Tom Homan admits mistakes Minnesota ICE raids

Good morning, everyone. I'm Errol Barnett at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City. We're interrupting CBS Morningsto take you to this live out of Minneapolis. White House Border Czar Tom Homan holding a press conference, the first since he took over the position of managing ICE operations there. Let's listen. Marcos Charles, he's running ICE operations here. There you go. Rodney Scott, Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, standing here beside me. Good morning. I'm Tom Homan, border czar for President Trump. I'm here on behalf of the president, along with the commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, Rodney Scott, and Marcos Charles, who's leading the enforcement effort here right now. I've been on the ground since Monday to regain law and order in this city beloved by many and work together to remove threats from the community. During the past administration, we'll all remember more than 10 million illegal aliens entered this nation. Many were national security threats, public safety threats. And we can't remember where 2 million-- 2 million known gotaways. 2 million people who paid more to get away. Why? That should scare the hell out of everybody. President Trump promised the American people, including the residents of Minnesota, that he would work to ensure our communities are safe. And with that, this administration has absolutely focused on identifying removable aliens that pose a public safety threat and national security threats. And the numbers prove it. The data proves it. In the past few days, I've met with Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, Mayor Frey, numerous police chiefs and sheriffs. And I have more to meet. I'll also be continuing to dialogue with business and religious leaders, in partnership with Minnesota, your community leaders. I'll be meeting with them, too, because I want to hear what they have to say. In my meetings with folks so far, and most importantly the governor and the AG, the Mayor Frey, we didn't agree on everything. I didn't expect to agree on anything. I've heard many people want to know why we're talking to people who they don't consider friends to the administration. Bottom line is you can't fix problems if you don't have discussions. I didn't come to Minnesota for photo ops or headlines. You haven't seen me. I came here to seek solutions. And that's what we're going to do. And we've come a long way. And we got some good wins for the people of Minnesota, I think, and for the administration and for the safety and security of this city. One thing we did agree on, though, everybody I talked to agreed on, was that community safety is paramount. One thing we all agreed on was US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a legitimate law enforcement agency that has a duty to enforce the laws enacted by Congress and keep this community safe. Like I've said many times for the last several years, even before this administration, jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities are sanctuaries for criminals. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and endangers the residents of the community. To be clear, we did not agree with Minnesota's state and local officials that they would be involved in immigration enforcement. I didn't ask them to be immigration officers. I'm asking them to be cops working with the cops to help us take criminal aliens off the street. What we did agree upon is not to release public safety threats back in the community when they could be lawfully transferred to ICE. I'll speak more about that. I will highlight that the Minnesota state prison system, under the Department of Corrections, have been honoring ICE detainers. And we appreciate that important collaboration, and we're going to expand upon that. That decision has made Minnesota safer, not only for residents of Minnesota, but the men and women of law enforcement. Not just ICE, all law enforcement. Rather than arresting the same public safety threat, significant public safety threat over and over again, they agree to work with us to identify those people and remove them. I'm also pleased to announce I had a very good meeting with Attorney General Ellison. And he has clarified for me that county jails may notify ICE of the release dates of criminal public safety risks so ICE can take custody of them upon their release from the jail. And let me tell you why that's important. I know people are a little concerned about the manpower that's been sent in, law enforcement manpower. Look, I've said this many times before. I've said it for the last several years. Give us access to the illegal alien public safety threat in the safety and security of a jail. It's common sense. It's safer for the community, it's safer for the agent, and it's safer for the alien, because anything can happen in a street arrest. It just makes common sense. And for the people that argue, well, we're a welcoming community because we want victims and witnesses of crime that are here illegally to feel safe to come to police without fear they're working with ICE? We're not going to talk to the victims and witnesses of crime. There's no problem there. They should feel safe to come to the police and ask for help. All we want is to talk to the person that local and state law enforcement authorities locked in a jail cell. They