Tom Homan, the border czar, dismissed concerns raised by Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon about potential racial profiling by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, calling her claims “ridiculous.” He emphasized that immigration agents do not make arrests based on race.
“We don’t arrest people based on the color of their skin. I’m actually an equal opportunity deporter. I deported people to 180 countries last year,” Homan stated during an interview on “Saturday in America.”
He added, “I don’t care if you’re from Asia, Europe, or anywhere else. If you are in the country illegally, you will be deported, regardless of your skin color.”
Nixon, who recently emerged victorious in Florida’s Democratic primary, has made her priorities clear, including the closure of detention centers and the abolition of ICE. She has framed mass incarceration and mass deportation as “moral failures.”
She also argues that ICE cannot be trusted with its existing powers and that the agency employs “terror tactics” that should be dismantled, according to her campaign platform.
Homan responded to Nixon’s accusations by saying, “It’s just lie, after lie, after lie, to try to vilify the men and women of ICE.”
In a recent episode of the podcast “QNA: Questions Need Answers,” Nixon made further remarks, claiming that Republicans are “literally trying to kill us” and criticized ICE’s actions in the Black community, stating, “They’ve been doing it in the Black community. And they’re doing it even more so now with ICE. ICE is now a weaponized paramilitary force that is designed to terrorize us.”
Homan defended ICE, asserting that agents adhere to legal standards when carrying out their operations. “That’s a ridiculous statement,” he said, insisting, “We don’t racially profile. Everybody we talk to, we have reasonable suspicion of aliens to engage with them, and to arrest them we need probable cause. That’s what the law states, and that’s what we follow.”
He also pointed to sanctuary policies as contributing to violence during enforcement activities, referring to the case of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed in July during an arrest attempt in Houston.
Homan claimed that such policies elevate the risks associated with immigration enforcement, as they prevent agents from apprehending illegal immigrants in detention facilities, compelling officers to conduct arrests in communities instead.
“What sanctuary cities do is not only provide refuge to criminals, it makes the community less safe because they are releasing public safety threats back into the public,” he explained.
“It puts our officers at greater risk. It puts the alien at greater risk because anything can happen during a street arrest,” Homan added.
The Department of Homeland Security also refuted Nixon’s allegations of racial profiling, calling her statements “disgusting, reckless, and categorically FALSE” in a message to Fox News Digital. They stated that enforcement targets are determined by immigration status, not race or ethnicity.
