Tom Homan says ICE will remain assisting TSA "until the airports feel like they are 100%"

[0:00] Today marks the 44th day of the partial shutdown of the Homeland Security Department, [0:05] now the longest in history. So far, it has resulted in at least 500 TSA officers quitting [0:12] their jobs and sick outs continue, although officers are expected to be paid as early [0:17] as tomorrow through an executive order signed by the president late last week. [0:21] As for the funding impasse, Democrats want reforms to ICE and the president's deportation [0:26] policy to be part of the bill before they'll agree to fully fund Homeland Security. Republicans [0:33] are resisting that, and the standoff is likely to continue while Congress is gone for the next [0:38] two weeks. We begin with White House Borders Czar Tom Homan, who was tasked by the president to [0:44] help oversee ICE efforts following the killings of Renee Goode and Alex Preddy earlier this year [0:49] out in Minneapolis. Good morning to you, sir. Good morning. So Congress is gone until mid-April. [0:58] Will the president [0:59] compel them to come back and sort this out? Well, look, I hope so. I mean, they've got to [1:07] fund the Department of Homeland Security. Again, we're talking about the Department of Homeland [1:12] Security, and we're in an increased threat posture right now because of what's going on in the world. [1:17] We've got to keep this country safe, which means we've got to fund the members of the Coast Guard [1:22] and CISA and Secret Service and all these other agencies within the Department of Homeland [1:28] Security. I don't know if the president found a way to pay TSA workers so we can [1:31] get them to come back and sort this out. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. [1:32] But the president, you know, he talked about the American public through his lines, and he also came up [1:35] with the idea of sending ICE agents to the airport, which has had an impact. So we just need to get the [1:39] department funded. They want to talk about, you know, immigration policies. We can talk about that. [1:45] But why you got to hold the rest of DHS hostage to do that? Let's sit down and talk. I've been [1:49] talking to him for the last two weeks. Yeah. But just to be clear, the president is not [1:53] forcing lawmakers to come back to Washington now. He's going to wait until mid-April to do this? [1:59] Look, and American people hold Congress responsible. [2:04] They're on vacation right now, while tens of thousands of DHS employees aren't being paid. [2:09] Right, but Republicans control both chambers. [2:12] This is the president's party. [2:13] The Democrats shut down DHS. [2:16] They voted to shut down DHS because they simply won't fund DHS [2:20] because they want to change ICE policies so ICE is less effective in the interior. [2:26] Remember why we're here? [2:26] We're here because the last four years of an open border, [2:29] millions of people were in this country illegally, [2:31] many public safety threats, national security threats, [2:34] and we're out seeking them and arresting them, [2:36] and they simply don't like ICE enforcing the law. [2:38] They proved that last four years. [2:40] They didn't let ICE enforce the law. [2:42] The bill that passed the Senate was bipartisan, [2:46] and it did have a lot of the funding for the agencies you just laid out there. [2:50] The issue was specific to parts of ICE, [2:53] but it seems like the White House really didn't force your party to get in line here [2:59] because that Republican-controlled Senate did pass a funding. [3:04] Bill, the White House didn't get the House of Representatives leadership on board with that. [3:09] In fact, the Speaker, Mike Johnson, said that bill was a joke. [3:15] Why wasn't the White House able to get both heads of the party the president controls on the same page? [3:24] Look, I've been up on the Hill. [3:25] I've been in these meetings. [3:26] I've met with lawmakers from both sides. [3:28] This isn't a White House issue. [3:30] This is a Democrat shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. [3:32] So did you support the Republican bill in the Senate? [3:35] That passed? [3:37] I support Congress opening up the entire government, the entire DHS, [3:41] and not holding people in DHS hostage because they don't like immigration enforcement. [3:46] You weren't on board with the Senate bill. [3:48] I support opening up the