Tom Homan Just Promised the Largest ICE Surge in History After Hochul’s Sanctuary City Betrayal of New Yorkers
Kathy Hochul sat across from Tom Homan and heard exactly what would happen if she signed the bill.
She signed it anyway.
Now Homan just told Fox & Friends he's reviewed the operational plan – and New York City is about to see something it has never seen before.
New York Sanctuary State Law Banned ICE From Jails and Took Off Their Masks
Hochul signed the New York sanctuary state law last month as part of New York's FY27 budget.
The law bans local jails from holding anyone on behalf of ICE.
It kills all 287(g) agreements – the formal cooperation deals between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents.
It prohibits local cops from making informal calls to ICE when they have a criminal illegal alien in custody.
It bars ICE agents from operating in schools, hospitals, churches, and polling places without a judicial warrant.
And in the most brazen provision of any state law in recent memory, it bans ICE agents from wearing masks during public interactions.
The Department of Homeland Security's response was immediate.
"The message from Gov. Kathy Hochul and her fellow sanctuary politicians is clear: criminal illegal aliens are WELCOME in New York," a DHS spokesperson said.
Hochul framed it differently – calling it "Local Cops, Local Crimes" and insisting there would be "no sanctuary for criminals" in New York.
Homan had a different name for what she did.
He called it a promise kept.
Homan Told Hochul in March That an ICE Deportation Surge Was Coming
This is the part that makes Hochul's move so staggering.
Homan met with her personally – months before the bill was signed.
He laid out the exact logic.
When ICE can work with local sheriffs and arrest a criminal in a jail, one agent handles one arrest.
When that option disappears, ICE has to send a full team into the community – to the criminal's neighborhood, where he has weapons, knows the terrain, and can put everyone around him at risk.
"I said, but if you sign the legislation that I think you are getting about ready to sign, that means I am going to send more agents to New York," Homan said Monday on Fox & Friends.
She signed it.
He's keeping his word.
"You are going to see more ICE agents than you have ever seen in New York City," 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."
Hochul Built Every Neighborhood Operation That Follows
Here's what New Yorkers need to understand about what their governor just handed them.
When ICE used county jails to make targeted arrests in New York, operations were quiet, controlled, and surgical.
That option is now gone.
The same enforcement still has to happen – because federal immigration law doesn't stop at the Hudson River.
The difference is it now happens in neighborhoods, at doors, in hallways, in stairwells.
Homan was direct about what that means: agents now have to find someone "on his turf," someone who "didn't want to be found," someone with access to weapons.
Hochul made every single arrest more dangerous – for her constituents, for officers, and for the people being arrested.
She did this knowing exactly what the tradeoff was.
She got her press conference. New Yorkers got the bill.
The playbook is identical to what Tim Walz ran in Minnesota – obstruct federal enforcement until the federal response dwarfs anything cooperation would have required.
Operation Metro Surge sent thousands of ICE agents into Minneapolis for two months and ended only after Homan declared the mission complete.
Walz thought he was protecting his constituents.
Hochul watched that happen and signed anyway.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani predictably announced the city "will not allow ICE or anyone else to sow fear in our communities."
He's going to need a longer statement.
Sanctuary politics has one job: make enforcement visible and chaotic so Democrats can run against it.
The problem is the chaos belongs to them.
Homan gave Hochul a clean choice – work with ICE and keep operations quiet, or pass the bill and guarantee a surge louder and more visible than anything cooperation would have produced.
She chose the surge.
Every neighborhood operation that follows, every door that gets knocked on, every camera capturing federal agents working her city – Hochul built that.
Tom Homan has reviewed the operational plan.
He's not bluffing.
Sources:
- Thomas Stevenson, "Homan to surge 'more ICE agents than you've ever seen' to NYC after Hochul signs bill to protect illegal aliens," The Post Millennial, June 8, 2026.
- "Trump border chief vows New York ICE surge, says 'it's coming'," Detroit News, June 8, 2026.
- "Governor Hochul Signs Comprehensive Immigration Plan to Protect New Yorkers Against ICE," Governor.ny.gov, May 2026.
- Jessica M. Vaughan, "Sanctuaries Are a Public Safety Disaster," Center for Immigration Studies, February 19, 2026.
- "Tom Homan announces Minnesota immigration surge is ending," Fox News, February 12, 2026.
