President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, strolled through a gauntlet of furious protesters at the New York State Capitol today, casually munching an apple as chants and shouts over deportations echoed around him.
Homan, unfazed and smirking, faced off against activists decrying his immigration crackdown during a visit to push Republican-backed reforms and slam the state’s sanctuary policies.
The scene, captured on video by City and State New York’s Austin Jefferson, showed Homan brushing past a police-barricaded crowd chanting, “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!”
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His trip to Albany aimed to rally support for a state version of the Laken Riley Act—signed into law by Trump on January 29—which would mandate ICE notifications for non-citizen misdemeanor arrests, and to criticize New York’s sanctuary law, which he claims hampers federal enforcement.
The New York Post reported Homan’s dual mission as a direct challenge to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration.
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Protesters didn’t hold back, with some zeroing in on the recent arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and former Columbia University student detained by ICE over his role in pro-Hamas campus protests.
“Don’t you believe in the First Amendment?” one yelled, referencing Khalil’s case, which saw a federal judge in New York, Jesse Furman, block his deportation Tuesday.
The Trump administration has pegged Khalil as a national security risk, tying his activism to broader unrest following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel—an event that sparked anti-Israel protests at Columbia and other U.S. colleges, often marked by building takeovers and harassment of Jewish students.
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Homan, a hardline enforcer of Trump’s immigration agenda, has spearheaded deportations targeting violent criminals and warned universities of consequences for failing to curb antisemitic harassment.
The State Department has also flagged visa holders supporting terrorist groups as deportation risks—a stance Homan embodies with ICE’s recent moves, including Khalil’s arrest.
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