Border czar Tom Homan is vowing to send more federal immigration agents to New York City, claiming the deployment surge is necessary in the wake of recent immigrant-friendly legislation signed by Governor Kathy Hochul.

Homan first levied the threat during a Monday interview on Fox & Friends, where he told the panel there were imminent plans to scale up operations and promised it would be the largest presence of ICE personnel seen so far in the city.

“You are going to see more ICE agents than you have ever seen in New York City. And it’s coming. I just reviewed an operational plan. I’m not going to tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, but it’s coming,” Homan said.

Homan was clear that the coming surge — or at least his threats about it — is planned in direct response to Governor Hochul, who signed an extensive package of immigration legislation into law late last month. Part of the state’s annual budget, it bars state and federal law-enforcement officers from wearing masks, blocks ICE agents from “sensitive” locations like hospitals and schools, and prevents local and county police departments from entering into cooperation deals, officially known as 287(g) agreements, with ICE.

During a press gaggle with reporters in Washington on Tuesday, Homan reiterated the administration’s intentions. “You can expect more ICE agents going to New York because Governor Hochul signed legislation that ended our 287(g) agreements, where one agent can arrest one bad guy turned over by a jail. Now, we’ve got to send a whole team to look for that guy,” he said.

Homan continued, “We’re going to surge resources in New York. We have to.”

On Monday, Hochul suggested Homan’s words did not reflect what she had heard directly from President Donald Trump during a prior meeting he held with the nation’s governors, telling reporters the border czar’s “gotta take that up with Trump.” The governor also struck a defiant note, writing on social media, “As I’ve told the President and Tom Homan, New York will never be a sanctuary for dangerous criminals. We will continue working with federal authorities to target violent offenders. But we will not stand by if ICE floods our communities with agents, separates families, and turns our neighborhoods into the backdrop for a campaign of fear.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani similarly criticized the Trump administration, invoking the city’s ongoing role as a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. “We will not allow ICE or anyone else to sow fear in our communities — especially at this moment,” he said on X. “As the world comes to our city, we will stand proudly with our immigrant neighbors and reject these attacks for what they are: an attempt to divide us.”

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Source: New York Magazine