Obama’s ICE Chief Admits Tom Homan Is Right About Sanctuary Cities [WATCH]

Former Obama administration official John Sandweg stated during a Tuesday appearance on “NewsNation Now” that Border Czar Tom Homan is right about the consequences of sanctuary city policies that prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from accessing local jails.

Sandweg, who served as acting ICE Director under President Barack Obama, acknowledged that such restrictions push ICE agents into neighborhoods to locate criminal targets, resulting in increased collateral arrests of illegal aliens who are not the primary focus of enforcement actions.

Sandweg’s comments came after host Connell McShane played a clip of Border Czar Tom Homan, who explained the operational challenges ICE faces when local jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

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“When they force us into the neighborhood to find that bad guy, many times, we find others, others that aren’t a criminal target, but are in the U.S. illegally, we’re not walking away from them,” Homan said.

“If you don’t want to let us in the jail, we’re going to have to go into the community and find them, which means more officers in the neighborhood, more officers on worksite enforcement, because we’re going to find that criminal alien. So, again, I’ll say it again, let us in the jail. More officers in the jail means less officers on the street.”

Responding to Homan’s remarks, Sandweg said, “I don’t disagree with Tom on this one. When you restrict ICE from getting into the jail, that does force the agency to go out on the street looking for these guys.”

Sandweg noted that the agency had shifted away from such targeted enforcement under recent administrative directives.

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He said that these street-level operations are the type of work ICE agents are trained to do effectively.

“I think the bigger issue, though, Connell, is, we pivoted away from those kind of operations. And that’s what ICE does very well. That’s what the men and women at ICE want to do. They want to get these bad guys,” Sandweg said.

He referenced a specific case involving an illegal alien who had been arrested four times and had a final deportation order.

According to Sandweg, this individual was already known to ICE, but was not actively being pursued due to changes in enforcement priorities.

“Look, this guy was arrested four times and had been ordered deported. He was on ICE’s radar screen, right? But we weren’t out there looking for him because…the administration has put ICE under so much pressure to round up larger numbers and pushing them out on these worksites and these farm fields. That’s just not where you find these guys,” he said.

Sandweg suggested that a return to more precise enforcement operations, such as targeting known criminal aliens, would improve public safety.

“Look, what I’m hearing Tom say, though, is we’re going to get back to some of those more targeted operations in New York City. I think that’s good because we’re all a little safer when ICE is focused on these bad guys first,” Sandweg concluded.

ICE operations in cities like New York have faced growing resistance from local officials, who have implemented sanctuary policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Homan and other immigration officials have consistently argued that access to local jails is critical to enforcing immigration laws efficiently and safely, without putting additional agents or bystanders at risk through community-level operations.