entire government. [3:49] I'm with the president. [3:51] Okay. [3:52] I missed that. [3:53] Say that again, ma'am. [3:55] So you were not in favor of the bill that passed the Senate, which the Republican leader put forward. [4:01] I got it. [4:02] I support the president of the United States getting DHS fully funded and operating. [4:07] Okay. [4:07] So tell me, so the president did direct DHS to use other pots of emergency cash to pay these TSA officers, [4:14] and they're supposed to receive paychecks as early as tomorrow. [4:18] Does that mean that the system's going to become unclogged? [4:23] Do they actually have to show up to work to get paid? [4:28] Yeah, I think it's certainly going to help because TSA agents have left the job because they got to, [4:34] you know, whether it's driving Ubers or finding other jobs so they can feed their families and pay the rent. [4:38] So I'm hoping with this. [4:40] This change that President Trump put in place with Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen, [4:46] that more will come back to work. [4:47] Until then, ICER will remain in airports to take those jobs to secure the airport and check identification [4:55] and check exit lanes where people enter to access, do the jobs that don't require the enhanced TSA screening [5:02] so we can get more TSA screeners on the x-ray machines, open up more lanes. [5:06] So ICER is there to do the job to get TSA screeners back to the line. [5:10] And hopefully open up more lines to get the American public through the airport. [5:13] Okay. [5:14] Well, there's like 500 TSA officers who have quit. [5:18] Do you expect to be able to rehire them? [5:20] I mean, we have some big events like the World Cup coming up in June. [5:23] Are we going to have problems at airports for the foreseeable future? [5:30] Look, we're going to continue a nice presence there until the airports feel like they're in 100%, you know, [5:36] in a posture where they can do normal operations. [5:39] Okay. [5:40] Okay. [5:40] Okay. [5:40] Okay. [5:40] Okay. [5:40] Okay. [5:40] Okay. [5:40] Okay. [5:40] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:41] Okay. [5:42] Okay. [5:42] Okay. [5:42] Okay. [6:00] Okay. [6:01] Okay. [6:01] Okay. [6:01] Okay. [6:01] So you referenced some of this earlier. [6:05] The reason that we got to this political standoff is because of the differences between Democrats [6:11] and Republicans on the policy side. [6:12] policy part of this. [6:14] And back in January, those two Americans, Renee Goode and Alex Preddy, were shot during [6:18] immigration actions. [6:20] Democrats point to that and say, this is why they need to force change. [6:24] We saw that letter you signed, and in it, you were very willing, you told lawmakers, [6:29] to expand the use of body cameras, to limit enforcement activities at locations like schools [6:34] and hospitals, and require officers to identify themselves. [6:39] So if you're willing to make those changes, what's the harm in legislating them? [6:47] We already made those changes. [6:48] But why not put that in law, then, if you're already policy? [6:52] Matter of fact, the bill they're holding up right now actually gives $120 million to buy [6:58] more cameras. [6:59] I've already talked to them. [7:00] They want to talk about policy and legislate policy. [7:04] Look, if they want to change the law, change the law. [7:06] We're enforcing laws they enacted. [7:07] Well, they are trying to write new law. [7:11] Give me one instance. [7:12] And there's not one Democratic lawmaker can give me one example, one, a single one, where [7:17] ICE arrested an illegal animal inside of a hospital. [7:20] When have we ever arrested an illegal animal inside of a church? [7:23] The only one that violated the sanctuary of a church was Don Lemon and that group. [7:27] We have not made those arrests. [7:29] Even though we don't have a censor location policy, the men and women of ICE have common [7:32] sense. [7:33] They don't go into schools. [7:34] I want to make a caveat here. [7:37] If you're a significant public safety threat and national security threat, you have no [7:40] sanctuary. [7:41] But they can't point to one instance where ICE has made arrests in what they call censor [7:46] locations. [7:47] Well, but there was a policy change in January 2025 where the Trump administration [7:52] said they weren't going to be, you know, have their hands tied in terms of those sensitive [7:57] locations. [7:58] So