Speaking to a group of reporters on Tuesday, Border czar Tom Homan said that the pause on Immigration and Customs Enforcement performing vehicle stops will not lower the rate of deportations.
Following deadly ICE-involved shootings in Maine and Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been ordered to temporarily cease conducting vehicle stops. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin gave the directive after talking to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ABC News reported.
When asked by the Daily Signal to comment on the pause, Homan emphatically said that deportations would not slow down as a result, and that he expects the order to last just a few weeks.
“I’m sick and tired of reading about how the administration has lost their guts with mass deportations,” Trump’s border czar said, adding that ICE arrested a record number of illegal aliens in June.
“So, you know, people say ICE is not serious about this job. Last month, [we had] the most aliens arrested in the history of the agency—more than last year, more than when you had the FBI, ATF, DEA, Border Patrol, and ICE all out there.”
He said deportation numbers dropped temporarily due to the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which lasted from mid-February until the end of April.
“Bottom line is, once we got the funding, numbers are going through the ceiling, like President Trump promised Americans,” Homan said.
Because vehicle stops are known to lead to arrests and deportations, the MAGA movement may be concerned that President Donald Trump’s administration is taking its foot off the gas on Trump’s promise to deport individuals who are not legally in the United States.
ICE officers fatally shot a 26-year-old Colombian as they were trying to pull over his vehicle in Biddeford, Maine. Last Tuesday, an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, during a vehicle stop in Houston, Texas.
Homan said he is reviewing the “extensive” training curriculum for vehicle stops.
“I think what they’re doing is taking a pause to make sure that ICE officers have everything they need to stay safe, because vehicle attacks are up 3,400%. And they’re going to make sure if the training is sufficient.”
