention has jumped 800 percent since January, according to reports.
This enforcement drive has resulted in more than 51,000 immigrants imprisoned in ICE detention centers, and likely marks the first time in American history that the United States has detained more than 50,000 immigrants at once.
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