Latest news with #sanctuarycities
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump's border czar to target sanctuary cities in US: ‘We're gonna flood the zone'
The Trump administration is targeting sanctuary cities in the next phase of its deportation drive after labelling them 'sanctuaries for criminals' following the shooting of an off-duty law enforcement officer in New York City, allegedly by an undocumented person with a criminal record. Tom Homan, Donald Trump's hardline border czar, vowed to 'flood the zone' with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents in an all-out bid to overcome the lack of cooperation he said the government faced from Democrat-run municipalities in its quest to arrest and detain undocumented people. His pledge followed the arrest of two undocumented men from the Dominican Republic after a Customs and Border Protection officer suffered gunshot wounds to the arm and face in an apparent robbery attempt in New York's Riverside park on Saturday night. New York is one of several self-designated 'sanctuary cities' across the US, called so because the mayors and local councils have prevented law officers under their control from collaborating with federal immigration officers working on Trump's mass deportation scheme. Homan – who has previously threatened to arrest mayors if they impede Ice's arrest efforts – said: 'Every sanctuary city is unsafe. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and President Trump's not going to tolerate it. 'I'm going to work very hard … to keep President Trump's promise and his commitment several weeks ago that sanctuary cities are now our priority. We're going to flood the zone. 'What we're going to do [is deploy] more agents in New York City to look for that bad guy so sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want – more agents in the community and more agents in the worksite. 'If we can't arrest that bad guy in the safety and security of the county jail, we'll arrest him in the community. And when we arrest him in the community, if he's with others that are in the country illegally, they are coming too.' Homan's comments came at a news conference fronted by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, focusing on the incident in New York, which left the unnamed customs and border protection officer in hospital. The 42-year-old agent was off duty and sitting with a female companion when he was reportedly approached by two men on a scooter shortly before midnight. The officer was not in uniform and police said there was no indication that he was targeted because of his occupation. An exchange of gunfire ensued when the officer withdrew his service weapon, apparently in self-defense. A suspect, Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, was later taken in to custody after turning up at a hospital in the Bronx with gunshot wounds to the leg and groin. Noem said the episode was a direct result of the sanctuary city policy adopted by New York's mayor, Eric Adams, as well as the approach to border security adopted during Joe Biden's presidency. 'Make no mistake, this officer is in the hospital today, fighting for his life, because of the policies of the mayor of the city and the city council and the people that were in charge of keeping the public safe, they refused to do so,' she said. The criticism of Adams came despite widespread reports of a deal made between him and the Trump administration that involved New York giving greater cooperation than before on immigration. The agreement was reached as the justice department moved to dismiss federal corruption charges against Adams, although the mayor has insisted there was no quid pro quo. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles have also suffered crime waves through sanctuary city policies, according to Noem. 'We look at Mayor [Michelle] Wu in Boston and what has happened there under her watch,' she said. 'What's happened in LA with the riots and the violence and the protest that have gone on because of Mayor [Karen] Bass and what she has perpetuated. 'When you look at Mayor [Brandon] Johnson in Chicago, and how devastating it is to live in that city and some of those poorest communities, how they suffer every single day with the violence that's in front of them. Just because these individuals are protecting criminals.' She also highlighted Nunez – who she said had been arrested four times since entering the US illegally in 2023 – as well as his accomplice, Christhian Aybar-Berroa, saying he had 'entered the country illegally in 2022 under the Biden administration and was ordered for final removal in 2023 by an immigration judge. 'There's absolutely zero reason that someone who is scum of the earth like this should be running loose on the streets of New York City,' Noem said, referring to Nunez. 'Arrested four different times in New York City and because of the mayor's policies and was released back to do harm to people and to individuals living in the city.' Homan criticised media reports suggesting that the majority of those detained were not criminals. 'I look at the numbers every day,' he said. 'The numbers I looked at [are] 130,000 arrests and 90,000 criminals. Do the math. That's 70%. Others are those who have final orders, who had due process at great taxpayer expense. A federal judge ordered them removed. Ice's job is to remove them.' Others were national security threats, he said. 'Under Secretary Noem's leadership, they've arrested several hundred Iranian nationals, national security threats. They may not have a criminal conviction, but they need to be detained. They need to be arrested and taken off the streets of this country.'
