President Donald Trump’s nightmare-inducing “border czar” Tom Homan appeared on Newsmax Tuesday morning to defend the unpopular and authoritarian deportation tactics carried out by his Immigration and Customs Enforcement shock troops.
When asked about reports that many immigrants detained by ICE have no criminal records, Homan provided evidence-free statistics while openly admitting to the mass arrests of innocent people.
“Here’s what the numbers look like. For those we arrest, 70%, approximately 70%—seven-zero percent—of those we arrest are criminals. Who’s the other 30%? The other 30% are national security threats. Most national security threats don’t have a criminal history. They try to lay low until it’s time for them to do things bad,” he said.
In other words, Homan is admitting that ICE arrests people who haven’t committed any crimes because they might in the future—including teenagers and children. That is about as dystopian as it gets.
Meanwhile, Homan’s numbers don’t align with any credible data. ICE’s own incomplete public-facing statistics don’t support his claim. According to CBS News, ICE detained around 100,000 people during Trump’s first 5 months in office, and only 8% have been convicted of a violent crime. And according to an analysis by the CATO Institute, 65% of people detained had no convictions whatsoever.
Trump’s campaign fantasy of mass deportations of violent offenders has collapsed under scrutiny. At the same time, Homan and other bigoted GOP officials have turned to performative crackdowns—terrorizing immigrants in their neighborhoods, at work, and in court.
Along with alleged deportation quotas that have nothing to do with national security, Trump and the GOP have allocated billions of dollars toward building immigrant detention infrastructure, promising more despotic roundups.
But Trump’s failures are mounting. What was once his signature issue is quickly becoming a symbol of failure, with polls indicating that Americans are increasingly disillusioned by the results of his jackbooted authoritarianism.