Homan Just Told Hochul Exactly What ICE Is Going to Do With Her Illegal Aliens
Kathy Hochul just handed Tom Homan the only permission he needed.
She announced she will never ask Trump to send ICE to New York.
Homan chuckled – and told her he isn't asking either.
Hochul Handed Homan the Perfect Setup
Hochul thought she had found a clever out.
Trump had said he wouldn't surge ICE agents into New York unless the governor personally requested them.
Hochul went on the record: she would never make that request.
She called it defiance.
Homan called it an invitation.
On Fox News Tuesday night, Homan made clear Hochul had misunderstood the situation entirely.
"Well, Governor Hochul? I'm not asking either," Homan said, grinning. "I said it, we're going to do it."
She thought she had a veto over federal law enforcement operating in her state.
She doesn't.
What Hochul's Sanctuary Politics Actually Cost New York
Here is where it gets interesting – and expensive.
Hochul's sanctuary push has done one concrete thing: stripped ICE of access to county jails across New York State.
Her proposed Local Cops, Local Crimes Act would ban local governments from renting jail space to federal immigration authorities through 2029.
Homan explained exactly what that decision buys.
Without jail access, ICE can't process arrests efficiently inside New York.
So they won't.
"We arrest that illegal alien, we're going to fly them to Texas or Arizona to one of the detention facilities there – away from their families, away from their attorneys," Homan said.
Hochul thought cutting off jail beds would slow ICE down.
Instead, she handed them a mandate to expand neighborhood operations – agents fanning out across residential blocks, making street arrests in front of families – while the flights south run on New York's own federal tax contributions.
That is what her sanctuary politics actually bought.
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Homan Has Done This Before
If Hochul thinks Homan is bluffing, she should call Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey.
Healey made the same calculation in early 2025 – defiant rhetoric, sanctuary posture, refusal to honor federal detainers.
Homan promised at CPAC he was going to Boston.
He went.
ICE ran a five-day joint operation with the FBI, DEA, ATF, and U.S. Marshals that netted 370 arrests – including four foreign fugitives wanted for murder and multiple child sexual predators that Massachusetts had shielded from ICE rather than transfer them into federal custody.
New York is next, with or without an invitation from Hochul.
The Governor Who Turned Her Streets Into the Enforcement Zone
Hochul keeps insisting her policies protect New York's immigrant communities.
Picture what she actually created.
One ICE agent walks into a county jail, hands over a detainer, and walks out with a criminal alien in custody – clean, contained, out of the neighborhood entirely.
That option is gone.
In its place: a federal team drives into a residential block in the Bronx or Queens, approaches a building, and executes a street arrest while neighbors watch.
Homan explained the mechanism plainly – when jails are off-limits, ICE sends whole teams into neighborhoods to find the same person they could have processed in a controlled facility.
More agents. More operations.
Albany Democrats are currently finalizing a statewide sanctuary package that goes even further – banning local law enforcement from communicating with ICE at all, expanding so-called sensitive locations to include parks, and forbidding federal agents from wearing masks during operations.
Every provision that makes Homan's job harder in a controlled setting pushes enforcement further into the open.
Hochul built a wall around her jails and handed Homan a mandate to go around it.
He is loading planes.
Sources:
- Tom Homan, Fox News / The Ingraham Angle, May 6, 2026.
- Brian Lonergan, "Hochul's Folly: Sanctuary Politics Over Public Safety," Chronicles Magazine, May 4, 2026.
- Andrew C. McCarthy, "Trump's Incoming Border Czar Issues a Warning Sanctuary Cities Ignore at Their Own Peril," Fox News, November 20, 2024.
- "Border Czar Tom Homan Reveals ICE Arrested 370 Illegal Aliens In Boston This Past Week," One America News Network, March 24, 2025.
- "NYC PBA – Tom Homan Warns Sanctuary City New York to Cooperate With Feds," NYC Police Benevolent Association, November 2024.