chose to lock this person up. That's who we want to talk to, the public safety threat. So the argument is that it protects victims and witnesses of crime. It's a bunch of crap. Victims and witnesses of crime don't want the bad guy back in their neighborhood, either. So great progress there, with the attorney general and local sheriffs. And one thing, when we have these agreements, it takes less law enforcement agents to do the job. One agent can arrest one bad guy in the safety and security of a jail, where he's behind the wire. We know he doesn't have weapons. But when you normally release that public safety threat illegal alien back in the community, we have a job to do. We're going to arrest them. So we're going to find them. And what happens is now we've got to arrest somebody on his turf, where he has access to who knows what weapons. Now we've got to send a whole team out. Cover the back door, cover the front door, officer safety reasons. Then, because of the hateful rhetoric and the attacks on ICE officers, now we've got to send in a security team behind the arrest team. So what could have been done with one person in the safety and security of a jail, now we've got 15, 16 people out there doing it. I know that causes stress in the community. So if we get these agreements in place, that means less agents on the street. More agents in the jail means less agents in the street. This is common-sense cooperation that allows us to draw down on the number of people we have here-- yes, I said it, draw down the number of people here-- because we have the efficiency and safety of the jails and the prison. Matter of fact, I have staff from CBP and from ICE working on a drawdown plan. What does that look like based on the cooperation? What does that look like based on how many targets we have left to find? In my meetings with Governor Walz, AG Ellison, and Mayor Frey, as well as state and local law enforcement, again, I appreciate they all acknowledge that we do have federal immigration laws in this country that have been passed by Congress, and that ICE is, in fact, a legitimate law enforcement agency charged with enforcing those laws. We're not making this up, folks. ICE is enforcing laws enacted by Congress through the federal statute. That said, I'm not here because the federal government has carried its mission out perfectly. First thing I said to senior staff when I walked in here-- that's why I told you I didn't come here looking for photo ops or headlines, I've come here looking for solutions-- I do not want to hear that everything that's been done here has been perfect. Nothing's ever perfect. Anything can be improved on. And what we've been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book. The mission is going to improve because of the changes we're making internally. No agency or organization is perfect. And President Trump and I, along with others in the administration, have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made. And that's exactly what I'm doing here. As such, in meetings I've had with federal law enforcement managers, including ICE and CBP and other federal partners, as well as state and local officials, I have conveyed the president's expectations with regard to federal immigration enforcement efforts. We will conduct targeted enforcement operations. Targeted, what we have done for decades. When we hit the streets, we know exactly who we're looking for, good idea where we may find them. You have their criminal history, you have their immigration history, a lot of information about this person that we get from numerous databases out there. Targeted, strategic enforcement operations. That's traditionally been the case, and that's where we're going. That's what we're going to continue to do, and improve upon that, with the prioritization on public safety threats. I want to be clear. I don't read a lot of social media. I don't read a lot of media. I don't believe half of what I see. We are not surrendering the president's mission on immigration enforcement. Let's make that clear. Prioritization of criminal aliens doesn't mean we forget about everybody else. That's just simply ridiculous. But when you have a criminal standing here and a non-criminal standing there, that criminal always should be targeted first, because he's a significant concern to the safety and security of the community. By and large, for decades, ICE and CBP have carried out their duties with integrity, professionalism and compassion. That remains the expectation under President Trump. And we will-- I will-- hold our agents and officers to that standard. I'm almost done, and Tom can be Tom. As far as the agitators, that said, I want to reiterate and make very clear-- I want to make it clear, ICE and CBP officers are performing their duties in a challenging environment under tremendous circumstances, but they're trying to do it with professionalism. If they don't, they'll be dealt with. Like any other federal agency, we have standards of conduct. They are sworn law enforcement officers working tirelessly to enforce our country's border security and immigration laws, protecting the interests of our country, and preventing dangerous people from walking the streets of this nation when they're not supposed to be here to begin with. Men and women of ICE, I was a Border Patrol agent. I was an ICE agent. I was the first ICE director that came