The Guardian
12 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: immigration agents to ‘flood' US sanctuary cities as marines withdraw from LA
The Trump administration is targeting US sanctuary cities in the next phase of its deportation drive, after an off-duty law enforcement officer was allegedly shot in New York City by an undocumented person with a criminal record. Tom Homan, Donald Trump's hardline border tsar, vowed to 'flood the zone' with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents, saying: 'Every sanctuary city is unsafe. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and President Trump's not going to tolerate it.' In Los Angeles, meanwhile, 700 active-duty US marines was being withdrawn, the Pentagon confirmed, more than a month after Trump deployed them to the city against the objections of local leaders. Here's more on these and the day's other key Trump administration stories at a glance. Tom Homan has vowed to 'flood the zone' of sanctuary cities with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents in an all-out bid to overcome the lack of cooperation he said the government faced from Democrat-run municipalities in its quest to arrest and detain undocumented people. The pledge from Donald Trump's hardline border tsar followed the arrest of two undocumented men from the Dominican Republic after an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer suffered gunshot wounds in an apparent robbery attempt in New York City on Saturday night. Read the full story The Pentagon confirmed to the Guardian on Monday that the full deployment of 700 active-duty US marines was being withdrawn from Los Angeles more than a month after Donald Trump deployed them to the city in a move state and city officials called unnecessary and provocative. Read the full story The president's signature tax and spending bill will add $3.4tn to the national debt over the next decade, according to new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released on Monday. Major cuts to Medicaid and the national food stamps program are estimated to save the country $1.1tn – only a chunk of the $4.5tn in lost revenue that will come from the bill's tax cuts. Read the full story A legal group founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller has requested the justice department investigate 'illegal DEI practices' at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In a letter to the justice department's civil rights division, America First Legal asked an assistant attorney general to investigate and issue enforcement actions against the prestigious medical university for embracing 'a discriminatory DEI regime as a core institutional mandate'. Read the full story Almost 300 current and former US Nasa employees – including at least four astronauts – have issued a scathing dissent opposing the Trump administration's sweeping and indiscriminate cuts to the agency, which they say threaten safety, innovation and national security. Read the full story The Trump administration has released records of the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr, despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate's family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination. Read the full story An artist who first accused Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of sexual assault almost three decades ago has told the New York Times that she had urged law enforcement officials back then to investigate powerful people in their orbit – including Donald Trump. The artist, Maria Farmer, was among the first women to report Epstein and his partner Maxwell of sexual crimes in 1996 when, according to the new interview with the Times, she also identified Trump among others close to Epstein as worthy of attention. Read the full story Harvard University appeared in federal court on Monday to make the case that the Trump administration illegally cut $2.6bn from the college – a major test of the administration's efforts to reshape higher education institutions by threatening their financial viability. Read the full story Michael Bloomberg is calling on Senate Republicans to oust Robert F Kennedy Jr from his post as Trump's health secretary. The US Federal Reserve is pushing back against claims from the White House that it is undergoing extravagant renovations with a video tour showing the central bank's ongoing construction. Hunter Biden gave a profanity-laced interview during which he attacked George Clooney, denied owning the cocaine found in the White House and spoke about his father's last efforts in the 2024 race before dropping out. Catching up? Here's what happened on 20 July 2025.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Flood' of ICE agents is coming to cities run by Democrats, White House warns
White House border czar Tom Homan is promising to "flood" cities run by Democrats with immigration agents, as the Trump administration ramps up border enforcement. Congress earlier this month gave the Trump administration more than $170 billion over the next four years to dramatically scale up enforcement, detention and deportation, and Homan said Americans living in so-called "sanctuary cities" can expect to see far more agents on the street soon. "We're going to flood the zone," Homan said at a July 21 press conference. "Sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want: more agents in the community and more agents in the work site. When we arrest (a suspected illegal immigrant) in the community, if he's with others that are in the country illegally, they're coming too." Sanctuary cities won't help with ICE arrests The White House has repeatedly singled out cities from Los Angeles to Denver to Boston for their refusal to assist ICE agents making detentions, and Homan has threatened to arrest elected officials who stymie the president. Migrant-rights groups warn increased enforcement raises the risk of more civil rights violations and violent confrontations, like the chaotic protests that broke out in Los Angeles last month following Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at a Home Depot, among other locations. Homan spoke in New York City after an off-duty Border Patrol agent was injured during an attempted robbery that officials say was committed by an undocumented immigrant. Homan and other White House officials argue the agent would never have been hurt if his alleged assailant had previously been blocked from entering the country or deported. Trump officials have long complained that many cities run by Democrats refuse to honor requests to detain people on behalf of ICE in local jails, and Homan said doing so makes it harder for ICE to arrest "bad guys" in the safety of a detention center. He said making street arrests is more dangerous for everyone, requiring more personnel to operate safely. Federal officials say there's been an 800% increase in assaults against immigration agents, although they have declined to release comprehensive data. Last month, Trump deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to help protect federal buildings and assist ICE agents in making detentions, a move that temporarily escalated tensions. ICE has conducted immigration enforcement actions around the country, but