Threats against ICE officers are up over 9,000%, border czar Tom Homan says.
Homan made that stunning claim during a CNN “State of the Union” appearance, where host Dana Bash pressed him on accusations that ICE agents were deliberately targeting parents at school bus stops to frighten children.
The confrontation began after Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, posted on X that ICE was “arresting parents at school bus stops” in Danbury, Connecticut. Murphy claimed agents were “just targeting parents sitting at school bus stops just to terrorize little kids.”
Bash read that quote directly to Homan and asked him point blank whether ICE officers were detaining parents at school bus stops.
Homan did not hesitate.
“ICE isn’t in the business of terrorizing children,” he told Bash. “That’s just political fire.” He went on to say that ICE enforces laws passed by Congress, and that while some people arrested are parents, that is not the goal. “We’re out there to look for illegal aliens with final orders of removal, those who overstayed, those that are criminals,” he said. “ICE has no intention of terrorizing children.”
As originally reported, Homan went further, calling Murphy’s statement “just a political statement made to enrage the American people.” He argued that rhetoric like Murphy’s is directly responsible for the dramatic spike in threats against ICE officers, saying no other law enforcement agency in the world has seen that kind of increase in threat volume.
“I say most of it is based on hateful rhetoric and mischaracterization of what ICE does,” Homan said.
He then turned to a specific example: the Delaney Hall detention facility in New Jersey, which drew protests in Newark. Homan said claims of a hunger strike there were false. Detainees, he said, were not eating in the cafeteria but were purchasing food through the commissary. He also said no one was denied medication.
Homan also addressed a story that circulated claiming a father was arrested while buying diapers. He flatly rejected it. He was arrested at a jail, and he was there for domestic violence charges,” Homan said.
His broader frustration was with how these stories travel. “All these false stories come out, and people buy off on them,” he told Bash. When the administration demonstrates a story is wrong, he said, the correction gets no coverage. “No one ever says, ‘OK, we were wrong. There actually wasn’t a hunger strike. There wasn’t actually mistreatment at that facility,'” he said.
The exchange put a sharp spotlight on a recurring tension in the immigration debate, where competing narratives about ICE operations are circulating faster than facts can catch up.