up through the ranks. I spent over 40 years doing this. These men and women that carry that badge and gun are American patriots. They put themselves on the line for this nation every day. But I want you to remember, they don't hang their heart on a hook every day they come to work. They're mothers and fathers, too. They're sons and daughters, too. And if they've seen a fraction of the tragedies I've seen in my career, they take a lot of damage home every day. The things they've seen, especially on the border with Border Patrol agents-- people drowning in the river. Women being raped by criminal cartels. Giving CPR to a baby that was thrown in the river by the cartels because Border Patrol came too close, so let's throw the baby in the river. That way, the Border Patrol is concentrated on that, so I can get away. These men and women see some terrible things. But I want you to remember, they're mothers and fathers, too. Many of them are members of this community. God bless every one of them. The hostile rhetoric and dangerous threats and hate must stop. And we all agreed to that, everybody I met here today. We've got to stop the rhetoric, the hateful rhetoric that has caused an increase in assaults, that has caused, because of that, have to send security teams out with arrest teams, which surge the city with additional resources because of the rhetoric, because of the threats, because of the assaults. Again, with the agreements we've achieved, in following through the agreements, with the rhetoric dropping down, that allows us to pull more agents out once we feel the environment is safer. I begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop. I said in March that if the rhetoric didn't stop, there's going to be bloodshed. And there has been. I wish I wasn't right. I don't want to see anybody die. Not officers, not members of the community, and not the targets of our operations. For the people out there who don't like what ICE is doing, if you want certain laws reformed, then take it up with Congress. Again, ICE isn't making this up. They're enforcing laws enacted by Congress and signed by the president. The same laws have been on the books for the last six presidents I've worked for. I started with President Reagan, and ending with President Trump, every administration, we enforce the same laws. If you don't like what ICE is doing, instead of protesting this building, go protest Congress. Tell them you want changes. You have your First Amendment rights, and I support that. You have the right to protest. I'm just asking you to keep it peaceful. But threatening law enforcement officers, engaging in impeding and obstruction and assault is never OK. And there will be zero tolerance. You interfere, impede, assault an ICE officer, you will be arrested. Like I said a bit earlier, in my meetings with Governor Walz and Ellison and Frey, as well as state and local law enforcement, I appreciate they acknowledged this, that public safety should be paramount. The chiefs I've talked to are committed to responding to 911 calls when protesters turn violent, agents are in a dangerous situation, and there's assaults. They have committed to upholding public safety and responding to the needs. Not to enforce immigration law, but to keep the peace. With that, I call upon those officials to stand shoulder to shoulder with us to tone down the dangerous rhetoric and condemn all unlawful actions against law enforcement in the community. There are many ways your voice can be heard, express your feelings, and effect change in the country without crossing that line. Political and other disagreements in this realm should not be at the expense of public safety or the safety of federal law enforcement officers. In closing, I want to thank the state and local officials here in Minnesota I met with and the many I'm going to meet with. We've had meaningful dialogue. And look, again, we didn't agree on everything, but we agreed on the things I just talked about. There's much more we can do. And I'm going to continue those dialogues. I've got many more community leaders to talk to. I've got many more sheriffs to meet. President Trump wants this fixed, and I'm going to fix it, with your help. I want to thank President Trump for his unwavering commitment to public safety and prosperity of every American. Under the president's leadership, we have the most secure border in the history of this nation, which means less women are being raped, less children are dying crossing that border, less fentanyl is getting in this country to kill Americans, less known suspected terrorists are crossing that country, and we don't have 2 million unknown gotaways, we don't know who the hell they are. A secure border means we have stronger national security. A secure border saves lives. When 96% less people come, how many women aren't being sexually assaulted by members of the cartel? How many people aren't dying making that journey? How many Americans aren't dying of fentanyl overdoses? How many women and children aren't being sex trafficked in this nation? The data proves it. Anybody can find that data. So God bless this great nation. God bless Minnesota. We can do better. And I thank your local and state leaders meeting with me. We made some significant gains, significant coordination and cooperation. And you're going to see some massive changes occurring here in this city. Thank you.

