Trump Border Czar Promises More ICE Agents in New York, Defies Sanctuary Laws

(NEW YORK) — Tom Homan threatened to send “more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen before” to New York after Governor Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers pushed sanctuary legislation that would further limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Speaking at the Border Security Expo in Arizona on May 5, Homan said New York would face a larger federal presence as the Trump administration intensifies operations in jurisdictions that restrict ICE agents. He later added, “Well, Governor Hochul, I’m not asking either. I said it. We’re going to do it.”

At the New York state Capitol, Homan sharpened the warning. Sanctuary jurisdictions should “get out of the way” or they will “get exactly what they don’t want, more ICE agents in your community.”

The dispute centers on a package of bills that state lawmakers are days away from approving to expand sanctuary protections across New York. One proposal, the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, would prevent local police from assisting federal immigration officers with civil enforcement.

New York already has the Green Light Law, which allows undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses valid in the state. Homan has made that law part of his attack on what he calls sanctuary legislation that blocks federal enforcement.

Hochul rejected his demand for cooperation and said she had no interest in a federal surge. “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. I’m not asking,” she said.

In a formal statement, Hochul said, “Today, I met with Tom Homan to make a straightforward appeal: Help us keep New Yorkers safe by ending aggressive and unlawful ICE operations in this state. No more militarized raids, no more plans for large-scale detention centers and no more attacks on law-abiding people who call New York home.”

She defended the proposed legislation as a way to “keep ICE out of sensitive locations like schools, health care facilities and houses of worship, and protects the constitutional rights afforded to everyone in our state.” Hochul also accused the Trump administration of “dangerous federal overreach.”

Her statement went further, saying, “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.”

Avi Small, Hochul’s spokesperson, framed the governor’s position in narrower enforcement terms. “Governor Hochul has been clear with New Yorkers: she supports secure borders and deporting violent criminals, but won’t let New York help the Trump Administration tear babies away from their parents,” Small said.

Homan argued that the state’s sanctuary legislation forces ICE agents away from jails and into street arrests that require more personnel. “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,” he said.

He tied that claim directly to officer safety and enforcement reach. “We’ll double the man-force if we have to. Rather than one officer arresting a bad guy, now I have to send a whole team,” Homan said.

Homan also accused Hochul of undercutting the position she has publicly taken on deporting violent offenders. He said she was “talking out of both sides of her mouth, saying, ‘I want criminal aliens to be deported,’ while she wants all the roadblocks [so that] it’s not happening.”

The legal pressure campaign now extends beyond public threats. Homan is asking Trump’s nominated Attorney General Pam Bondi to review whether jurisdictions that refuse ICE detainer requests are violating federal law under Title 8 USC 1324(iii), which prohibits harboring or concealing undocumented immigrants from federal law enforcement.

He said sanctuary jurisdictions could face federal prosecution, and that Congress could impose penalties by withholding federal funds from law enforcement agencies and city and county governments. That argument places New York’s sanctuary legislation in a wider clash between state authority and federal immigration power.

Homan said the administration plans to expand that fight well beyond New York. He said 10,000 additional ICE agents are coming on board and that the administration intends to flood sanctuary cities nationwide.

Florida, in his telling, stands as the contrast. Homan said the state would receive fewer resources because “every sheriff in the state’s working with us,” while sanctuary jurisdictions would draw more agents and more operations.

That national framing has turned New York into a public test case. Homan has used the state to argue that sanctuary policies do not reduce enforcement; they shift it into neighborhoods, workplaces and public streets, where arrests take more agents and produce more friction with local officials.

His comments also came after recent ICE operations in New York that already drew attention. A raid on Chinatown’s Canal Street resulted in the arrest of nine undocumented street vendors and four protesters.

Those arrests gave fresh weight to Hochul’s warning about aggressive tactics in dense immigrant neighborhoods. Her call to halt large-scale detention plans and keep federal officers out of schools, health care facilities and houses of worship reflected fears among state officials that such operations will widen if the federal government follows through.

Homan, by contrast, has treated that resistance as the reason for escalation. His message has been that if local officials deny ICE help in jails and decline detainer cooperation, the agency will send more officers into communities instead of fewer.

That position has made the New York fight about more than numbers. It has become a confrontation over who controls day-to-day immigration enforcement in a state that has adopted sanctuary legislation while the Trump administration pushes for more visible federal action.

Hochul has tried to draw a line between support for border security and refusal to aid civil immigration arrests. Homan has rejected that distinction and answered with a threat of saturation enforcement, warning that if New York blocks assistance, federal officers will arrive in greater force.

The exchange has also injected Tom Homan, already one of the administration’s most forceful immigration messengers, into the center of New York politics. His language has been blunt, his target specific and his message consistent: cooperate with ICE agents or expect more of them.

Whether lawmakers approve the sanctuary package in the coming days, the administration has already signaled its direction. New York, Homan said, will see “more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen before.”