Homan's threat was made just hours before Trump is set to return to his hometown for the third game of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs
Credit: Noam Galai/Getty; Michael M. Santiago/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- President Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan pledged to send “more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen” to New York City, where Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani is simultaneously calling to abolish ICE
- Homan said he previously warned New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that if she opposed ICE’s operations in her state, he would respond similarly to “how we dealt with Minnesota”
- His latest threat was made just hours before Trump is set to return to his hometown for the third game of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs
President Donald Trump’s "border czar" Tom Homan pledged to send more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents "than you’ve ever seen” to New York City on Monday, June 8.
The anticipated surge comes after months of disagreements on immigration policy between the Trump administration and New York's Democratic leaders, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Homan’s threat was made on Fox News just days ahead of the FIFA World Cup bringing scores of international visitors to the city, and hours before Trump is set to return to his hometown for the third game of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night.
The former acting director of ICE — who now serves as Trump’s roving immigration chief, overseeing the president’s mass immigrant detention and deportation operations — said the operation was in response to legislation signed by Hochul last month limiting state and local law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE and other federal immigration authorities.
“I made her a promise. You're gonna see more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen in New York City and it's coming,” Homan, 64, said on Fox and Friends. “I just reviewed an operational plan. I'm not going to tell you exactly when it's going to happen, but it's coming. I'm keeping my promise.”
Credit: Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty
Homan, who met with Hochul in Albany, N.Y., in March, says he warned the governor that if she opposed ICE’s operations in her state, he would respond similarly to “how we dealt with Minnesota.” ICE operations there in January resulted in the killing of two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renée Good, and numerous violent arrests and detentions of citizens and immigrants alike.
The White House, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment on Homan’s planned operation in the nation’s most populous city. Representatives for the mayor and the governor also did not immediately provide comment on Monday.
Credit: Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty
At a Monday event previewing World Cup celebrations, Mamdani condemned the threatened operation and renewed his call for ICE to be dismantled.
“We've heard time and again threats in immigration enforcement across our city. I want to be very clear about the fact that I believe that ICE raids are cruel, they are inhumane, they do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety,” Mamdani said. “I've shared that directly with the president, I’ve shared that in public. It is a feeling that many New Yorkers share."
The Uganda-born mayor added, “And I also do believe that ICE, as an entity, is one that should be abolished, and that we should return to an immigration system that has more humanity at the heart of it."
Mamdani, who will also be attending Monday night’s NBA Finals game with a standing room-only ticket, said he has no scheduled plans to meet with Trump while he’s in town.
But the democratic socialist mayor who was inaugurated in January has previously held meetings with Trump at the White House and has said he communicates with the president via phone periodically.
Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty
Homan's threatened ICE operation comes after protests continued over the weekend at an immigrant detention center in nearby Newark, N.J., where detainees, immigration lawyers and Democratic lawmakers have alleged that immigrants are being mistreated and held in dangerous conditions, including the denial of medical aid.
The Trump administration has denied that the immigrants being held at Delaney Hall are being mistreated and claimed that a reported hunger strike is not occurring.
Credit: Adam Gray/Getty
New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim has visited Delaney Hall several times in recent weeks and was pepper-sprayed last month as ICE officers clashed with protesters outside the facility. On Saturday, June 6, Kim visited again and said he was prevented by ICE and the private prison company operating the facility, GEO Group, from speaking with detainees.
“When I was going through the women’s unit, the women were trying to get my attention,” Kim said in a video he posted on X on Saturday. “I looked over and I saw a woman curled up in a fetal position, clearly in some pain and agony.”
“ICE and GEO Group told me that they cannot share with me what’s happening. I’m very concerned about that woman. I’m very concerned about the other stories I’ve been hearing from the families of detainees,” the New Jersey Democrat added.
I went to Delaney Hall to follow up on conversations I had this morning with family members of detainees. ICE and GEO Group did not let me speak with detainees.
Why do they insist on hiding the truth even after getting almost $1 billion of tax dollars? pic.twitter.com/QURw7jhmAW
— Senator Andy Kim (@SenatorAndyKim) June 6, 2026
Homan said he visited the facility recently and observed no issues, claiming the facilities are “state of the art” and that he ate a meal with detainees.
“I sat in a cafeteria with detainees. I had the same meal they had. I had my security detail with me, of course,” Homan said on Monday. “Is it a five-star cuisine? No. But was it a well-established meal? Yes, it was. Matter of fact, I didn't even finish it all and I'm not a little guy.”
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While New York City has yet to see ICE operations on the scale of those in Minnesota and the Chicago area earlier this year and last, the nation’s largest city — where immigrants comprise more than a third of its 8 million-plus residents and nearly half of its workforce, according to a 2020 study by the city — has not been spared.
Masked ICE agents have arrested immigrants showing up for their court hearings at a federal building in downtown Manhattan, where Mamdani ally Brad Lander — a local official now running for Congress — was arrested in June 2025 for attempting to escort immigrants out of the building. Charges against Lander were later dropped.
Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty
Since Trump returned to power last year, ICE operations have targeted immigrants repeatedly across the five boroughs, including a chaotic operation targeting street vendors in Manhattan’s Chinatown in October 2025 that led to arrests, some of which were later deemed by a federal judge to be ruled unlawful.
In May, NYPD pushed back protesters and arrested eight people as New Yorkers attempted to prevent the detention of an immigrant at a Brooklyn hospital. The Nigerian immigrant accused of overstaying his visa was injured during his arrest and later dragged out of the hospital by federal agents, according to The New York Times.
In a separate incident in May, a Bronx teenager and U.S. citizen said he was tackled and detained by ICE, leaving him with injuries so bad he required stitches on his head the day before his 20th birthday.
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