Trump Border Czar Threatens Ice Surge If New York Approves Sanctuary Measures

ALBANY, New York — President Donald Trump’s border czar said on Tuesday that the administration will expand its enforcement operations in New York if the state approves a package of sanctuary-like measures.

“What’s going to happen with places like New York and [if] people pass ridiculous legislation not to work with us, we’re going to flood the zone,” Homan told a border security expo, according to video of the event. “You’re going to see more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen before. So, congratulations.”

The declaration is a last-minute complication for Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Democratic-led state Legislature, which is expected to pass bills aimed at protecting the state’s undocumented immigrant population and limit the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.

The bills include limits on how local New York police departments can coordinate with immigration authorities and would direct where civil deportation warrants can and can’t be executed. Hochul also reached an agreement with lawmakers that would ban law enforcement officers from concealing their faces — a measure the Department of Homeland Security has already called unconstitutional.

And Hochul wants to make it easier for New Yorkers to sue federal officials if they believe their constitutional rights have been violated.

An agreement on those measures — negotiated since the deadly unrest in Minnesota amid an aggressive deportation push by the Trump administration — is expected to be announced in the coming days. Once signed into law, the measures would be a significant blue state rebuttal to a signature Trump administration issue.

The governor was previously told by Trump during a White House meeting earlier this year that he would not undertake a Minnesota-style surge of federal immigration officers unless states like New York wanted it.

Hochul decried Homan’s remarks to reporters, which she said were at odds with the president’s declaration to her in March. She added that New York would continue to work with federal immigration authorities when dealing with violent criminals.

“All I’ll say to Mr. Homan is that Donald Trump himself said he would not send a surge of ICE agents to the state of New York unless I ask,” the governor told reporters during a news conference. “I’m not asking.”

Homan met with Hochul last month in Albany where the governor again reiterated her desire to prevent a large-scale ICE operation in New York. Hochul at the time said the bills under negotiation with the Legislature were not discussed in the meeting with Homan.