that was a shift. [7:59] Because, as I said, a significant public safety threat or national security threat [8:04] does not have a sanctuary in this country. [8:06] We're going to find them. [8:07] We're going to arrest them. [8:08] However, you can't point to one instance where we actually went into a church. [8:10] We're going to arrest them. [8:11] We're going to arrest them. [8:11] We're going to arrest them. [8:12] We're going to arrest them. [8:13] We're going to arrest them. [8:14] So we try very hard not to go to the church and school because we try very hard to wait [8:15] for people to leave places. [8:16] We wait from, we arrest them in their home or arrest them in the community. [8:19] We try very hard not to go into those sensitive locations because we know there's an issue [8:23] there. [8:24] So that's what I've been telling the members on Hill. [8:26] As far as body cameras, first thing I did in Minneapolis is bring many body cameras [8:30] there. [8:31] Everybody had a body camera. [8:32] There is a plan in place right now for CBP and ICE to go body cameras across the entire [8:37] agency. [8:38] However, the money to do that is sitting with the Congress fighting over that. [8:39] You can't do that. [8:40] That's where I'm from. [8:41] fighting over the shutdown. [8:42] OK. [8:43] Well, one of the policy changes has to do with warrants requiring specifically ICE to [8:49] secure a judicial warrant from a judge before entering a home to make an arrest. [8:55] And that would be a change to the current ICE policy of relying on some administrative [9:01] warrants. [9:02] Listen to the DHS secretary during his confirmation hearing. [9:04] I said we will not enter a home or place of business without a judicial warrant unless [9:10] we're pursuing the individual that runs into a place of business or a resident or a house. [9:16] So the secretary agreed to that change. [9:19] When does that take place? [9:24] I think we're already in discussions on that. [9:27] You know, there are certain sections of law under Section I-205 where it's legally you [9:32] are legally able to enter a home in eighth district court as I've held that. [9:37] But this is a discussion we're having right now. [9:39] I'm talking. [9:40] I talked to Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen every day, several times. [9:44] Today, we're talking members of the White House. [9:46] We're already working on all these policies, not really policy and how we is about execution. [9:52] Again, the laws are the laws that they don't like the law to allow us entry in the home [9:57] then change the law. [9:58] But it's also they want arrest warrants or just arrest an illegal alien. [10:01] There's nothing in federal law says that matter of fact, the law that Congress wrote says [10:05] you can arrest an illegal alien with administrative warrant. [10:08] That's what the federal statute says again. [10:10] But they want they want judicial warrants just to arrest an illegal alien. [10:14] They're asking for changes in policy. [10:16] That's really about changes in the law. [10:18] Again, if they don't like what ICE is doing, they can change the law. [10:22] It's that simple. [10:23] Well, I appreciate your argument about changing the law. [10:26] There are many who would like to. [10:27] But there's also the question of interpretation of existing law. [10:32] And the acting ICE director, Todd Lyons, had sent a memo in May saying DHS counsel reinterpreted [10:38] existing law to allow for agents to make arrests without a judicial warrant. [10:43] And we heard the new secretary say they won't enter without a judicial warrant. [10:50] Was Secretary Mullen stating the current policy? [10:54] Are you changing the Trump policy going forward from where it was in May? [11:01] I'm not going to speak for Secretary Mullen, but I think it was clear he's looking at he [11:05] wasn't the secretary made that statement. [11:07] I think he's looking forward. [11:08] But one of the first things I did, I've asked for a full legal review on that reinterpretation. [11:13] I want to know exactly what I'm not. [11:15] I'm not a lawyer. [11:16] But I'm not a lawyer. [11:16] But I've asked DOJ to do a full review on that and we'll see where it comes. [11:20] But I think Secretary Mullen met what he said. [11:22] I think he's looking for the future. [11:24] Well, we'll see where they land. [11:28] Mr. Homan, thank you very much for your time this morning.