Border czar Tom Homan said Monday that the Department of Homeland Security is now arresting roughly 2,000 illegal migrants every day, defending the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts while pushing back against conservatives who argue the pace of deportations remains too slow.
Speaking with reporters outside the White House, Homan said the agency has maintained a consistent daily arrest rate of approximately 2,000, even as many of the questions from the press focused on Immigration and Customs Enforcement body cameras and agency oversight.
“We’re having about 2,000 pretty steady,” he said.
Homan also addressed his working relationship with DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, emphasizing that the two are united on immigration enforcement despite having different responsibilities within the administration.
“Me and Markwayne want to get along well. He cares about the mission. We serve different roles. ICE and CBP report to Markwayne. I help Stephen Miller. We develop strategies to send down to the programs for implementation. So, we’ve got different roles, but I think Markwayne is doing a good job.”
The White House appearance was also intended to answer criticism from some immigration hardliners who believe the administration should be moving even faster to remove illegal immigrants.
“There are people out there who want to attack this current administration” from the right, Homan said, adding:
“They don’t think we’re doing enough. There was an X post this morning [which said] ICE was arresting 3,000 aliens a day last year. No, not once, not a single time do we arrest 3,000 [in a day], and now they say we’re arresting 2,000.
“We’re having about 2,000 pretty steady. Like I said this weekend, I looked at the data. Arrests are up about 40 percent over the same time period we’ve been funded now. I’ve been upfront from the beginning. Numbers were down for a few months because the department was shut down … The numbers were down 12 to 16 percent, but now the numbers are trailing up 40 percent because we are fully funded …
“I’m really tired of the false narratives going out there about what this administration is doing. The numbers are up. Last month, June, highest numbers of arrests in the history of the agency … I wish people do a little bit of research before they start attacking this administration. What we’re doing right now, our numbers higher than [they‘ve] ever been, and I’m sick and tired of people saying we’re not doing enough.”
Homan said such criticism unfairly diminishes the work being done by immigration officers across the country.
“That’s an insult to every ICE agent that’s strapping up every day, working six and seven days a week to get this done. It’s an insult. These men and women are acting professionally. They’re out there making record numbers.”
The report noted that reporters present at the briefing did not question Homan about topics such as the economic impact of deportations, workplace immigration enforcement, self-deportation estimates, investigations into white-collar immigration fraud, or the business community’s continued demand for migrant labor.
Although 2,000 arrests per day represents a dramatic increase over previous administrations, that pace would total roughly 730,000 arrests annually—still well below the estimated 8 million migrants who entered the country during President Joe Biden’s administration.
Even so, several organizations advocating for mass deportations argue that additional transparency is needed regarding the administration’s enforcement numbers and have filed lawsuits seeking updated DHS data.
“The [official] numbers don’t add up,” said Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, which has sued the government for updated data. Howell, who helps to steer the Mass Deportation Coalition, told Breitbart News on July 8:
“I’m very worried that the amnesty push is sincere and a credible threat. Recent history with [President Barack] Obama shows us that inflated deportation statistics will be used to look tough on enforcement, so the amnesty lobby can gain leverage in a deal with the basic premise being like “We deported it enough — now’s the time to deal with the legalization.”
“I don’t want that to happen. I want it to be preempted, and to do that, I think we need to be honest about the deportation numbers, where they are … so you can have a legitimate policy conversation about how to handle deportation enforcement.”
Howell also said maintaining public confidence in the data is critical to sustaining support among immigration enforcement advocates.
“There’s enough people out in the base who have lost trust in the numbers, and I want to keep them enthusiastic and on the same page about what the numbers are, so we can figure out where to go,” he told Breitbart News.
He added that immigration enforcement is likely to remain a significant issue for Republican voters heading into upcoming elections.
“We know what the base voters want: They want mass deportation, and so let’s get the deportations rolling … We know it’s a winning issue. I mean, DHS agrees with us — they tweeted a post saying most Americans support it.”
On Monday, DHS released figures showing that 356,389 migrants have been deported since October 2025.
Howell also argued that inflated deportation statistics were used more than a decade ago to build political support for immigration amnesty proposals.
“During Obama, it was on record who supported the Gang of Eight and DACA … it’s the special interest lobbyists who you know rely on illegal labor, it’s the farm lobby, agriculture, it’s hospitality, it’s your restaurants, all the major industries that love cheap illegal labor, and their Chamber of Commerce allies
Look no further than the co-sponsors of the Dignity Act, look no further than the sponsors and co-sponsors of the Farm Work Modernization Act. It is not rocket science — that’s the blob of the Amnesty Lobby, which gets a huge assist rhetorically media allies, and we don’t want them to be able to take advantage of inflated numbers.”
According to The Washington Post, business organizations have recently been meeting with DHS officials in an effort to persuade the administration to scale back workplace immigration enforcement.
“Earlier this month, DHS officials met at the agency’s Washington headquarters with the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, which represents the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and major trade associations that depend on immigrant labor, according to several people with knowledge of the meeting, which has not been previously reported.”
Last week, Homan signaled that workplace immigration operations will become an even greater priority moving forward.
“We need to fire up worksite-enforcement operations, because I know, not only can you arrest illegal aliens that cause a decrease in wages for the American worker, not only does it hurt legitimate businesses because they undercut their bids and it puts Americans out of work, but also because… they’re in the country illegally.”
Howell said he believes public support for tougher enforcement will ultimately outweigh lobbying efforts by business interests.
“We want to just push the special interest lobby out of the way,” Howell said. “People in power know that there is an even more powerful constituency that supports mass deportations.”
{Matzav.com}
