When border czar Tom Homan arrived in Minnesota in late January, he came to fix a host of problems for President Donald Trump. Indiscriminate and often violent immigration enforcement operations under Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino had sparked widespread public protests, and Trump’s approval ratings on his signature issue were tanking. Immigration agents had shot two people dead. Families were avoiding grocery stores and parents were keeping children home from school for fear of widespread document sweeps that were ensnaring legal immigrants and U.S. citizens.
On the ground, Homan met with state and local officials to try to repair the shredded trust. Two weeks later, at a press conference to announce an end to the broad immigration crackdown in the state, he declared his visit a success, and suggested there was a plan to ensure immigration operations there going forward would be “targeted” and focused on “national security threats and public safety threats.”
But what Homan said immediately after that exposed the contradiction at the heart of Trump’s immigration policy at this charged moment.
“For those who are not a national security threat or public safety risk, you are not exempt from immigration enforcement actions,” Homan said. “If you’re in the country illegally, you are not off the table.”
Trump campaigned in 2024 on overseeing “the largest deportation in the history of our country.” He has frequently said that his Administration is deporting “the worst of the worst criminals.” Yet those two goals have proven to be incompatible.
In reality, tens of thousands of people with no criminal record or pending criminal charges have been being pulled off the streets by immigration agents and put into detention centers. If that pattern were to stop, the Trump Administration’s deportation stats would likely plummet.
“The apprehension of criminals moves more slowly than everyone else,” says John Sandweg, former acting director…
