Sir, can you confirm that [Inaudible] Naval Base [Inaudible] and ICE Operations Center of Chicago ahead of operations in the city?
There's discussions about that, yes.
How soon can we see that?
We'll see. It's under discussion. The planning is still being discussed. So, maybe by the end of the day, but yeah, it's being discussed.
And how many ICE agents are you anticipating on the ground there with National Guard troops, I assume, you will also use that naval base as a hub?
I know, but I'm not going to say. We're not going to tell you how many resources we're going to send to the city. We don't want the bad guy to know what we're sending. It'll be a large contingent.
Mr. Chairman, do you have a response to Mayor Bowser yesterday saying that ICE -- masked ICE agents are ineffective?
They're what?
She said yesterday during a press conference that masked ICE agents are ineffective.
Masked ICE agents are ineffective?
Yeah.
No, like -- they're extremely effective. I mean, look at the crime rate in DC. President Trump's going to make DC the model city of the world. I mean, this is a capital -- the greatest capital in the world -- it has to be an example for the whole world. The crime rate has already dropped significantly. That's not based on data, it must be based on her skewed opinion because I see the numbers every day.
They're doing a great job. DC is much safer today. If she had an ounce of integrity, she'd be thanking President Trump for making DC safer again.
Sir, there are reports from different parts of the country that criminals are now putting on masks, dressing in ersatz police gear, ballistic vests and whatnot, and robbing people. How should Americans be sure that, if they're approached by someone wearing a mask, wearing a vest, presenting and pointing a gun at them, that that's a police officer, an ICE agent, a federal agent and not a criminal?
Although criminals have been wearing masks for a long time. I mean, I saw groups like Antifa commit thousands of crimes over the past few years wearing masks. And no one complained about it. Look, every ICE officer has insignia on their -- whether they're HIS or ERO. I can't prevent someone from making pretend they're -- you know, in my career, I've seen people paint a car at the Border Patrol color.
Unfortunately, that happens. We'll hold them accountable when they're caught. But the bottom line is, I don't particularly like masks, but the ICE officers need the masks because their families are being doxed. And believe me, I know because I'm a victim of it, their families are being doxed, their children are being doxed, their families are being put in harm's way, but no one asks the question.
You've got all these legislators out there that want to pass laws that prevent ICE from wearing masks. Meanwhile, I don't see any legislation on Antifa unmasking or these people who do these violent counter-protests -- not just protests, protests that turn violent and attacks ICE officers, no one is asking for legislation to take their mask off.
So, ICE agents are doing what they've got to do to make this country safe again. So, they're doing a fabulous job. It's a dangerous and important job, but their families are being attacked. And I know for a fact because my family's been attacked. I support them wearing masks. And a lot of it's based on -- that question should be given to the lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Democrat lawmakers, who want to compare ICE to racists, to Nazis -- you know, it's just disgusting because ICE is enforcing laws they enacted.
If Congress doesn't like what ICE is doing, they can certainly change the law. And the protesters who want to turn violent against ICE, why don't they go to Capitol Hill and protest Capitol Hill? They wrote the law that ICE is enforcing. So, any member of Congress that calls ICE a racist or terrorist for enforcing the law they wrote is disgusting on every level.
They shouldn't be members of Congress.
Sir, can I ask about Alligator Alcatraz? Mr. Homan, the other day in the cabinet meeting, the president talked about trying to find the right balance between the president's tough immigration policies and also helping out American farmers who rely on undocumented migrants to pick their crops. What does that compromise look like from your perspective?
I'm not going to get ahead of the president on that. I'm discussing that with people. But until the president makes a final decision, I'm not going to get ahead of him. I'll support what the president comes up with. Again, this is a job of Congress, right? If there's a need for these workers to be in the country -- we have a lack of those workers and Congress has certainly improved the visa program, but I'm not going to get ahead of the president.
I'll wait until the president makes his final decision and we'll go from there.
Sir, how many people are still detained at Alligator Alcatraz? And do you still see a role for that?
It's about 50 percent full right now. First of all, I disagree with the judge who made that decision. I went down there. I walked through the detention areas where these people sleep and live. I saw a clean facility, a well-maintained facility. I went to the medical center and talked to the nurses there on staff, looked at the medical facility.
It was great. I even asked, if there's a serious situation here, can you handle it, and they can. And if it got too serious, there's a helicopter right there on premises to take them to the nearest trauma center. That's better than a lot of US citizens have. And I even went to the cafeteria, and I actually looked at what they're serving for lunch that day and opened it up and looked at it. And it was good food.