Can you clarify what the rules of engagement are?

Hang on. Right here.

Thank you so much. Mr. Homan, Giovanna Dell'Orto with The Associated Press. Based on how you have described these changes in the mission, can you be more specific about the objectives of Operation Metro Surge, if what you have described changes the parameters for interior enforcement only in Minnesota, or also in Maine and other places? And finally, when will you consider that those objectives will be achieved and this operation will end? Is it in terms of agents on the ground, in terms of who you are targeting for arrests? The withdrawal of law enforcement resources here is dependent upon cooperation. Like I said, one agent arresting one bad guy in the jail means less agents on the street. We have some agreements. We've got more to talk about, how are we going to implement those agreements. But as we see that cooperation happen, then the redeployment will happen. Look, targeted enforcement operations should happen across the nation. That's what we've done for decades. And with targeted enforcement operations-- I've done many, many of them-- it just makes it safer for everybody when we know exactly who we're looking for. What is his criminal history? What is his immigration history? Where does he live? Is he in an apartment complex versus a house? Has he got a known record for having weapons? It's safer for everybody. Then we know what type of resources we need to go. And it just makes this operation cleaner, more efficient, and it's proven less violence when we know exactly what we're getting into and we can take the necessary precautions to keep everybody safe. Some of the operations that I've been involved in, we know there's children in the house, based on surveillance. So we know you've got to be a little bit different when you go into that house because there's going to be children present. So targeted enforcement operations is the way we've always done it. I think we got away from it a little bit. And we're going to make sure we do targeted enforcement operations. And look, I'll say it again, we are not surrendering our mission at all. We're just doing it smarter.

Right here.

Shimon Prokupecz from CNN. Mr. Homan, how did we get here, in terms of you had Greg Bovino, who was the face this immigration operation-- the mission, as you say-- to having Border Patrol agents in the interior of this country stopping US citizens, asking them for ID, creating this fear in places like Chicago and now here? And then finally, it took, really, the death of Alex Pretti for us to get here. How did that happen? Who made the decisions to allow this kind of operation to proceed in this way and to create such fear? Well, look, the Border Patrol, the last four years under Joe Biden, we had an open border, where 10,000, 12,000 people a day were coming across the border. Border Patrol got overwhelmed, which means we sent thousands of ICE agents down there to help deal with that humanitarian crisis, to help secure the border. Now, we have millions of people released in this nation, many unvetted. Now we've got to find them. Before the big beautiful bill, we had a total of just under 5,000 deportation officers to look for millions of people, millions of public safety threats. So yes, we needed Border Patrol to come and help on our mission now. And the reason for the massive deployment is because of the threats, because of the violence. Our officers need to be protected. If I'm on an arrest team, I'm going to a house, I've got to be busy with that guy, the dangerous guy, and I can't keep looking over my shoulder at what's happening outside the house. So we brought extra resources in to provide that security. And as I said, as we drill down on these great agreements we've got and this great understanding we have, it means less. So we can draw down those resources. When the violence decreases, we can draw down those resources. But based on the discussions I've had with the governor and the AG, we can start drawing down those resources, as far as those looking for public safety threats being released and doing it in the jail with much less people. So the drawdown is going to happen based on these agreements. But the drawdown can happen even more if the hateful rhetoric and the impedement and interference will stop. So Border Patrol, I was a Border Patrol agent. These men and women are patriots. God bless them. They're here to help us. And the drawdown will come soon, depending on when this actually-- I see this in play. But the agreements they have alone is going to cause a significant drawdown. So you're going to see a drawdown.

Can I just follow up just on a personal--

Ben, go ahead.

Just on a personal--

No, go ahead, Ben.

You've been doing this--

Ben, go ahead.

--for 40 years.

Tom Homan--

Just a follow-up.

Ben, go ahead.

Can I just--

No, no.

