Tom Homan would not say when ICE would operate in New York

White House border chief Tom Homan on Tuesday accused New York Gov. Kathy Hochul of promising an increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in New York City.

But Homan would not say when he expects the raid by ICE agents to happen, when asked by reporters at the White House.

“You can expect many ICE agents to go to New York because Gov. [Kathy] Hochul signed legislation that ended “our agreements” that allowed the agency to send state and local law enforcement officers to conduct immigration enforcement operations under the supervision of ICE, he said.

Agreements under ICE’s 287(g) program were used to identify and process deportable immigrants who were detained after being arrested by local authorities on unrelated charges.

“We’re going to use resources in New York,” he said. You have to.”

But Homan said separately on Chris Cuomo’s SiriusXM show that the increase in ICE agents to New York will not use the same tactics as the continued deployment of thousands of immigration agents in Minnesota, where two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents in separate incidents in January amid weeks of intense clashes between citizens and federal agents.

“You’re not going to see Minnesota. I’m not going to let Minnesota happen,” Homan said Tuesday on the show.

Hochul, in late May, signed a law prohibiting local governments, local police, and state and local correctional facilities “from entering into 287(g) agreements or similar agreements with the federal government that allow law enforcement personnel and facilities to be used for immigration enforcement purposes,” the governor’s office said in a statement.

Homan on Tuesday at the White House said it is necessary to increase the number of ICE agents in New York because “he took the efficiency of the prisons from the 287(g) agreements, so it’s just statistics.”

“One agent can arrest one bad person in the safety and security of the jail, which is safe for immigration, safe for the agent, safe for the community,” Homan said.

“But [Hochul] we decided to kill all that, so now we have to send other agents to do the job,” he said.

“Government Hochul can say that he supports the removal of criminals, he wants to work with ICE on those who are criminals.

“But he’s keeping us out of jail. He ended the 287(g) government grant. That can’t be stopped,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. You’re lying to the people of New York.”

Hochul fired Homan in a post on X, the governor’s office referred CNBC to after he was asked to comment on the border chief’s remarks.

“As I told the President and Tom Homan, New York will never be a place for dangerous criminals,” Hochul wrote on his Twitter.

“We will continue to work with the authorities to deal with violent crimes,” the governor wrote.

“But we will not stand by when ICE floods our communities with agents, separates families, and turns our neighborhoods upside down with a campaign of terror,” Hochul said.

Homan told Cuomo on Tuesday that when ICE agents operate in New York, “It’s going to be a controlled operation … it’s going to be a law enforcement operation.”

“Every day we leave the office, and we know exactly who we want, where we will probably find them, because we have a target job.”

“We’re not going to go around looking for people we don’t know who we’re looking for,” Homan told Cuomo, referring to tactics seen in Minnesota under other Trump administration officials. “It will be a well-planned, targeted operation.”

The Trump administration has been widely criticized for its brutal immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, which have sparked protests and conflicts like those that ended in the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

President Donald Trump, in late January, sent Homan to Minnesota in what appeared to be part of an effort to calm tensions in the state, and as White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said, Trump “doesn’t want any American to lose their life on the streets of America.”