And the whole environmental concern, I was briefed by the person running the facility that all the waste is removed from that facility every day, taken off site and removed from the facility. And as far as the complex itself, it's built on existing infrastructure. The runways and the airport were already there.
These are just soft sided facilities. Now I'll say this, I thought it was a great transition facility, but I do think ICE needs more brick-and-mortar facilities, it's got the money now to build infrastructure like we're building the wall and other things down there. We need permanent facilities. But I think -- I'm thinking Governor DeSantis and other governors who are stepping up and saying we want to help you build detention facilities because they're affected by the last four years of open border and all the criminals that are released in this country.
So, I welcome the governors stepping up and helping us with these transitional facilities.
Mr. Homan, the president talks about sending the National Guard into other cities like Chicago. Is this a way to target sanctuary cities?
No, I think you're saying to -- National Guard would be in cities that have crime problems. But I'll tell you this, I was in LA when that whole thing started there, and I was there the first couple of nights. And I'm glad the president sent the National Guard to Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a safer city today because of what President Trump did.
The men and women of ICE were physically attacked. The facility was physically attacked that housed aliens that were arrested that put them in danger. After two days the governor of California and Mayor Bass had not taken action. President Trump did, he made the right decision. So, National Guard, they're not out there being the head of enforcing immigration law, they're assisting ICE and ICE operations to help with the infrastructure, intelligence, transportation.
ICE officers are making arrests, but as far as the National Guard going to cities and making it safe again, I see great success in Washington DC, and I agree with the president sending them to cities that have a high crime rate. If these mayors choose to not address the crime rate, President Trump is going to. He made a promise to the American people and that's why he's sitting in the Oval Office.
The American people put him in there because he promised to make America safe again. That's what he's doing.
Mr. Homan, why hasn't that happened in New York yet considering you called for ICE agents to be more present?
We have increased the ICE presence in New York.
What about National Guard? Do you think they should be sent in the next few weeks?
I won't get ahead of the president where we go next.
Mr. Homan, is there -- Can I ask a question about -- Hard data on crime reduction numbers due to deportations, self-deportations and removal of criminals from the United States?
Yeah, there's been several studies by several groups here in DC. The crime rate has dropped down in areas where we've done surge operations. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me. But look, not every illegal alien in this country is a public safety threat, but many are. So, that percentage that are, when we deport them, that makes the city safe again.
And despite what I read in the media that we're arresting all these non-criminals, I look at the number -- every morning on the way here, I look at the numbers every morning, there's about 22 pages of data. 70 percent of everybody ICE arrests is a criminal. But the left says, well, not criminal enough, it's just a DUI. DUIs kill over 10,000 people a year.
That's a public safety threat, I don't care what anybody thinks. 70 percent of the people ICE arrests are criminals, who's the other 30 percent? National security threats. We arrested thousands of national security threats. Many of them don't have a criminal history because their whole goal is to lay low until they do their dirty deed.
Gang members, a lot of gang members don't have a criminal history. And finally, final deportation orders, people who had due process at great taxpayer expense, they were ordered removed by a federal judge and they didn't leave and we're looking for them too, because we're sending a message to the whole world.
It's not OK to enter this country illegally, it's a crime. It's certainly not OK to ignore a judge's order after you were given due process. The message we're going to send -- we have consequences. And one of the reasons we have such a secure border right now is not only because of the great work the men and women of Border Patrol have done, and the president signed executive orders that remain in Mexico and in catch and release.
A part of the success of the most secure border in this nation's history is because we're showing the world there's consequences. If you enter this country illegally it's not OK. If you get ordered removed by a federal judge, you're going to leave, and we'll make sure of that. And I think the world seeing ICE operations throughout this nation, a thousand teams out there every day, we're sending a message and that's helped greatly reduce the amount of people trying to come to the border.
Mr. Homan, can I ask a Question about legal immigration, about -- [Inaudible] immigration enforcement operation in Chicago after Labor Day? Can you confirm those reports and why Chicago?
Look at the crime rate in Chicago. I mean, when this administration first came to power, Brandon Johnson, the mayor there, he said I wasn't welcome in Chicago. Where was I the first day? Chicago. And I was up there in operation. I remember that first day, if I remember the numbers right, the first day we took like nine predators off the street, sexual child predators off the street.
We arrested members of TDA, Tren de Aragua. We arrested members of MS-13. We arrested two people that were convicted of murder that were walking the streets, illegal aliens. So, in one day look what we did. Chicago still has a crime problem. So, President Trump again made a promise to the American people, we'll make this country safe again.