First off, Ben Bergquam, Real America's Voice News. On behalf of the American people, I just want to say thank you to you and to all of the agents that are putting their lives on the line to go after the people that were allowed in in the last administration. We watched that happen in the media, the honest media, covered up by many of the media that are behind me. We want to say thank you, and to all the men and women that are out there. Can you talk to us about what's being done with the leadership on these Signal chats, on these WhatsApp chats that are organizing the attacks against you, the obstruction against you? Are we going to be arresting those individuals, as well? And to the folks out there in America that voted for this, that want mass deportations because they saw a mass invasion under Joe Biden, what would you say to them? How are we going to get to that point? Well, first of all, about the organization and the funding of the attacks on ICE, I'm not going to answer a lot about that because I'm not going to show our hand, but they'll be held accountable. Justice is coming. Again, we've got to all remember why-- the question CNN, why are we here? What started this? Four years of an open border, where millions of people were let in this country unvetted. Remember, let's not forget, for four years, we were told the border is secure. Four years, we were told the border is secure. And we all knew it wasn't. And I want this to be a positive thing we're doing here today, but I also want to remember the politicians are continually attacking us. Where were they the last four years, when the number of women and children sex trafficked went to an all-time high? Where were when a quarter million Americans died from fentanyl coming across the border? Where were they when women and children are dying making that journey? Where were they when over 4,000 aliens making that journey died, a historic record? Where were they? Not a word. Now we're just trying to respond to what happened the last four years and keeping this country safe. And we're arresting a lot of public safety threats and taking them off the streets, which makes this country safer. President Trump promised to make this country safe again, and that's what we're doing. But my two and a half days up here, we made a lot of progress. So I think everybody agrees on the criminal alien public safety threats. They agree it's much safer and easier to arrest an alien in a facility than send a whole team out in the field that's going to draw anger because now we've got to send a bunch of people to do something that could have been done by one or two people. And I've said this for years. I have no ill will to anybody in Minnesota. All the people I talked to, we're never going to agree on everything, we have different philosophies and different opinions on immigration, but we all agree this is the way to go to reduce safety, reduce crime-- not reduce safety, reduce crime-- and increase safety for our operations. More people in the jail means less people on the street. It's simple math. [INTERPOSING VOICES]

Lana Zak, CBS News. Everybody I've spoken with agrees that if somebody has a violent criminal history and is a fugitive, they don't want them as their neighbor. But when you're talking about a targeted operation, are you talking about targeting people whose crime is coming to this country, or is it a more specific definition now? All operations will be targeted, but the prioritization are going to be criminal aliens, public safety threats and national security threats. I met with Marcos and his staff. We've got a lot of them. We've got a lot of them to keep us busy. So that will be our focus.

So that is enough that there is not going to be a focus on people who have no other crimes except for their status? If you're in the country illegally, you're never off the table. Prioritization doesn't mean you forget about everybody else. And let me say this. If the message we send is you can enter this country illegally-- it's a crime-- don't worry about it. You can have your due process, show up in court or not show up in court, get ordered removed, don't worry about it. Unless you commit a serious crime, you're good to go. And if that's the message we send to the world, you're never going to fix this problem. The most vulnerable people in the world will make that dangerous journey, like they did under the Joe Biden administration. Over 4,000 aliens died making that journey, and again, a significant increase in sex trafficking, because when they did that and opened those borders up, saying we're not going to detain you, we're going to give you free health care, we're going to fly you to the city of your choice, put you in a free hotel room, give you three meals a day and give you work authorization, we're just going to bring you in. And when they did that, they sent a message to the whole world, you can come and do this. And what happened? They overwhelmed the men and women of the Border Patrol, where many days, 70% of agents were pulled off that line. 70%. You don't think the criminal cartels had a field day with that? They created gaps for the cartels to do their activity. And that's why you're seeing the rise in fentanyl overdose. That's why you saw the rise in sex trafficking. The 2 million plus known gotaways, why did they pay more to get away? Why didn't they pay less, turn yourself in, get released within 24 hours? You get a free airline ticket to the city of your choice. We're going to give you a free hotel room, and we'll give you free food and free medical care. And you're going to get work authorization in six months. Why did 2 million people choose to pay more not to take advantage of that giveaway program? They didn't want to be vetted. They didn't want to be fingerprinted. That scares the hell out of me. And it does still. The Trump administration, with ICE and Secretary Noem and Marco Rubio and the intelligence community, Tulsi Gabbard, we're all working together to try to identify who these people are. And we've already found many of them, but it's hard work to do. But there are national security threats walking this nation because of the last administration. And they are one of our main priorities, too.

