President Donald Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told CNN's Dana Bash on Tuesday that sanctuary cities releasing illegal migrants into their communities from jail would mean that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would have to find them and may result in "collateral arrests" of more illegal migrants.
Appearing on CNN's "Inside Politics," Bash questioned Homan on how ICE identifies individuals with criminal convictions. Homan criticized sanctuary cities for hindering federal immigration enforcement, arguing that it would be safer for communities of sanctuary cities if federal authorities could transfer illegal migrants into their custody.
"When you release a public safety threat out of a sanctuary jail and they won't give us access to him, that means we got to go to the neighborhood and find him, and we will find him, but when we find him, he may be with others." Homan said this scenario would result in "collateral arrests."
"Others that don't have a criminal conviction and are in the country illegally. They will be arrested too."
"There is nothing in the [Immigration and Nationality Act] that says you got to be convicted of a serious crime in order to be removed from this country. So, there's going to be more collateral arrests in sanctuary cities because they forced us to go into the community and find the guy we're looking for," Homan added.