Defiant border czar brushes away MAGA critics, says ‘mass deportations are coming’

By Michael Williams, CNN

Phoenix (CNN) — White House border czar Tom Homan on Tuesday brushed off critics within President Donald Trump’s base who say the administration is not deporting enough people, while vowing to “flood the zone” with immigration officers in jurisdictions which pass legislation limiting cooperation with federal enforcement.

Speaking at the Border Security Expo in Phoenix, a room filled with Department of Homeland Security officials and industry personnel, a defiant Homan vowed that the “mass deportation promise will happen.”

“For the people out there saying ‘President Trump’s getting weak on mass deportation,’ you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Homan said, referring to such naysayers as “keyboard warriors.”

Homan said he spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin earlier in the morning to discuss what the administration will do “in the next couple of months.”

“You ain’t seen shit yet,” Homan said. “This year will be a good year. Mass deportations are coming.”

Homan’s comments at the Phoenix expo, a typically friendly room where administration officials tend to be slightly more unguarded in their remarks than they are other at other public appearances or during press conferences, come as DHS seeks to take a more targeted and low-key approach with its agenda and operations under Mullin than it had under former Secretary Kristi Noem amid public polling showing Americans souring at the administration’s aggressive crackdown.

Noem’s tenure at DHS saw near daily controversies as immigration officers carried out highly public, and often unfocused, operations in cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. These operations drew frequent protests from citizens, including two Americans who were shot and killed while opposing the actions of immigration officers who had been deployed in Minneapolis.

Following the second killing of an American citizen, VA nurse Alex Pretti, by immigration officers, Trump deployed Homan to Minneapolis to replace Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official who had overseen the deployment, and turn down the temperature.

CNN reported in March that the administration has sought other ways to soften the public messaging surrounding its immigration operations. James Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff, told Republicans to focus on the removal of criminals rather than “mass deportations,” a source familiar with the discussion told CNN.

Homan on Tuesday said criminal and public safety threats “have to be the priority.” But he added that the prioritization of criminals does not mean everybody else is “off the table.”

“Why is that?” Homan said. “I don’t care how long you’ve been here, if you’re here illegally, entered this country illegally, you cheated. You cheated the system.”

Conceding that 35% to 40% of the undocumented immigrations who have been arrested during Trump’s second term have no criminal record, Homan said that was necessary to “send a message to the whole world.”

He vowed to send masses of immigration officers to states that enact legislation limiting cooperation between state and local police and federal immigration authorities: “We’re going to flood the zone. You’re going to see more ICE agents [than] you ever seen before.”

When that happens, Homan said, so-called collaterals – people who weren’t targets of immigration officers but happened to be in the area when an operation takes place, are “coming too.”

“You will see collateral arrests increase in these areas,” he said. “You see more agents in your neighborhoods, because you forced us in this position.”

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, one of the states that has drawn Trump administration criticism for its immigration policies, reacted sharply Tuesday to Homan’s comments.

“All I’ll say to Mr. Homan is that Donald Trump himself said he would not send a surge of ICE agents to the state of New York unless I ask. I’m not asking,” she said.

Homan vowed to be focused on this mission until his dying breath – regardless of whether he continues to hold a position within the administration, or what is said about him.

“I simply don’t care what people think about me,” Homan said. “I never have and never will.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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CNN’s Kit Maher contributed to this report.