Thank you. Can you please be specific about how many ICE and how many Border Patrol agents are currently operating in the state? I think we're near 3:00? [INAUDIBLE] There's been some rotations. Another thing I witnessed when I came here, I'll share this with you. I met with a lot of people, a lot of the agents. They've been in theater. Some of these people have been in theater for eight months. So there's going to be rotations of personnel. Hopefully less now that we have some agreements. Maybe we can make it more efficient and safe. But they've been in theater a long time, and so rotations happen all the time to get people out of here and go home, get some rest and see their families. Day after day, can't eat in the restaurants. Day after day, having people spit on you and blow whistles at you. Day after day, having all these threats at you. Day after day, having people trying to interfere with you. Day after day. They're human. So we've got to rotate these people. And we've already rotated some. But my main focus now is drawdown based upon the great conversations I've had with your state and local leaders. Again, I'm not a fool. I'm not walking away without seeing this put in place. But I take the word of the people I met with. I think they're honest, and I think they're good brokers that they want public safety protected, and they also want what's happening in the city to go away. And that's my goal. [INTERPOSING VOICES]

Last question in the back.

Joe Moeller, Newsmax. The new video of Alex Pretti is now circulating. Your reaction to that. And do you think law enforcement could have played a role if, let's say, Minneapolis Police were able to respond to that? Have those top law enforcement officials said they'll help or do anything to help these agents who are out here? I'm not going to comment on any shootings. I said from day one-- from day one, I said on any of these shootings, as a career law enforcement officer, we'll let the investigation roll out, let the investigation play out, and let it go where it goes. I'm not going to come out and make any comments that I think it's right, wrong. Do I have an opinion? Yeah, my personal opinion. But I'm not going to share that with you. I'm going to tell you let the investigation play out and see where it goes. But again, the president, one of the words he said to me when I came up here, he said he didn't want to see anybody die. The less interference, the less rhetoric, the less-- you know, I have buried Border Patrol agents, and I've buried ICE agents throughout my career. And the saddest thing I've ever done is hand a folded flag to a wife or a child. I don't want to see anybody die, even the people we're looking for. I don't want to see anybody die. And despite what people think of Tom Homan, I say a prayer every night that everybody goes home safe. This isn't good. But I think my conversations the last two and a half days are leading us to a safer community, letting ICE officers operate in the safety and security of a jail more than on the street. I think anybody here with common sense would say it's safer to arrest a public safety threat in the safety and security of a jail. And let me tell you, what is that going to result in? Less collateral arrests. When we go find that bad guy, when we find that bad guy, many times he's with others. Well, guess what? They're in the country illegally, we're going to enforce immigration law. They're coming, too. You want less collateral arrests? Let us in the jail. But we're going to enforce the immigration law. And for the people that are saying we're here to surrender our authority and the mission of enforcing immigration law, you are wrong. We're going to do targeted enforcement operations, and we're going to prioritize the public safety threats and national security threats. That is what we're here to do.

Mr. Homan, can you talk about [INAUDIBLE]?

There are no more questions. No more questions, guys. Thank you.

