New York’s Democrat leaders thought they could build a wall against the federal government, brick by legislative brick.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed the paperwork. Mayor Zohran Mamdani cheered from the sidelines.
And now Tom Homan just told them both exactly what comes next.
Homan Puts New York on Notice
Appearing on Fox & Friends, White House border czar Tom Homan didn’t mince words about what New York City is about to experience. “You are going to see more ICE agents than you have ever seen in New York City,” Homan said. “And it’s coming.”
He wasn’t bluffing. Homan told the audience he had already reviewed an operational plan. “I just reviewed an operational plan,” he said. “I’m not going to tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, but it’s coming.”
Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade set the stage for Homan’s response, noting that New York’s political class had gone all-in on obstruction. “So New York is saying abolish ICE and zero cooperation,” Kilmeade said. “The governor and mayor are teaming up to make sure that the progress you were making with Eric Adams is going to just disappear. So what’s going to be your approach to New York. You’re going to stay away now?”
Homan’s answer was short and direct: “No.”
Hochul Handed Homan the Justification
The surge isn’t coming out of nowhere. Last month, Governor Hochul signed a legislative package that bars state and local law enforcement from entering into 287(g) agreements with the federal government — the formal cooperation arrangements that allowed ICE to pick up criminal illegal aliens directly from county jails before they were released back onto the streets.
Homan said he personally warned Hochul not to sign it. He told her face to face what the consequences would be. She signed it anyway.
“I’m keeping my promise,” Homan said. “We are going to send more ICE agents to New York because you took away the efficiencies of safe arrests in county jails.”
His point is straightforward enough that it’s hard to argue with. When ICE can coordinate with sheriffs and take custody of a dangerous illegal alien inside a jail, one agent handles one arrest in a controlled setting. When that option gets stripped away, the entire operation changes. “Rather than one guy arresting one bad guy in a jail, now we’ve got to send a whole team into a neighborhood to find this person,” Homan said.
He put it plainly on Fox: “It’s safer for the community, it’s safer for the officers, it’s safer for the aliens to have these cooperations with the jails. She signed the legislation anyways.”
Hochul’s law also bans local law enforcement from wearing masks during public interactions and limits ICE access to schools, hospitals, and houses of worship without a judicial warrant. New Jersey, Virginia, and California have passed similar measures. The effect is the same everywhere — federal agents get pushed out of secure facilities and into neighborhoods, which is exactly what Homan says Hochul claims she doesn’t want.
Mamdani Goes Full Abolish ICE
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani didn’t just back Hochul’s law. He went further.
At a separate press conference, Mamdani called ICE raids “cruel” and “inhumane” and said they “do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety.” Then he called for the agency to be dismantled entirely. “I believe that ICE as an entity is one that should be abolished,” Mamdani said, “and that we should return to an immigration system that has more humanity at the heart of it.”
That’s the mayor of the largest city in the United States. Calling for the abolition of the federal agency responsible for removing illegal aliens, including those convicted of violent crimes.
And he said it with a straight face while the World Cup is coming to town — a tournament his city is banking on for an economic windfall that requires federal security cooperation on a massive scale. The same federal government he wants to shut out of immigration enforcement will be expected to help keep the city safe during one of the largest sporting events on earth. That’s quite a position to hold simultaneously.
Hochul’s Bluff Gets Called
Hochul tried to thread a needle after Homan’s Fox appearance, claiming President Trump had personally promised her he wouldn’t send agents to New York without her blessing. “President Trump told me to my face in a room full of governors,” she said, “he says, ‘I will not go to New York unless Kathy asks.'”
But Homan’s message was the same one he delivered before she signed the legislation — cooperate and keep arrests quiet, or face a bigger, louder operation in the open. She chose the second option. Now she’s complaining about the consequences.
Hochul posted on social media that New York “will never be a sanctuary for dangerous criminals” and that the state will “continue working with federal authorities to target violent offenders.” But she locked ICE out of the jails. You can’t square those two things, and Homan said exactly that. “She’s lying to the people in New York state,” he said.
That’s a direct accusation from the President’s border czar, and it landed because the logic behind it isn’t complicated. Hochul says she supports removing criminal illegal aliens. She also signed a law making it significantly harder to do that. One of those things isn’t true.
The Bigger Picture Hochul Doesn’t Want to Discuss
New York Democrats built this situation themselves, and they know it. The 287(g) program was working. Former Mayor Eric Adams had been cooperating with ICE in ways that the current political leadership in New York City refuses to. Kilmeade noted on air that the governor and mayor are now “teaming up to make sure that the progress you were making with Eric Adams is going to just disappear.”
And it has. Disappeared. By design.
The people who suffer the consequences of that decision aren’t the politicians holding press conferences. They’re the New Yorkers living in neighborhoods where criminal illegal aliens who should have been handed over to ICE from a jail cell are instead back on the street because the governor decided cooperation with federal law enforcement was politically inconvenient.
Homan didn’t back down when *Fox & Friends* pressed him on whether the administration would retreat. He made clear the operational plan is real, the timeline is set, and the only reason it’s necessary is because Hochul forced his hand. “We are going to send more ICE agents to New York because you took away the efficiencies of safe arrests in county jails,” he said again.
But here’s the thing about New York’s strategy that nobody in Albany wants to say out loud: blocking ICE from jails doesn’t protect anyone from deportation. It just makes the arrests more disruptive, more visible, and harder to control. Hochul traded a quiet, efficient process for a louder, messier one — and then positioned herself to blame the federal government for the mess she created.
Tom Homan warned her. She signed the bill anyway. Now New York City is about to find out what the largest ICE deployment in its history looks like, and the governor who made it happen will be standing in front of cameras acting shocked.
Sources: Breitbart, Fox News, The Hill, amNewYork