Tom Homan announces ICE deportation operations have started ‘as of today’

Fox News’ John Roberts asked Homan, "We were expecting, based on your initial schedule, that today roundups of criminal illegal aliens in the process of deporting them would begin, that seems to have been put on hold for a little while. When can we expect that to happen?"

Homan replied that it’s already started, adding, "ICE teams are out there as of today. We gave them the direction to prioritize public safety threats that we’re looking for. So we’ve been working up a target list."

He said that there was "discussion" about Chicago, which was going to be the first city hit, because the "operational plan was released, so we had to look at and reevaluate, does this raise officer safety concerns? And it does, but we’ve addressed that and teams are out there effective today."

Homan later added that "right out of the gate" the main targets are public safety threats, "those who are in the country illegally that’s been convicted, arrested for a serious crime."

"But let me be clear: it’s not only public safety threats that will be arrested. Because of sanctuary cities, we’re not allowed to get that public safety threat into jail, which means we gotta go to the neighborhood and find him, and when we find him, he may be with others. And unlike the last administration, we’re not gonna tell ICE officers not to arrest an illegal alien. So if they find others, they will be arrested. So sanctuary cities will get exactly what they don’t want: more agents in the neighborhood and more collateral arrests."