Trump border czar Homan says ICE made no mistakes in Minnesota, blames victims

Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s border czar, denied Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had made mistakes in deadly shootings in Minnesota, instead blaming the victims for causing their own deaths.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Homan made the remark while complaining that Democratic lawmakers had wrongfully withheld Department of Homeland Security funding over what they claimed were “mistakes” made during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.

“They kept going to Minnesota, all the mistakes they say happened in Minnesota. I don’t think there’s a lot of—the mistakes they claimed in Minnesota, a lot of them were I don’t think mistakes,” Homan stammered.

Homan appeared to blame Democrats for the lack of body cameras in a recent shooting in Maine. He suggested that federal immigration agents had not erred when they shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens who were protesting against ICE operations in Minneapolis. When a reporter repeatedly pressed Homan on his claim, the immigration chief struggled to dodge the question.

“No, I went to Minnesota and I said day one it was not a perfect operation. There were several chains of command, I had a problem with the targeting,” Homan said.

Backed into a corner, Homan laid out why he believed the victims deserved to die.

“It comes down to one simple fact—these people failed to comply with law enforcement. Even some of the major chiefs in this country, who don’t necessarily agree with this administration, say you gotta always comply with law enforcement,” Homan said.

“All they had to do was simply comply with law enforcement. If you don’t like what law enforcement did to you, then go to the courts. Sue. Call ACLU. Do whatever you want to do. You should always comply with law enforcement. If they did, they’d be alive today,” he added.

Homan overlooks that in the United States, failing to comply with law enforcement is not punishable by death. Federal immigration officers are similarly able to go to the courts and let the criminal justice system determine fines and jail time for those who resist arrest or evade law enforcement. Instead, spurred by the Trump administration’s policies, they are killing people.

Since Trump returned to office and launched a widely unpopular mass deportation scheme, federal immigration officers have shot and killed 11 people.

Recent ICE Shootings

• Last week: An ICE agent shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old Colombian man legally in the United States, while he drove with his three-year-old daughter in Maine.
• The week before: An ICE agent shot and killed longtime Houston resident and father of three Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while he was driving. Federal agents claimed he tried to ram the officers—a claim that eyewitnesses denied and that has crumbled under scrutiny.

Read more: FBI to Stop Investigating ICE After Three Fatal Encounters

Trump Threatens Iran on Truth Social

President Trump took to Truth Social to make threats of death and destruction against Iran, just minutes after touting a nonexistent peace deal with the country.

“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” the president wrote Monday afternoon. “This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.”

The outburst—which ignores that the U.S. started the war, killed Iranian leaders and civilians, and attacked critical infrastructure—came after two American soldiers were killed.