it's yet to focus a sustained effort in any particular sanctuary city outside of the Los Angeles area. Budget balloons for immigrant arrests and detentions The federal spending plan, among other things, provides funding for 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to help carry out Trump's plan to deport 1 million people annually. Trump won the White House after campaigning on a platform that included dramatically stricter immigration enforcement and border controls, and the federal funding plan he signed July 4 provides money to dramatically expand the number of ICE agents on the streets, $45 billion for more than 100,000 new detention beds for people facing deportation, $46.6 billion for border wall construction and $10 billion in additional Homeland Security funding. ICE now has a bigger budget than the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons combined, according to an analysis by the American Immigration Council. Public has begun pushing back against Trump's immigration policies The increased funding for one of Trump's signature policies comes as the American public appears to be growing increasingly concerned about the tactics being deployed. A July 20 poll by CBS/YouGov found that 56% of Americans disapproved of the president's immigration measures, while 44% approved, a 10-point drop from February. While Trump and Homan argue that anyone living illegally in the United States is by definition a criminal, federal statistics show that only about 36% of current ICE detainees have ever been convicted of a crime, while 31% have pending criminal charges and the remaining 33% are facing just immigration violations, according to analysis by Austin Kocher, a Syracuse University research assistant professor who tracks ICE data. The nonprofit American Immigration Council criticized the massive funding expansion, which came without any fundamental reform to the nation's immigration process. Many immigrants living in the United States entered under policies that were legal at the time, or have been waiting years for the chance to apply for citizenship. 'Throwing billions at detention centers and enforcement agents is short-sighted. Instead, we should be investing in a system aimed at welcoming immigrants that contribute billions to our economy,' said Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council. 'We don't need more jail beds and indiscriminate raids. We need balanced solutions that strengthen due process and keep families together.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrat cities should expect 'flood' of ICE agents: White House Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: immigration agents to ‘flood' US sanctuary cities as marines withdraw from LA
The Trump administration is targeting US sanctuary cities in the next phase of its deportation drive, after an off-duty law enforcement officer was allegedly shot in New York City by an undocumented person with a criminal record. Tom Homan, Donald Trump's hardline border tsar, vowed to 'flood the zone' with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents, saying: 'Every sanctuary city is unsafe. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and President Trump's not going to tolerate it.' In Los Angeles, meanwhile, 700 active-duty US marines was being withdrawn, the Pentagon confirmed, more than a month after Trump deployed them to the city against the objections of local leaders. Here's more on these and the day's other key Trump administration stories at a glance. Tom Homan has vowed to 'flood the zone' of sanctuary cities with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents in an all-out bid to overcome the lack of cooperation he said the government faced from Democrat-run municipalities in its quest to arrest and detain undocumented people. The pledge from Donald Trump's hardline border tsar followed the arrest of two undocumented men from the Dominican Republic after an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer suffered gunshot wounds in an apparent robbery attempt in New York City on Saturday night. Read the full story The Pentagon confirmed to the Guardian on Monday that the full deployment of 700 active-duty US marines was being withdrawn from Los Angeles more than a month after Donald Trump deployed them to the city in a move state and city officials called unnecessary and provocative. Read the full story The president's signature tax and spending bill will add $3.4tn to the national debt over the next decade, according to new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released on Monday. Major cuts to Medicaid and the national food stamps program are estimated to save the country $1.1tn – only a chunk of the $4.5tn in lost revenue that will come from the bill's tax cuts. Read the full story A legal group founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller has requested the justice department investigate 'illegal DEI practices' at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In a letter to the justice department's civil rights division, America First Legal asked an assistant attorney general to investigate and issue enforcement actions against the prestigious medical university for embracing 'a discriminatory DEI regime as a core institutional mandate'. Read the full story Almost 300 current and former US Nasa employees – including at least four astronauts – have issued a scathing dissent opposing the Trump administration's sweeping and indiscriminate cuts to the agency, which they say threaten safety, innovation and national security. Read the full story The Trump administration has released records of the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr, despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate's family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination. Read the full story An artist who first accused Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of sexual assault almost three decades ago has told the New York Times that she had urged law enforcement officials back then to investigate powerful people in their orbit – including Donald Trump. The artist, Maria Farmer, was among the first women to report Epstein and his partner Maxwell of sexual crimes in 1996 when, according to the new interview with the Times, she also identified Trump among others close to Epstein as worthy of attention. Read the full story Harvard University appeared in federal court on Monday to make the case that the Trump administration illegally cut $2.6bn from the college – a major test of the administration's efforts to reshape higher education institutions by threatening their financial viability. Read the full story Michael Bloomberg is calling on Senate Republicans to oust Robert F Kennedy Jr from his post as Trump's health secretary. The US Federal Reserve is pushing back against claims from the White House that it is undergoing extravagant renovations with a video tour showing the central bank's ongoing construction. Hunter Biden gave a profanity-laced interview during which he attacked George Clooney, denied owning the cocaine found in the White House and spoke about his father's last efforts in the 2024 race before dropping out. Catching up? Here's what happened on 20 July 2025.
