...
By Billal Rahman and Dan Gooding
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan pledged Tuesday to double the manpower headed to sanctuary cities after a series of lawsuits against the administration's immigration enforcement agenda.
Homan was speaking after a judge blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from sending three Venezuelan immigrants to Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba on Sunday, and another blocked efforts to end birthright citizenship for a third time.
"Before the President makes any executive order, before we take any enforcement action, we make sure that we are following the law as written by Congress, as is enshrined in statute," Homan told Newsmax. "We're going to win these court cases, it's just them stalling us."
Read More on Politics
Why It Matters
Trump ran his election campaign heavily focused on illegal immigration and border security, promising stricter measures at the southwest border and the mass deportation of millions of immigrants without legal status.
The policy proved popular among voters polled across the political spectrum, but the focus has often been on deporting those with criminal histories.
...
What To Know
The Trump administration's plan to tackle the immigration issue has been multi-faceted, including publicity around ICE raids across the country, the drafting of additional Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies, expanding detention space by opening beds at Guantánamo Bay, and undoing legal immigration routes set up during the Biden administration it sees as illegal.
For Homan and the president, sanctuary cities, counties, and states are seen as a big barrier to this work. The policies, often laid on in local or state laws, prevent local law enforcement from working with federal immigration enforcement officers on the premise that it is the federal government's job to enforce immigration laws as determined by the U.S. Supreme Court.
There have still been raids in sanctuary cities, including Denver, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, over the past three weeks but the GOP still sees the policies as an issue. The House Oversight Committee has summoned Democratic Party mayors to testify about the policies next month.
On Tuesday, Homan promised that the administration was "not going to slow down", adding that it would "double the manpower in sanctuary cities" and the targets for arrests.
The border czar was asked about the legal challenges the administration was facing, after the ruling Sunday that three Venezuelans held by ICE, awaiting deportation, could not be flown to Guantánamo Bay. Reports had circulated that the three Venezuelans were members of the criminal gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), but this was denied by their families, who spoke to Colombian media.
An attorney working the case, who spoke to Newsweek, said the legal challenge was not about their individual reasons for deportation, but over DHS holding them way beyond the time limit after an order or removal was given. The case had been underway since the fall of 2024 but became more urgent once the Guantánamo plans were announced, the attorney said.
The other actions by different judges, blocking elements of Trump's immigration plans including ending birthright citizenship and halting a ban on asylum seekers, did not appear to have phased Homan, who said Tuesday that the administration was not going to be slowed by court battles.
Mass deportations face their own legal difficulties, however, with an ever-growing backlog in the immigration court system holding up the official process for deciding on some 4 million cases currently.
What People Are Saying
Homan, on Newsmax: "I said from day one, we're going to be litigated every day. Every step we take to secure that border. Every step we take to remove millions of illegal aliens who were illegally released into this country by the Biden administration."
Zoe Bowman, immigration attorney at Las Americas, spoke to Newsweek about the Venezuelan men: "I think it's really important to humanize these cases, especially when the Trump administration is painting these people as violent criminals and for our clients, this couldn't be further from the truth.
"One of my clients Leon, he just talked about how difficult it has been to be separated from his young daughter, who is a toddler, for the past 14 months and not being able to see her or his partner while they're in the United States and pursuing their asylum cases."
Pope Francis, in an open letter to American Bishops Tuesday: "I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations. The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality."
What's Next
The Trump administration is likely to challenge the multiple decisions by judges blocking its immigration plans, while Bowman told Newsweek that she fully expects more litigation to be brought by advocacy groups in the coming days and weeks.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines