Border czar Tom Homan addressed speculation that Trump’s Justice Department dropped charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in exchange for help with the border crisis.
During an appearance with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” Homan was asked about claims that the DOJ’s leniency on Adams was aimed at convincing him to allow immigration authorities to operate on Rikers Island to apprehend and deport violent illegal immigrants.
Bash asked whether this was the case, to which Homan replied, “No, I think that’s ridiculous. Me and Mayor Adams met a couple of months ago.”
We talked about getting a presence in Rikers Island. We talked about how we can collaborate on public safety threats and finding the missing children that can't be found after they released their sponsors. We had that a couple of months ago, long before this other discussion. I don't think it had anything to do with it. Matter of fact, the meeting was very well. It was the same meeting we had a few weeks ago. The reason we had that follow-up meeting because there's no action being done. So we followed up on how we can get some of this stuff in place, and that's what the meeting Thursday was about.
Bash continued, stating that Homan “came away fromt hat meeting really unsatisfied” and asked “what changed between then and now, other than the Department of Justice dropping the charges against Adams?”
Homan corrected Bash, saying he did not “come out of that meeting unsatisfied.” Rather, he “was taken aback that we hadn’t got any action on that yet about getting into Rikers Island,” so they rescheduled the meeting to discuss the matter.
We came out Thursday with a plan and how we can get in Rikers Island in the criminal intelligence division. So we get to understand who's in there, who's foreign-born in the Rikers Island. This is a significant public safety threat. We also talked about how we can collaborate on the missing children, many that are going to be in New York City, and that's what we talked about. I really don't think it had anything to do with whatever's going on in Justice Department. We never talked about that. It's out of my lane. I've been talking to the mayor for months about getting in Rikers Island, and that's what we talked about.
The host further pressed the matter, trying to get Homan to acknowledge that this was a quid pro quo arrangement.
Yeah, and I totally understand you do not work in the Department of Justice, but you do work in the broader Trump administration. Just as somebody who is in law enforcement, you call yourself a cop, just looking at the series of events, sir, the fact that you didn't get what you wanted, you came away not sure why he wasn't doing what you wanted him to do, particularly with opening Rikers, the Department of Justice gets rid of the charges against him, and then poof, he agrees.
Homan did not take the bait. Instead, he explained that he had“called that mayor out for a couple of years because I didn’t think he was doing the right thing as far as public safety threats.”
The border czar recalled that during the first meeting in December, “for the first time, I saw the cop in him. I saw the cop come out of him. He talked about how he wants public safety threats removed from New York City. He wants illegal alien crime to decrease in New York City, and there’s a way we should collaborate on that.”
We agreed that he doesn't want to be an immigration officer. I don't want him to be an immigration officer. We agreed on that. I just want him to help me public safety threats, leave immigration enforcement to us. So it was a great meeting. Just the actions following up that meeting were slow to happen. That's why I requested a second meeting to find out what more we need to do to get some of this stuff in place. So, I just think people are making a lot about nothing.
The Justice Department raised more than a few eyebrows when it announced that it had dropped charges against Mayor Adams because it lacked sufficient evidence to pursue a conviction. Adams had been accused of granting favors to entities tied to the Turkish government in exchange for certain benefits.
Adams pleaded not guilty to bribery, fraud, and other offenses. The indictment alleged that the mayor accepted $100,000 in complimentary plane tickets and luxurious hotel accommodations from wealthy Turkish nationals and at least one government official as part of a corruption scheme that lasted nearly ten years.
Adams claimed the charges were politically motivated and has denied any wrongdoing.
In December, Adams indicated he wished to reopen the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office on Rikers Island to identify and deport illegal immigrants who committed violent crimes in the United States.
After their most recent meeting, Mayor Adams announced that they “are now working on implementing an executive order that will reestablish the ability for ICE agents to operate on Rikers Island – as was the case for 20 years – but now, instead, ICE agents would specifically be focused on assisting the correctional intelligence bureau in their criminal investigations, in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs.”