During the first week of 2026, President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told Americans on Fox News’ “Hannity” show to sleep better knowing federal law enforcement is working around the clock to keep the nation safer from criminal illegal immigrants.
“Every American put their heads on the pillow tonight knowing that Border Patrol is on that border, stopping all threats coming across the most secure border in the history of this nation,” he told host Sean Hannity. “ICE agents and FBI agents are working 24/7, 365, every hour of every day, taking public safety threats and national security threats off our streets.”
And then Homan gave Americans a preview of what 2026 will hold for immigration policy:
“We won’t be threatened. We won’t be bullied. We’re coming hard and fast, no apologies. ... If you think we’re doing good now, you just wait to this coming year.”
He also said that sanctuary cities would be prioritized.
A few weeks later, Homan found himself in Minnesota, following the second fatal encounter between a civilian and federal law enforcement officers last month. As if his earlier comments were foretelling what was to come, Homan is now in a “sanctuary city,” with direct orders from Trump to contain an escalating standoff between federal authorities, state officials and protesters.
On Wednesday, Homan announced that hundreds of federal law enforcement agents would be removed from Minnesota — a surprising change of course made by the administration, given the rhetoric of many Cabinet members, and Trump, on remaining tough on immigration.
But Homan said during a press conference Wednesday that after being in Minnesota for a week, “significant progress has been made” between the federal government and local law enforcement to prioritize safety, and said he now has “an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets.”
“Given this increase in unprecedented collaboration and as a result of the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment, I have announced effective immediately we will draw down 700 people effective today,” He continued. “For those who are not a national security threat or public safety risk, you are not exempt from immigration enforcement actions. If you’re in the country illegally, you are not off the table.”
Despite Homan’s statements of collaboration, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz still labeled federal operations as a “campaign of retribution,” and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey added that he wants immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota to end completely.
How did we get to this point?
Any effort to predict the trajectory of Trump’s immigration enforcement for this year would be remiss without examining what already occurred under Trump 2.0 in 2025, and the first month of the new year.
During the four years between Trump’s first and second terms, the southern border had around 6.3 million encounters in and around the ports of entry, and according to the Migration Policy Institute, those four years were “one of the most turbulent migration periods within the Western Hemisphere and indeed globally in recent history.”
In December 2024, The New York Times wrote that the “immigration surge” during the Biden administration was “the largest in U.S. history,” according to their analysis of government data.
Trump’s tough-on-immigration promise during his campaign proved to be a major motivating factor for Americans when deciding where to place their vote.
In 2025, Trump signed 232 executive orders, according to Ballotpedia, and only nine addressed immigration. A small number compared with foreign policy, which saw 61, or trade and tariffs, which had 31.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, told the Deseret News he was not surprised by the pace at which the Trump administration pushed immigration policy.
“I think this was always obviously going to be their No. 1 priority. So they’ve pretty much followed the blueprint,” he said.
But to Bier, there is not a single good thing that has come out of the White House on immigration.
“What we’re seeing is chaotic and disorderly, and not beneficial to the United States in any conceivable way,” he said. From the Department of Homeland Security’s self-deportation marketing strategy to sending Customs and Border Patrol officers to inland states like Minnesota, “it’s a waste of our taxpayer dollars,” Bier said. “And it’s counterproductive for our economy and society.”
But not everyone deems the federal immigration enforcement effort a total waste. To many, one of Trump’s biggest wins was making the southern border the most secure it has been in modern history.
Daniel Di Martino, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told the Deseret News that the federal government “totally succeeded in securing the border,” and that he favored them “ramping up operations to deport people who have final orders of removal.”
However, following the loss of two lives and consistent unrest in Minnesota in the last month, which ignited protests across the nation, Trump’s approval ratings have dropped, sweeping any accomplishment — at least temporarily — under the rug.
One month into 2026, and it appears there is an unusual point of agreement among both supporters and critics of the Trump administration: Concern that the White House’s priorities have shifted from removing the worst offenders from the streets to pursuing a numbers-driven approach.
Where Di Martino doesn’t see eye to eye with the administration is in the tactics it’s used to “hit a numerical goal.”
“For example, detaining people at their green card interviews who have a marriage petition that will ultimately be approved, yet because they overstayed a visa, they are detaining them,” he said, is disingenuous “because the person is actually not going to be deported. They’re just going to be detained for a few months until their green card is approved. ... So you are separating a family of an American citizen, that’s going to cost a lot of taxpayer dollars to detain them ... and you’re ultimately going to release them and not deport them. So they’re just doing it to hit a number,” he said. ”So I’m opposed to that."
A recent RealClearPolitics polling average showed 51.6% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration policy, compared to 45% approval.
Is Minnesota the turning point?
During a press conference last week following Homan’s arrival in the Twin Cities, he made it clear that “if you’re in the country illegally, you’re never off the table.”
Though he seemed to imply in other parts of his speech that operations would focus less on numbers and prioritize the public safety threats and national security threats, “prioritization of criminal illegal aliens doesn’t mean that we forget about everybody else.”
“If that’s the message we send to the world, you’re never gonna fix this problem,” Homan said. “The most vulnerable people in the world will make that dangerous journey, like they did under the Joe Biden administration.”
Speculation of why Homan was sent to handle the operation instead of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, where he ultimately replaced Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino as operation head, was to do political damage control.
Jenny Taer, a Daily Wire journalist who has been reporting from Minnesota and participating in ride-alongs with federal law enforcement, said agents have expressed approval of recent changes, including the dismissal of Bovino and Border Patrol agents.
“Border Patrol really came in to boost the numbers, to get more people off the streets who are here illegally, not necessarily going after people with the worst criminal histories,” Taer said on a podcast discussing what she’s seeing in her reporting. Homan “is in the camp of wanting more of those quality arrests. He wants us to get those really hardened criminals off the streets,” and “potentially changing the target list” — something she alleged was a Noem tactic.
Di Martino echoed that view, saying both Trump and Homan tend to take a more practical, less ideological approach than other cabinet officials.
Homan, he said, is “the most pragmatic person with regards to deportation. He wants to deport as many people as possible, but starting with the worst ones, and he wants to do it in an orderly and legal way. And I think that there are other people who are not as interested in the order/legality part. They’re just interested in numbers, in doing it as quickly as possible,” he said, “That can lead to backlash. And I think Trump doesn’t want the backlash. I think he wants pragmatic wins. And I think he’s much more pragmatic on immigration than a lot of the people around him.”
Looking back at what’s already been done, Bier predicts in 2026 things are likely to get worse.
“These negative interactions between the public and ICE,” he said “weren’t happening before the Trump administration, and it’s a direct consequence of their change in tactics. This is only going to get more chaotic, more disorderly (with) more incidents. It’s not going to slow down from here.”