Tom Homan Accuses Kathy Hochul of 'Lying' on ICE After She Ended 287(g) Deals

White House border czar Tom Homan accused New York Governor Kathy Hochul of misleading voters about immigration enforcement, saying she backs the arrest of criminals in public while her new state law cuts Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) out of county jails.

Homan made the charge in a podcast interview. The attack lands just over two weeks before Election Day, as Hochul seeks a second full term against Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and as ICE continues a surge of officers into New York.

She ended the 287(g) agreement. She won't honor detainers. So she's lying to the taxpayers of New York and doing a complete opposite of what she says."

Tom Homan Says He Warned Kathy Hochul Before She Signed

Homan said he met Hochul in person before she signed the legislation. "I told her if she signed that legislation, it would cause a huge public safety crisis in her state," he said. "She didn't care."

He argued that jailhouse transfers are safer than street arrests, and that the law has pushed ICE to hold people elsewhere. "Majority of those people we arrested, we flew directly out of state," Homan said, adding that the state "will not let us rent any more beds from local sheriffs. Sheriffs are losing millions of dollars."

Homan also said ICE arrested more than 2,000 people in New York last month; he did not say how many had criminal records. In July, the Washington Examiner reported that a senior White House official put the number of immigrants with criminal histories arrested by federal officers in New York City since Trump took office at nearly 6,500. Homan had vowed a surge of officers in New York City in June.

What New York's 287(g) Ban Actually Does

Hochul signed the measures in May as part of the state budget. According to the governor's office, the law bars local governments, police and corrections agencies from entering 287(g) agreements, which deputize local officers to carry out federal civil immigration enforcement. It also bars localities from paying for or running immigration detention, prohibits questioning people solely for civil immigration purposes unless federal law or a judicial warrant requires it, and requires a judicial warrant for immigration agents to enter nonpublic areas of state facilities.

Agencies that already held 287(g) agreements had until August 25 to end them. The state's new Office of Immigrant Trust had written to 12 agencies with agreements, telling them to unwind them. Hochul has said that before 2025 only Rensselaer County had one, Spectrum News reported. The state has since sued the Rensselaer County sheriff for refusing to comply.

Hochul says the law covers only civil enforcement. "We will work with you to deal with crimes — always have, always will," she said in June, responding to Homan. She said New York had transferred more than 1,600 people convicted of crimes to ICE. Recalling Trump telling her he would not go to New York unless she asked, she said: "I'm not asking."

The Sheriffs' Lawsuit

Homan's figure on the sheriffs matches news reports of the suit. "15 sheriffs in New York State, 15 of them have filed a lawsuit against Governor Hochul," he said. Fifteen sheriffs, including Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault, filed in federal court in Albany in August. They argue the state is unlawfully voiding contracts that federal law authorizes, and in September they asked for an injunction to block the ban while the case proceeds.

They face a difficult precedent. In August, a federal judge refused the Trump administration's request to block the 287(g) ban, though the judge blocked the state's ban on masked federal agents. Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James called the sheriffs' suit "a frivolous waste of taxpayer dollars," adding that "the courts have already declined to block this law once."

Immigration and the New York Governor's Race

Blakeman has made the law a central issue in his campaign. He said it was "written in the blood of the victims," Fox News reported.

The issue has not cost Hochul her lead. A Siena poll conducted September 11–17 found her ahead 50 percent to 41 percent among likely voters. Respondents also gave her a lead of between four and nine points on handling undocumented immigrants, keeping New Yorkers safe and affordability. PolitiKool's polling average puts Hochul at 52 percent and Blakeman at 39.2 percent, a margin of 12.8 points.

Homan's forecast for ICE was national. He said the agency is hiring about 5,000 more officers across the country for its investigations and enforcement and removal divisions, and predicted that nationwide deportation figures would keep climbing: "You're going to see the numbers explode even higher."