All right. We've been listening live there to President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, speaking in Minneapolis for the first time since taking over and overseeing operations there after the ouster of Gregory Bovino. And he said he is there to seek solutions. The border czar saying that you cannot solve problems until you have discussions. He said that he's been speaking with state and local officials. So far, he's receiving more cooperation from them. And as a result, he says, people in Minneapolis can expect to see a drawdown in ICE officials in the days and weeks ahead. CBS News correspondent Ian Lee was listening alongside us to the border czar's remarks, and joins us now. Ian, what stood out to you? A significant announcement from Tom Homan that a drawdown of agents would begin soon. Yeah, a number of significant announcements, Errol. First off, he admitted that this operation hasn't been perfect. He says that there have been mistakes made. He's here to start that dialogue. And we heard that multiple times, that dialogue with state and local officials, law enforcement, trying to get everyone on the same page. He says they didn't agree on everything, but he said they all agreed that public safety was paramount. One of the big announcements he's made, though, is that if someone is undocumented, if they're in the jail, then the jail will hand that person over to federal authorities. He says that is crucial because one agent can arrest one person. If that person is released, he says, then you need over a dozen agents to, one, go to that person's house to make that arrest. He says they have to take things into consideration of threats to them. But also, he says you have to have a security detail also with that group to protect them against potential protesters. And so he says that creates a big presence on the street. So he said that this is a significant development, that they are able to pick people up from jail after they've been arrested. He said they're going after-- their priority are public safety and national security threats. But we heard Lana Zak ask the question about, what about people who are just in the country here illegally, they haven't committed any other crimes? He said no one's off the table. And we have seen people like that arrested, as well. He said he didn't want to send the message that you can come to the country and have everything provided for you. So he said that, with that announcement of the jail arrest, that they can start looking at withdrawing some of the agents from this area. But he also called for a toning down of the rhetoric. He says that hasn't been helpful. But he says his main goal is that this operation goes smoothly and safely. He said he doesn't want to see anyone killed during these operations.

Ian Lee live for us in Minneapolis, where he will continue to report for the rest of the day. Ian, thank you. Let's jump to the White House now, where we find CBS News correspondent Natalie Brand. She was also listening to Tom Homan there announce a drawdown of ICE agents based on cooperation with officials there. Natalie, but Tom Homan did mention that they did not agree, he and local officials, that state and local officials would be involved in immigration activity. So some progress directed by President Trump, but also some areas of disagreement remain. Yeah, and we saw that play out on social media yesterday, with President Trump's message that Mayor Frey is, quote, playing with fire, since he made clear-- Frey did-- that his local officers will not enforce federal immigration law on the streets. So he said, while they don't see eye to eye on that point, he was pleased, Homan was pleased with progress made, as Ian was talking about, in the jails and what's known as ICE detainers, the ability to transfer inmates to ICE if a suspect has been arrested. So he was pleased with that angle and, I guess, better collaboration between the local authorities and the federal officers on that point, which he said will lead to the plans that are being made for the start of a drawdown. He also said President Trump wants this fixed, noting the tensions in Minnesota, saying, again, as Ian did, that the president and Homan do not want to see anyone killed. We know that he was sent there to de-escalate the situation and try to find solutions with local leaders. And a key point of this news conference was really to emphasize the point that they're going to work in a more targeted, efficient way to really target what he called criminals, public safety and national security threats. Natalie Brand live for us at the White House. Natalie, stand by for us because it is now 9:00 AM here on the East Coast. I'm Errol Barnett at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, as we have just watched President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, announce from Minneapolis that a drawdown of ICE agents there would begin if cooperation with state and local officials, as he sees it, continues. He made those remarks in the past hour, directed by President Trump to take over these operations after Gregory Bovino, the previous leader of the operations there, was reassigned last week following the shooting deaths of two American citizens who were protesting ICE activities. Natalie Brand is standing by at the White House. We have Ian Lee in Minneapolis, as well. And our own Lana Zak was in the room, in the press conference with Mr. Homan, and was able to ask him this question. Let's listen to that exchange.

--criminal history and is a fugitive, they don't want them as their neighbor. But when you're talking about a targeted operation, are you talking about targeting people whose crime is coming to this country, or is it a more specific definition now? All operations will be targeted, but the prioritization are going to be criminal aliens, public safety threats and national security threats. I met with Marcos and his staff. We've got a lot of them. We've got a lot of them to keep us busy. So that will be our focus.

