President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan was grilled by reporters in Minnesota after announcing a shift in tactics for federal immigration agents.
The president dispatched Homan to the state and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demoted Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino following the fatal shootings of two citizen observers this month in Minneapolis, and the border czar told reporters that the mission was intended “to regain law and order" by focusing on subjects who illegally entered the country and committed crimes.
“President Trump want’s this fixed, and I’m going to fix it,” Homan said.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz pressed Homan to explain who had made the decisions that sparked the violence that he was seemingly sent to tamp down as political pressure mounts on the administration.
"How did we get herein terms of, you had Greg Bovinowho was the face of thisimmigration operation?" Prokupecz said. "Themission, as you say, to having Border Patrol agents in theinterior of this countrystopping U.S. citizens, askingthem for ID, creating thisfear, in places like Chicago and now here. And then, finally,it took really the death of AlexPretti for us to get here. Howdid that happen? Who made thedecisions to allow this kind ofoperation to proceed in this wayand to create such fear?"
Homan took the question as an opportunity to bash Trump's predecessor.
"Well, look, the Border Patrollast four years under Joe Biden,we had an open border where10,[000], 12,000 people a day arecoming across the border," Homan claimed. "Border Patrol got overwhelmed, whichmeans we send thousands of ICEagents down there to help dealwith that humanitarian crisis,help secure the border. Now wehave millions of people releasedin this nation, many unvetted.Now we got to find them. Beforethe Big Beautiful Bill, we had atotal just under 5,000deportation officers to look formillions of people, many inpublic safety threats."
He then claimed demonstrators posed threats against immigration agents that justified the violent crackdown.
"So yes,we needed Border Patrol to comeand help on our mission now, andreason for the massivedeployment is because of thethreats, because of theviolence, our officers need tobe protected," Homan said. "If I'm onoperation, an arrest team, I'mgoing to a house, I've got to bebusy with that guy, thedangerous guy, and I can't keeplooking over my shoulder.What's happening outside thehouse? So we brought extraresources in to provide thatsecurity, and as I said, as we drill down on these greatagreements, we got this greatunderstanding we have means lessso we can draw down thoseresources. When the violencedecreases, we can draw downthose resources."
"But based onthe discussions I've had withthe governor and the [attorney general], we canstart drawing down thoseresources," he added. "As far as thoselooking for public safetythat's being released and do itin the jail with much, much lesspeople. So the drawdown is goingto happen based on theseagreements. But the drawdown canhappen even more if the hatefulrhetoric and theinterference will stop. So Border Patrol, I was a Border Patrol agent. These men andwomen are patriots, God bless,God bless them. They're here tohelp us."