ICE official Tom Homan tells Arizona lawmakers border is ‘secured,’ vows large deportation operation

Director Tom Homan, executive associate director for Enforcement and Removal Operations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told a joint session of the Arizona Legislature that the southern border is now secure and pledged a large deportation operation and intensified interior enforcement.

Homan said the Trump administration’s actions have sharply reduced illegal crossings and reiterated support for state measures, including an "Arizona ICE Act" that he said would prevent local governments from restricting federal removal efforts.

Homan framed his remarks around three priorities he said President Trump assigned him: "1, secure the border. 2, run a deportation operation, the largest deportation operation the country's seen. And 3, to find missing children," he said.

Why it matters: Arizona is a border state with elected officials who have prioritized enforcement measures. Homan’s appearance followed references from legislators to a recently passed statewide ballot measure they described as a border security victory and to bills introduced this year to limit local restrictions on cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In the address, Homan made a series of numeric claims about migration and enforcement. He said, "illegal border crossings [are] down 94% in weeks," that known "gotaways" under the prior administration totaled "2,200,000," and that in the first two months of the current administration ICE had made more arrests than were made in an entire year under the previous administration. He also said earlier releases by federal authorities numbered about "84,000" and that roughly "300,000" children who had been released to sponsors could not be located.

Homan described sanctuary jurisdictions as an operational obstacle: "If we can arrest a bad guy in a county jail, and that county jail is gonna release that public safety threat back in the public ... that means I gotta send the whole team to the community to find the bad guy, and we will find him," he said. He added that ICE would arrest accompanying noncriminal individuals encountered during operations and urged local jails to notify federal authorities before releasing detainees.

Homan also defended prior family detention and prosecution policies as tools to reduce harm, saying they aimed "to save lives" and to prevent trafficking and rape by criminal cartels. He said his office would pursue designation of criminal cartels as terrorist organizations and invoked the "Alien Enemies" concept when discussing removal authority.

Several legislative introducers praised Homan and the administration’s approach. An unnamed member who introduced Homan said the Legislature had sent a "border security act" to voters last session and that this year lawmakers had introduced the Arizona ICE Act to keep local governments from limiting federal enforcement.

The joint session ended after Homan’s remarks. No formal state votes or actions were recorded in the transcript for this item.

Ending note: Homan asked Arizona lawmakers for partnership on enforcement measures and concluded by urging continued legal and operational cooperation between state and federal authorities.