New York’s top officials vowed Monday they won’t back down from a threatened federal immigration surge, even as President Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan promised the crackdown is already in the works.
Appearing on Fox & Friends Monday morning, Homan said he had already reviewed an operational plan to send more ICE agents into New York City than ever before, a direct response to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s recently signed legislation limiting local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
“You are going to see more ICE agents than you have ever seen in New York City. And it’s coming,” Homan said. “I just reviewed an operational plan. I’m not going to tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, but it’s coming.”
Homan framed the surge as a direct consequence of Hochul’s legislation, which bans law enforcement officers from wearing masks during public interactions, blocks local agencies from cooperating with civil immigration enforcement, and limits ICE access to schools, hospitals and houses of worship without a judicial warrant.
Homan said he had warned Hochul personally against signing the package, arguing that restricting jail cooperation would force agents out of secure facilities and into neighborhoods, but she signed it anyway.
“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. “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 says ‘I’m not asking’ Trump for immigration help in face of Homan comments
Hochul, speaking at a Second Avenue Subway groundbreaking in Manhattan later Monday, said she wasn’t intimidated, revealing that President Trump had personally assured her he would not send federal agents into New York without her blessing.
“President Trump told me to my face in a room full of governors… he says, ‘I will not go to New York unless Kathy asks,’” Hochul said. “I’m not asking. That will never happen.”
The governor pointed to Minneapolis as a cautionary tale for the administration, referencing the deaths of two civilians during protests there as evidence of what an aggressive federal push into an unwelcoming city could produce.
Hochul has repeatedly pushed back on the notion that her legislation shields criminals, saying, “New York is not a sanctuary for criminals.”
“We will cooperate when crimes are being committed,” she said at the signing of the legislation.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signs legislation at her Midtown Manhattan office Friday restricting civil immigration enforcement in New York, including a ban on masked law enforcement officers during public interactions and limits on ICE access to sensitive locations without a judicial warrant.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Mayor Zohran Mamdani went further at a separate press conference on Monday, calling ICE raids “cruel” and “inhumane” and saying they “do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety,” repeating his call for the agency to be dismantled entirely.
“I believe that ICE as an entity is one that should be abolished and that we should return to an immigration system that has more humanity at the heart of it,” Mamdani said.
An investigation by The City Reporter, based on a review of more than 1,200 lawsuits filed between October 2025 and March 2026, identified 430 ICE street arrests across the New York metro area, with more than 93% targeting Latinos — despite Latinos making up only 66% of the undocumented population in the region.
It is not the first time Homan has made such a threat. He and Trump have repeatedly vowed to drastically increase ICE’s presence in New York City, though the administration has yet to follow through on previous warnings the way it has in other Democratic-led cities and states.
The renewed threat comes after several weeks of protests outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, NJ, in support of detainees who advocates say are on a hunger strike over conditions, including claims of maggots in food. ICE has flatly denied that any hunger strike is taking place.
On Friday night, tensions boiled over as ICE agents deployed pepper balls against demonstrators attempting to block vehicles from leaving the facility, and a security driver struck a photographer with a vehicle. It was while discussing that chaos on Fox that Homan pivoted to his NYC surge threat.
:
Federal agents stand guard outside the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in Newark, NJ, where protesters have gathered for several weeks demanding the facility’s closure.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Homan also discussed a sweeping immigration and border security bill moving through Congress Monday, saying the funding would dramatically expand ICE’s capacity to operate through the remainder of the Trump administration — including paying agents who have already hit overtime caps and expanding the use of targeting technology to locate people with minimal digital footprints.
“We’re already making historic arrests under President Trump,” Homan said. “With additional funding, we keep our foot on the gas and keep moving forward.”