Trump’s border czar says deportations and arrests are not happening fast enough

Tom Homan is not happy. Donald Trump’s border czar admitted on Tuesday that he is dissatisfied with the number of arrests of undocumented immigrants in the weeks since the Republican administration took power.

“There’s more criminal aliens that need to be arrested – hundreds of thousands. Sanctuary cities are putting road blocks up. We’ve got leaks. So we need to increase the arrests of illegal aliens,” Homan told reporters Tuesday morning at the White House. The mass deportation plan Trump promised during his campaign is facing many obstacles.

For the past few days, Homan has been offering explanations to the right-wing media. On Monday night, during an appearance on the show Hannity, he said that authorities are close to identifying the source of a leak that compromised a federal operation last week in Colorado. Homan, who serves as Washington’s lead enforcer in the arrest and deportation of thousands, claimed that the tip-off undermined efforts to apprehend around 100 suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The operation resulted in approximately 30 arrests, but only one individual was detained on suspicion of belonging to the South American criminal organization.

According to Homan, a government employee leaked details of the operation. “We think it’s coming from the inside. We know the first leak in Aurora is under investigation, we’ve identified that person,” he said.

Early investigations into the source of the leak suggest it may have come from the FBI, a federal agency that frequently collaborates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. This version of events is now being echoed by other members of the Cabinet.

“The FBI is so corrupt,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday. Noem, who oversees domestic policy, suspects that federal agents within the bureau also leaked an internal memo revealing ICE’s plans for a large-scale operation in Los Angeles at the end of the month. Los Angeles, home to one of the country’s largest undocumented populations, is also a key sanctuary city. The contents of the confidential document were recently published by the Los Angeles Times.

Noem and Homan have voiced their frustrations just as Kash Patel, Trump’s controversial pick to lead the FBI, is carrying out an internal purge. Senator Richard Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, has accused Patel of ordering firings and layoffs within the agency even before officially taking office. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on Patel’s nomination on Thursday.

Skepticism about official figures

Speaking Tuesday morning, Homan expressed dissatisfaction with the current number of undocumented immigrant arrests. He claimed that authorities are processing three times more people per day than in the final year of Joe Biden’s administration — an estimated 900 undocumented immigrants daily.

But there’s a problem: ICE has stopped publishing arrest figures. The agency initially shared these numbers in the early days of the administration to reinforce its hardline stance, but that practice has since ended. “Could they have stopped because the numbers started contradicting their narrative?” asked Austin Kocher, an immigration scholar at Syracuse University. Arrest trends began to decline after just seven days of posting figures on social media.

CNN has also reported internal concerns within the administration over ICE’s arrest numbers. Estimates suggest that by early February, the government had detained around 8,200 undocumented immigrants. However, a ProPublica investigation found that less than half of those arrested had criminal records — despite Trump’s promises to prioritize criminals and undocumented individuals with pending legal issues.

“They’re way behind,” an official told CNN on Friday, referring to the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. The frustration has led to tense phone calls between Homan, Noem, and Stephen Miller — Trump’s powerful chief policy adviser and the architect of the administration’s deportation strategy.

Following these discussions, it was revealed that Homeland Security, under Noem’s leadership, requested assistance from the Treasury Department to temporarily assign federal agents specializing in tax crimes to immigration enforcement efforts. These agents would help crack down on human trafficking networks and identify businesses that employ undocumented workers.

Approximately 2,300 of these agents work for the IRS, the federal tax agency. According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Noem’s request, these agents were instrumental in uncovering more than $9 billion in fraud and tax evasion last year. Now, however, they will have to focus on hunting down immigrants — most of whom have not committed any crimes.

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