Hey, Tom, do you have a second to chat with us? Do you have a few minutes? We've got a podium ready for you.
A couple of questions. I've got other interviews lined up, folks.
Mr. Homan, Tom Dempsey with NewsNation. Can you give us an update on the crackdown in New York City of Tren de Aragua members?
That's a classic example of how collaboration between ICE and state and local law enforcement, um -- the success of the collaboration of 27 Tren de Aragua people were indicted. Uh, I believe six are still outstanding. We're looking for them. But we sent a strong message to Tren de Aragua, we're going -- we're going to keep doing this through every TDA member, MS-13 member is removed from the country.
The -- that was the first time we used RICO. Uh, the underlying offenses were sex trafficking, gun trafficking, drug trafficking, murder for hire. Uh, we seized a lot of weapons and we rescued some victims of sex trafficking. It was specifically important to me about New York is Mayor Adams, who's getting beat up by the left for cooperating with us, look what -- look what transpired?
Look at look at the lives we saved in New York City, right? At the same time you got the city council filing a lawsuit to shut down our memorandum of understanding, the executive order he signed to get us in Rikers Island. We proved yesterday what collaboration can do for the safety and security of New York.
But now the city council wants to lock us out of Rikers Island where TDA and MS-13 are housed so we can get custody of them before they hit the streets of New York. It's just ridiculous, and of course no city council members at the press conference yesterday. They don't want to hear the truth. This is about open borders, it's about sanctuary cities.
Sanctuary cities are for criminals. And I salute Mayor Adams for, you know, writing that executive order to get us into Rikers Island. I think we'll win that case. I hope the judge who's going to hear that case saw the press conference yesterday and see the results of collaboration. Cops should be working with the cops.
I never asked New York City NYPD to be an immigration officer. I asked him to help us be cops working with cops to remove public safety threats and national security threats and terrorists from the street to New York and from Rikers Island when they're done with their sentences. That's exactly what we proved yesterday.
[Crosstalk]
Mr. Homan -- Mr. Homan, are you tracking any case? What is your response to the judge, accusing the administration of bad faith and willful noncompliance?
Bad faith. We removed an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, wife beater, designated terrorist from the United States. He's home. He's a citizen of El Salvador, a native of El Salvador who had due process despite what you're hearing, been ordered and removed by two separate immigration judges. The best that could happen for him, if he actually gave back to the United States, he would be detained and removed again because he has an order of deportation.
And what people don't talk about the withholding order they keep saying was the mistake or oversight was issued years ago under different circumstances. The gang he was afraid would -- would, attack him no longer exists. The country of El Salvador is a much safer country because of the actions of President Bukele.
I don't think any court can order another nation, a sovereign nation, to take a citizen in their country, and their custody, and give them back to the US. Again, I'm not an attorney. I'll let DOJ argue this in court, but I think we removed a public safety threat, gang member, designated terrorists from the United States who have been ordered deported twice by a federal judge.
I think he got his -- I got plenty of due process. He got more due process than Laken Riley got.
The administration, or the Supreme Court rather, says the administration must facilitate his return.
OK.
Will the administration facilitate his return?
I'm not -- I'll leave that to the Department of Justice and the State Department. I think -- I stand by we did the right thing for the safety and security of this country. We removed a terrorists just like the two planeloads that, you know, all of a sudden everybody said we violated a court order. These are two planeloads of terrorists on international waters.
Again, I'm not -- I'm not litigating this case. I'm not an attorney. I'll let DOJ handle it. But again, I think we're keeping President Trump's promise to the American people who voted him into office on the number one issue, secure the border and remove public safety threats and national security threats.
That's what we keep doing. I find it -- I find it incredible that there's all this push for more and more and more due process, more process for these designated terrorists when in fact no one asked for due process when they crossed the border. No one asked for vetting when they crossed the border. Where was all the media?
Where were a lot of you all folks when 10.5 million people came to the border and you're silent? Where were a lot of these folks when you had 600 percent increase in sex trafficking of women and children? Where was everybody when we had a quarter million Americans dying from fentanyl that came in that open border?
Where -- where was all the anger then? Where was all the press then? But now they entered the country illegally, against legal process and now they demand legal process. It's just -- it's just ridiculous how this has come full circle. And I think President Trump's doing the right thing. This country is much safer today.
I looked at the numbers today, we're about 68,000 illegal aliens arrested in the interior United States. A hell of a lot more than the Biden Administration ever done, ever thought of doing. And a vast majority being criminal alien threats. This country is a lot safer. New York City is a lot safer today because of the operations we did up there, arresting public safety threats and national security threats.
Every time we arrest one of these people and remove them, the country gets that much safer. President Trump secured the border in a matter of seven weeks. He -- today as I'm talking to you, we had the most secure border in history of this nation. The data proves it. He did it in seven weeks what Biden Administration couldn't or wouldn't do in four years.
This president is keeping his promise to American people. I'm happy. I walk in here every day working for the greatest president of my lifetime because I spent over 40 years doing immigration enforcement and border security and we've never been where we're at right now. The most secure border in history of this nation right now, lives are being saved every day, migrant lives under Joe Biden, over 4,000 illegal aliens died making this journey in the United States.
How is that humane? That's a historic record and again a quarter million Americans died from fentanyl. How is that humane? They want to say our administration is inhumane, we're not giving due process. We're saving lives by the thousands every day. The wall -- everybody's screaming and yelling about the wall going up. Every place we build a border barrier, illegal immigration went down, illegal drug flow went down.
But you know what no one talks about? The wall saves lives. Women and children can't get over that wall. So, that means they're going to a place where there's not a wall. And what's waiting on them? The men and women at the border patrol who's going to deal with those health issues and the humanitarian crisis.
Walls save lives. The secure border saves lives. President Trump is saving thousands of lives every day by securing that border and we're going to continue despite what the district court says. Maybe we can -- maybe we got to hold off on some of the deportation operations we're doing, but it's not going to stop us from seeking these people out, arresting them and taking them off the street to the United States while we wait for the courts to decide, you know, about the Alien Enemies Act, there's other things.
We're going to keep doing what we're doing, we're going to arrest these public safety threats every single day, 24/7 across this country. That will not stop.
Mr. Homan --
[Crosstalk]
Sir, tell us how many people have you CBP home to self-deport?
I don't have that number right now.