So, Chicago has a crime problem, that's why President Trump is thinking about it.
Mr. Homan, a question about --
[Crosstalk]
Operations ramping up after Labor Day?
Operations are ramping up across the country, but you can see a ramp up of operations in Chicago, absolutely. You're going to see a ramp up of operations in New York. You're going to see a ramp up of operations continue in LA. And Portland, Seattle -- I mean, all these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with ICE where we know public safety threats are being released every day into this country, especially those cities, we're going to address that.
We don't have that problem in Texas and Florida where all the sheriffs are working with us and they're actually holding people for us and letting us know when someone is being released. So, we're going to take the assets we have and move them to problem areas like sanctuary cities where we know for a fact they're releasing public safety threat illegal aliens to the streets every day.
That's where we need to send the majority of the resources and that's where they're going.
Mr. Homan, on legal immigration, the Trump administration is considering reducing the duration of visas for students and journalists. For journalists, for instance, the IDs will be -- now that last for a year would be 240 days. Can you confirm this? And why is this important? Why are they considering this important, to limit the duration of visas for journalists?
I can't confirm that. No.
Tom, on a personal or professional level, can you just offer your reaction to the Catholic school shooting yesterday?
It's heartbreaking. I mean as a -- I made no qualms about it. I'm a lifelong Catholic and I actually went to Catholic school, and it was terrible. What happened was terrible. And I hope you all hit your knees last night and said a prayer for those children and their families. I mean, it's a terrible, terrible thing and -- just terrible.
[Inaudible]
Gavin Newsom is an embarrassment to the position he holds, hard stop. If he had an ounce of integrity, he would be calling President Trump and thanking President Trump for making LA safer. He'd be calling the head of ICE and thanking them for the thousands of criminals, public safety threats they've taken off the streets of California.
He'd be calling Secretary Noem and thanking her if he had an ounce -- the data proves it. Anybody can look at the data of who we've arrested in California, he ought to be thanking us. So, Governor Newsom is an embarrassment to the position he holds. And he's trying to be relevant apparently -- whatever. But we're going to be in LA today.
We're going to be in LA tomorrow. We're going to be in every California city. We'll be in San Diego. I was in San Diego -- in Seattle and Portland last week meeting with the men and women of ICE to understand the hate being pushed against them, letting them know that the president has their six, I have their six.
They're going to keep doing the job without apology. So, Governor Newsom can stand by and watch President Trump make California safe.
[Inaudible] Alligator Alcatraz was [Inaudible]
No, no. I think the judge made a bad decision. I was there and it's a transitional facility. It's not a long-term facility; it's a transitional facility. And I thank the governors who are stepping up and saying, let us help you, because they've felt the wrath of the last four years of open borders. Four years, 10.5 million people came into this country, most of them released in the nation, right?
And again, I'll say it again, not every illegal alien is a public safety threat, but many are. But we have the most secure border in the history of the nation today because of President Trump and the men and women of the Border Patrol and the men and women of ICE, this country is safer, and with illegal immigration down 94 to 96 percent.
You all know this, there's been studies done that say 31 percent of women that make that journey get sexually assaulted by the cartels. Under Joe Biden we had a record number of aliens die making that journey, over 4,000. That's an historic number of people dying making that journey. An historic number of people, a quarter million, died from fentanyl poisoning because of that open border fentanyl flowing across.
Sex trafficking of women and children were at historic highs. Number of known suspected terrorists, over 400 just on the southern border, an historic high. So, when President Trump has illegal immigration down 94 to 96 percent, how many women aren't being raped making that journey? How many children aren't dying making that journey?
How many aliens aren't dying making that journey? How many Americans aren't dying right now from fentanyl overdoses because that border is secure? How many women and children aren't being sex trafficked in this country because of what President Trump did? President Trump's success on the border is unprecedented, he's saving lives by the thousands.
Even the wall, people want to attack the wall as his vanity wall. This is America's wall because every place they build a wall illegal immigration is decreased, illegal drug flows decrease. But one of the most important things no one talks about, the wall saves lives. Women and children can't get over that wall, which means they go to a place where there's not a wall. Thank you.
And what's waiting on them? The men and women of the Border Patrol is going to take care of those medical needs because a lot of them are in bad shape when they get there. President Trump's success on border is unprecedented. I wake up every day proud I'm working with this guy because he's the greatest president in my lifetime and he proves it every day.