White House border czar Tom Homan has sharply refuted accusations of racial profiling leveled against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon. Homan described Nixon's claims as "ridiculous," asserting that ICE agents do not target individuals based on their skin color.
"We don't arrest people based on the color of their skin. I'm actually an equal opportunity deporter. I deported people to 180 countries last year," Homan stated during an appearance on "Saturday in America." He emphasized that the agency enforces immigration laws regardless of an individual's origin or race.
Nixon, who secured the Democratic primary in Florida, has listed ending detention centers and abolishing ICE among her campaign priorities. Her platform describes mass incarceration and deportation as "moral failures" and argues that ICE "cannot be trusted with the power it has," calling for its "terror tactics" to be dismantled. In a recent podcast, she further criticized ICE, stating that Republicans are "literally trying to kill us" and that ICE operates as a "weaponized paramilitary force that is designed to terrorize us" within the Black community.
Homan countered these assertions, maintaining that ICE agents adhere to the law. "We don't racially profile. Everybody we talk to, we have reasonable suspicion of aliens to talk to them and to arrest them we need probable cause. That's what the law says. And that's what we do," he explained.
The Department of Homeland Security also issued a statement rejecting Nixon's allegations, calling them "disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE." DHS affirmed that enforcement actions are based on immigration status, not race or ethnicity.
Homan further linked community safety incidents to the policies of "sanctuary cities." He argued that these policies, which prevent law enforcement from taking custody of illegal immigrants while they are incarcerated, increase the risks associated with immigration enforcement. "What sanctuary cities do is not only... give sanctuaries to criminals, it makes the community less safe because they're releasing public safety threats back into the public," Homan said, adding that it also puts officers and the individuals being arrested at greater risk during street arrests.