CBS News
21 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
After CBP agent is shot in NYC, Tom Homan says sanctuary cities are now ICE's priority
President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, says sanctuary cities are now his priority after the shooting of a Customs and Border Protection over the weekend in New York City. He said Monday he's fed up with the city's sanctuary laws and will now "flood" the area with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest people where ever they find them. Homan said he's especially angry with the City Council, which went to court to stop a deal with Mayor Eric Adams to allow ICE to arrest people on Riker's Island, adding the new policies mean that people who are not criminals could get caught up in the new dragnet. "Sanctuary cities are now our priority. We're going to flood the zone. You don't want to let us into jail to arrest a bad guy in the safety and security of a jail. You want to release him into the street. So, what we're going to do, we'll have more agents in New York City to look for that bad guy," Homan said. The shooting of the 42-year-old off-duty CBP patrol officer in Fort Washington Park late Saturday night has Homan saying he's no longer going to play nice with the mayor, or hope he can convince the City Council or the courts to let ICE agents operate on Rikers Island. "Sanctuary cities get exactly what they don't want -- more agents in the community and more agents in the worksite. If we can't arrest that bad guy in the safety and security of county jail, we'll arrest him in the community," Homan said, "and when we arrest him in the community, if he's with others that are in the country illegally, they're coming, too." It's unclear just how soon Homan plans to flood New York City with more federal immigration agents and just how many asylum seekers who are not on the feds' wanted lists could get caught up in the new actions. It's also unclear whether Homan plans to send his agents into schools, churches, hospitals and other places that so far have been locations where asylum seekers have felt safe. However, one thing is clear: Adams doesn't want innocent people swept up in the raids. He says the feds should limit ICE to going after people who commit crimes. "If he's going to assist us to go after those individuals, I welcome it. If it's going to be to go after everyday individuals who are trying to complete the path to be a citizen, then I don't think we should do that," Adams said. The question now is whether the mayor could pay a political price for supporting sanctuary city laws. In the wake of the shooting of the off-duty CBP officer, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressed displeasure about the city's sanctuary policies. Noem is urging New Yorkers to consider Adams' support for sanctuary city laws when picking the next occupant of Gracie Mansion. "Boy, start looking at the candidates today and see which one is going to start making the city safer, because you've got a mayor today that could have done better, could have done better and maybe he'd have more support today if he had put his people first," Noem said. CBS News New York's Marcia Kramer asked Adams about Noem's comments. "I think that she's accurate. You should look at the mayors and determine the candidates, and determine who's going to do the best for this city when it comes down to migrants and asylum seekers," Adams said. "And, you know, the history is going to show, and the facts are going to speak on my behalf, that how well we've done at the city." Republican Curtis Sliwa says he's the best candidate to work with the feds. "Well, I'm the only candidate running who's opposed to the sanctuary city, but I would have used charter revision, put it on the ballot. Eric Adams had two opportunities to put it on the ballot. Tremendous number of voters would have come in and voted on that," Sliwa said. Kramer reached out to the campaigns of Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to get their positions on sanctuary cities and working with the feds, but did not immediately hear back.
