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Trump administration border czar Tom Homan issued a warning to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, vowing to “flood the zone” with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers despite her efforts to block federal operations.
Homan joined “The Ingraham Angle” to respond to Hochul’s claim that federal agents aren’t welcome in her state without permission and that she is not asking for help.
“Well, Governor Hochul, I’m not asking either. I said it. We’re going to do it,” Homan said Wednesday.
“We’re going to flood the zone in New York — we have to,” he added later.
Their feud began after Homan promised to send more ICE agents to the state at the Border Security Expo in Arizona this week. He was responding to proposed legislation, the “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act,” which would stop local police from helping federal immigration officers and void existing partnerships.
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“All I’ll say to Mr. Homan is that Donald Trump himself said he would not send a surge of ICE agents to the state of New York unless I ask,” Hochul said Tuesday. “I’m not asking.”
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But Homan said he’s not going to back down, stating: “This is what we have to do because she forces this position. And we’re going to do it. They’re not going to stop us. They can put all the roadblocks they want, but we’re [going to] do this job.”
He argued that New York’s push to end cooperation hurts public safety by making it more difficult to arrest criminal illegal immigrants.
“Since we lost the efficiencies of the jails that you want to lock us out of, now we got to send [a] whole team out there to find this person. So, of course, we’re going to increase manpower — a lot,” Homan added.
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Hochul has noted her resistance is in response to what she called “dangerous federal overreach.” In proposing the bill, she said:
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“Over the last year federal immigration agents have carried out unspeakable acts of violence against Americans under the guise of public safety. These abuses – and the weaponization of local police officers for civil immigration enforcement – will not stand in New York.”
The Trump administration’s immigration strategy, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” has faced intense scrutiny. Earlier this year, protests erupted in Minnesota after federal agents reportedly killed two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during operations.