(NewsNation) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation began in New York City Monday more than a month after White House border czar Tom Homan said a surge of officers was coming, sources told NewsNation.

Multiple sources said a new operation began in Queens and is expected to surge into other areas of the metropolitan area beginning Tuesday. Homan said last week an increased number of ICE officers will be deployed to New York City following an alleged attack on a federal building.

Homan said the move was planned before Monday’s attack but argues it underscores growing threats against immigration officers.

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“There’s just another example of someone attacking ICE because of the constant mis-messaging and vilification of the men and women of ICE,” Homan told reporters last week.

Sources told NewsNation that ICE won’t yet move officers in from other locations at this point, but federal officers already assigned to the New York field office are involved in the operation. Sources said ICE is specifically targeting individuals who have detainers lodged by ICE with local jails and prisons that were not honored and were subsequently released back to the streets.

ICE officers are restricted from arresting anyone going to or leaving court because of the New York State Protect Our Courts Act. Sources say they will end up with collateral arrests, meaning people who aren’t a target will be arrested.

Homan has said repeatedly anyone who is in the county illegally “isn’t off the table” for enforcement operation even though they may not be specifically targeted by the Department of Homeland Security.

Homan has suggested ICE would increase its presence in New York City for more than a month but has declined to put a timeline on when such an operation could begin. He previously went after New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul if the state passed legislation barring state and local law enforcement from working with immigration in New York jails.

Homan previously told Fox News that he had reviewed an operational plan that involved “more ICE agents than you have ever seen in New York City.”

“It’s coming,” Homan said.

Hochul signed a bill into law at the end of May. A spokesperson for the governor’s office did not immediately respond to NewsNation’s request for comment, nor did a spokesperson from City Hall in New York.

A DHS spokesperson declined to confirm whether ICE had begun an operation Monday, citing operational security reasons.

“ICE agents uphold our nation’s immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” the spokesperson said.

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