Just hours before President Donald Trump was set to arrive in his hometown of New York City for the National Basketball Association finals, White House border czar Tom Homan issued a pointed warning aimed at illegal immigrants across the five boroughs: immigration enforcement is coming.The administration’s chief immigration official stated on Monday that the forthcoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement surge will focus on the city’s five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island — as opposed to upstate New York or Long Island’s Nassau or Suffolk counties.“I made [Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY)] a promise. ‘You’re going to see more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen in New York City and it’s coming,'” Homan said on Fox News’ Fox and Friends Monday morning. “I’m keeping my promise. We’re going to send more ICE agents to New York because you took away the efficiencies of safe arrests in county jails.”
The plans are being kept close to the chest, according to four current and former senior administration officials who spoke with the Washington Examiner on Monday.
One change may be the exclusion of the Department of Homeland Security’s agency, Customs and Border Protection, from the NYC operation. Two officials said CBP had no plans to deploy Border Patrol, Air and Marine Operations, or Office of Field Operations personnel to assist ICE, which would be a break from how both agencies worked side by side during the bicoastal crusade the DHS waged under former Secretary Kristi Noem.
