Border czar Tom Homan warned people who leak information about raids by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “might find themselves in handcuffs.”
During an appearance on Fox News’ “The Faulkner Focus” Homan confirmed a raid in Aurora on Wednesday was leaked to the community beforehand, “which greatly reduced the arrests of Tren de Aragua gang members and other dangerous criminals.”
“I’m working very close starting this morning with the Department of Justice in where do they cross the line of impediment? So they may find themselves in a pair handcuffs soon. So, working with DOJ on that, get some legal guidance on that, I’m not an attorney I know what … crossing that line is, but getting DOJ back up on that, so something we’re looking at, Harris,” Homan told Faulkner.
“We’re not going to tolerate it anymore. This is not a game. When we show up at these sites, this is a dangerous job for the men of women of ICE and Border Patrol and all the DOJ agencies.”
“To have this type of interference puts our officers at great risk,” Homan continued. “Not only these officers, but it puts the aliens at great risk, ’cause anything can happen when we take our eyes off the goal here, so we’re addressing that immediately today. I’m addressing OPSEC today, operational security and how the leaks are happening. We’ve identified how this operation got leaked and I’ll deal with that today.”
“This is not a joke. This is serious business, and they need to stop, or we’re going to prosecute them through [the] Department of Justice,” he continued.
Fox News reports:
The Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Denver posted to X that “100+ members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua were targeted for arrest and detention in Aurora, Colo., today by ICE and its partners @FBI @DEAHQ @CBP @ATFHQ & @USMarshalsHQ in an ongoing investigation.”
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Rocky Mountain Division not only confirmed to local KDVR that this was part of the operation that was expected to start in Aurora last week, but also posted a video just after 7 a.m. local time of agents conducting search warrant operations.
However, when hundreds of federal officials began the raid going door-to-door at various apartment complexes, they were met largely with many empty buildings.
Activists also lined the streets taunting them while they looked for perpetrators.
Officials arrested about 30 people in Wednesday’s operation as a result, according to Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, and only one of those arrested was a Tren de Aragua gang member.
This was a far cry from the more than 100 arrests they were hoping to make before the leak.