So that is enough that there is not going to be a focus on people who have no other crimes, except for their status? If you're in the country illegally, you're never off the table. Prioritization doesn't mean you forget about everybody else. Let me say this. If the message we send is you can enter this country illegally-- it's a crime-- don't worry about it. You can have your due process, show up in court or not show up in court, get ordered removed. Don't worry about it. Unless you commit a serious crime, you're good to go. If that's the message we send to the world, you're never going to fix this problem. The most vulnerable people in the world will make that dangerous journey, like they did under Joe Biden administration. Over 4,000 aliens died making that journey. And again, a significant increase in sex trafficking. Because when they did that and opened those borders up, saying we're not going to detain you, we're going to give you free health care, we're going to fly you to the city of your choice, put you in a free hotel room, give you three meals a day and give you work authorization, we're just going to bring you in. And when they did that, they sent a message to the whole world, you can come and do this. And what happened? They overwhelmed the men and women of the Border Patrol, where many days, 70% of agents were pulled off that line. 70%. You don't think the criminal cartels had a field day with that? They created gaps for the cartels do their activity. And that's why you're seeing the rise in fentanyl overdose. That's why you saw the rise in sex trafficking. The 2 million plus known gotaways? Why did they pay more to get away? Why didn't they pay less, turn yourself in, get released within 24 hours? You get a free airline ticket to the city of your choice. We're going to give you a free hotel room, and we'll give you free food and free medical care. And you're going to get work authorization in six months. Why did 2 million people choose to pay more not to take advantage of that giveaway program? They didn't want to be vetted. They didn't want to be fingerprinted. That scares the hell out of me. And it does still. The Trump administration, with ICE and Secretary Noem and Marco Rubio and the intelligence community, Tulsi Gabbard, we're all working together to try to identify who these people are. And we've already found many of them, but it's hard work to do. But there are national security threats walking this nation because of the last administration. And they are one of our main priorities, too.

Border Czar Tom Homan there responding to our Lana Zak's question in the last hour. Let's bring in Ian Lee. He's been reporting from Minneapolis for many days. Ian, the border czar there emphasizing why these ICE operations are necessary, but Mr. Homan is there because so many in Minnesota and Minneapolis have been outraged by the manner in which American citizens have been treated and profiled for fear of being perceived as being in the country illegally. How will Mr. Homan's remarks likely be received by people where you are? He spoke for about 10 minutes, and took even longer to answer reporters' questions. How is this likely to be received? Well, Errol, there's a lot of people here in Minneapolis who don't want ICE here. And so as long as those agents are on the ground, you're going to see protests, you're going to see pushback from the community. Tom Homan did say he came to bring law and order, but admitted that mistakes were made and he's here to help rectify those mistakes. He's had a lot of meetings with local and state officials, he said. And one of the key takeaways is that if someone who is undocumented is in jail, then that person is now going to be handed over to ICE custody. And he says this is crucial because one person can arrest one person in jail because it's a secure location. He said if that person is released, which has previously happened, he says then you need these large operations, which we have been seeing around Minneapolis, where not only do you have agents going to make that arrest, and you need multiple of them for multiple contingencies, but he says you also need a security detail to help protect those agents from potential protesters. And that's where you see that friction over the past weeks. And so he says this will lower the temperature just because, if you have those arrests in jail, you're not having that visible presence of all these ICE agents on the streets. And he says that will help withdraw the numbers here, as well. But he said his priorities were public safety, national security threats, but as we heard from Lana, his answer to Lana is that no one is off the table. And we have seen other people arrested, as well. But going back to the mistakes that were made, there have been Americans who have been arrested and rounded up. Possibly this is something he's going to look further into, but they say they're not going to leave until this job is done. And Ian, in the backdrop of this, you have congressional Democrats trying to hold up government funding unless they get reforms from DHS, including ending roving patrols of ICE, tighter rules around warrants, a uniform code of conduct, and demasking these ICE agents and having them wear body cams. So the administration certainly under pressure. Ian Lee, we appreciate your live reporting and that of Natalie Brand at the White House. But stay close. We've got much more on this and the day's other big stories for you next. Vladimir Duthiers and Kelly O'Grady will be right here momentarily for CBS News 24/7 Mornings. I'm Errol Barnett. Stay right there.