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Aug. 14, 2025 00:09-00:19 - CSPAN
09:57
Tom Homan Talks to Reporters
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tom homan
06:34
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White House Borders are Tom Homan spoke to reporters about President Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. while talking to reporters outside of the White House.
Wednesday afternoon, come on.
tom homan
You guys don't scare me.
unidentified
Can you give us an update on the arrest made if you've seen so far?
tom homan
I don't have the numbers.
I've been in the skiff for the last couple hours.
I've got no access to electronic devices.
I know they're making arrests.
Like I said this morning, it's just not the number of arrests they're making.
It's the deterrence effect.
The bad guy knows we're tenfold out in the street.
Federal agency is working side by side with the Metropolitan Police.
So the bad guys, based on my four years of experience, a lot of them are hiding.
They're not coming out committing crimes.
So not only are we arresting people and locking them up, we're preventing people from hitting the streets and committing crimes.
They know we're serious about making D.C. safe again.
President Trump has made a commitment to the citizens of D.C. to make this city safe again, and he's doing it.
He's doing it one arrest at a time.
unidentified
Do you have a response to the judge asking ICE facilities in New York to be improved?
You guys ought to go look at an ICE facility.
tom homan
Go look at them.
I'll compare, if it's an ICE facility that ICE owns, I'll compare our detention standards to any county, jail, or state prison in the country.
And I mean that.
Anybody can go to ICE.gov, look at the detention standards.
Matter of fact, a lot of people may be a little upset we're spending this much money on detention standards.
When I was the ICE director, we had county sheriffs and our contracts with them because they could not afford those detention standards.
And they said, if I can't give these detention standards to U.S. citizens, why am I going to pay all this money to give detention standards to somebody that's not even supposed to be here?
I literally had sheriffs walk away from agreements.
So I'll compare an ICE facility to any facility in this country, any state, any county, prison in the nation.
I'll compare them side by side.
unidentified
How do you have any more detailed numbers on what it could look like to renovate Alcatraz?
tom homan
You mean San Francisco Alcatraz?
unidentified
Right.
tom homan
I'm not in the loop on that.
I leave it up to, I know Pam Bonnie's working on that.
And I leave it up to the DHS and DOJ because they're working on that.
I'm not in the loop on that.
unidentified
Okay, and the Speedway Slammer, do you have an update on that, when that will be up and running, any kind of timeline there?
tom homan
No, it should be pretty soon.
I think it's going to be 1,000 beds.
And I appreciate the governor stepping up and helping us on that.
I don't particularly like the names.
I mean, the men, women, and ICE, what they're doing every day out there is dangerous, is serious.
They're doing it with dignity, honor, and respect.
And I think sometimes those names take away from that.
unidentified
I think the name is mocking what ICIS at work doing.
tom homan
I'm just saying I don't particularly like the names.
That's just me.
Because I don't want anything to take away from the dangerous, important work ICE is doing.
They're trying to do it with dignity, honor, and respect.
And I don't want anything to take away from that.
And sometimes the names, people get caught up on the names and they think it becomes a joke.
I don't think what we're doing is a joke.
It's serious, dangerous stuff, as we can tell from the over 1,000% increase in ICE attacks.
unidentified
And just on the floor, I settlement: does the Trump administration believe it's still operational after the cost of the 1B deposit of the 1B Jews within the?
tom homan
Well, look, I'm not, that's a question of a DOJ.
They're litigating by the Florida Settlement Agreement by Dolly G, it was the worst immigration decision in the history of this nation.
Because I said if they found that way where accompanied children are treated like unaccompanied children and they can only hold them for 20 days, I said at the time if they did that, you would see a surge of family units across this border like never seen before.
If they knew they're not going to be held long enough to see a judge.
And what happened?
I was called a fearmonger by the other side, but I was exactly right.
Hundreds of thousands of families rushed across the border because they knew they would be released before they saw a judge.
They knew 90% of people who claim asylum at the border end up with an order removal.
They knew that.
And under President Obama, in the beginning, under President Obama, when the family units came across, we detained them at the first residential center we created.
We held him.
It took about 40 days to see a judge.
And what happened?
90% lost their case.
We put him on airplane and sent him home.
The border numbers dropped significantly.
Then the Ninth Circuit decided this can only hold them for 20 days.
And what I said would happen, happened.
The numbers went up.
They exploded.
unidentified
They had the significant profit in illegal immigrants coming crossing the border.
But what about those deportations tell people how successful has to be charged with?
tom homan
I looked at the numbers the other day.
Ever since President Trump's been in the overall office, we got over 300,000 repatriations, close to 320,000.
If you look at the short time he's been in office, that's historic in itself.
I mean, we tracked things by fiscal year.
And of course, Biden administration almost four months.
So those four months weren't hurt because they weren't doing SWAT, right?
So I think that at the time President Trump's been in office, he's kept his promise to American people.
We're removing people at record numbers.
We're taking public safety threats, national security threats off the streets at record numbers.
unidentified
What are the factors do you attribute to the sharp profit that need to be with what?
What other factors do you attribute to the sharp profit?
tom homan
We got the most secure border in the history of the nation today because of President Trump.
No one does it better.
I worked for six presidents.
No one can hold a candle to this president.
Trump 45, we had the most secure border in the history of this nation.
Biden came in and unsecured it on purpose.
The first president in the history of this nation to unsecure a border on purpose.
Now President Trump comes back, Trump 47.
We even beat Trump 45.
We have the most secure border in the history of the nation.
It has to do with the president's great decisions on executive orders, remaining in Mexico through a safe country agreements, ending catch release was huge.
And on top of that, on top of the great work of the men and women of the Border Patrol, what ICE is doing is having a deterrent effect too.
They're showing there's over a thousand teams on the streets every day looking for people in this country entering legally, especially public safety threats and national security threats.
We're showing the whole world we're going to force immigration laws in this country.
That has a strong deterrent effect.
People know you can't come to the border and expect to be released because you're not going to be released.
We haven't released anybody in months.
And if somehow you get by the Border Patrol and we find you, you're going home.
unidentified
I see President Trump deploying the National Guard here.
Do you think that step was incredibly necessary?
I mean, it's quite the escalation.
Crime is, of course, a concern for the National Guard.
tom homan
You live in D.C.?
unidentified
I didn't work here at the moment.
tom homan
Okay, would you walk around D.C. at night?
unidentified
I do, but I do think it could be safer.
I think there are.
tom homan
It could be safer.
unidentified
Look.
tom homan
Look, I think President Trump made the right decision, just like they made the right decision in Los Angeles.
I was in Los Angeles with the National Guard.
Control got, you know, undertaken very, very quickly.
D.C. is a dangerous place.
I don't go the streets at night without a gun.
And, you know, it's dangerous.
I mean, we see the crime in D.C. You got the Democrats saying the crime isn't that bad.
Come on, you walk through the streets of D.C.
It's not safe to walk the streets at night here.
And President Trump, this is the capital of the greatest country in the world.
We should have a capital that's safe for tourists, for citizens.
Anybody comes to the greatest nation on earth, our capital should be a showpiece.
And President Trump is going to make sure not only is it safe, it's a showpiece for the whole world.
And that's the right thing to do for the greatest nation on earth.
unidentified
Is it enough for that?
Or do you think it would be a good idea?
tom homan
President Trump doesn't have a limitation on his authority to make this country safe again.
There's no limitation on that.
unidentified
Thank you, Mr. Hellman.
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