Tom Homan dared ICE’s critics to keep hating the agency, then promised them it would not retreat.
“You can hate us all you want. We’re not going anywhere,” the White House border czar declared Thursday at the Justice Department’s Victims of Violent Crime summit.
Homan’s defense of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement came with Democrats pressing for answers after a deadly chase in Michigan, a shooting in Texas and a wider push against the agency’s immigration crackdown.
“We’re going to keep pushing. We’re not going to apologize,” Homan said.
He blamed media figures for hostility toward ICE and warned that sanctuary cities would get more federal manpower, not a pullback.
Trump's Border Czar Tom Homan, following the 58th death in ICE custody:
We're not gonna apologize. You can hate us all you want, we're not going anywhere. ICE will continue pic.twitter.com/cecG6xbeoi
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) September 24, 2026
“ICE will continue doing the job every day across this country, especially in sanctuary cities, where we’ll surge resources and flood the zone,” Homan said. “We’re going to enforce the law without apology.”
“You got my word on that,” he added.
The agency Homan defended is now at the center of multiple Democratic demands for investigations, briefings and preserved evidence.
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In Michigan, a weekend traffic stop involving an immigration agent ended with Mario David Coronado Juarez dead after a Grand Rapids crash.
Coronado Juarez, a Guatemalan immigrant without permanent legal status, had allegedly tried to flee the stop before the collision that prompted Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) to order state police to investigate the ICE pursuit.
The Texas fight started with another enforcement encounter, this time involving Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan national who was shot Sunday in Austin.
Garces Perez had been in his vehicle completing a DoorDash food delivery when an ICE officer shot him. He was treated at a hospital before being moved into ICE custody.
The Department of Homeland Security has portrayed the 28-year-old as someone who entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration and was already under a final order of removal from an immigration judge.
Garces Perez’s lawyer has denied the department’s account of how he entered the country.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) used the Austin shooting to demand “full transparency” from ICE and called the agency “liars with masks.”
This illegal alien, who entered under the Biden administration, was the subject of a targeted vehicle stop.
He had no valid work permit, had no legal status, and had a final order of removal from a DOJ Immigration Judge. Furthermore, he was ordered removed because he FAILED his… pic.twitter.com/U7o7HyYTjU
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 23, 2026
Casar also pushed for ICE to leave Austin as local officials investigated the shooting, then demanded that DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin preserve every piece of evidence, suspend the agent and brief Congress.
The Associated Press later reported that the ICE officer who shot Garces Perez was not wearing a body camera.
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) accused ICE of returning Garces Perez to detention despite injuries he described as severe.
“Despite losing movement on his left side and having a bullet lodged next to his spine, ICE has forced Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez out of the hospital and back to the South Texas ICE Processing Center,” Castro wrote.
More than 100 Democratic members of Congress added their names to a Tuesday letter seeking Garces Perez’s release.
The letter said Garces Perez “is not receiving the care he needs in detention” and “still has the bullet lodged in his body.”
DHS responded by accusing Democrats and media figures of spreading false accounts of the Austin shooting.
The agency wrote on X that “sanctuary politicians and the media wasted no time in spreading lies” and warned that “no amount of smears and false narratives will slow down ICE from doing its job to arrest illegal aliens from our communities.”
DHS also disputed the claim that ICE had refused to remove the bullet from Garces Perez’s body, saying the agency “does not and would not advise, nor be the authority on, a medical procedure for an illegal alien at a hospital.”
The department denied that Garces Perez was deprived of pain medication or left to sleep on the floor after the hospital released him.
DHS said Garces Perez was “receiving medical care around the clock, including pain medication,” and had a bed within hours of arriving at the detention facility.
The department also challenged statements from Garces Perez’s lawyer that he was legally in the country and had permission to work.
DHS said Garces Perez had “no valid work permit,” “no protective status” and a final order of removal from a Department of Justice immigration judge.
The department’s response echoed Homan’s broader message: ICE would keep operating in Austin.
“DHS is tasked with enforcing the laws passed by Congress,” the agency said. “We do not pick and choose which laws to enforce or where to enforce them. We will continue to enforce our nation’s laws.”
“We will not be slowing down nor leaving Austin,” DHS said.
A federal judge put Garces Perez’s deportation on hold Tuesday after his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said her firm sued on his behalf.
“That means Wilber cannot be deported in the meantime,” Lincoln-Goldfinch wrote on Facebook. “For now, we have secured a temporary block on his deportation while his case moves forward.”
Lincoln-Goldfinch said Garces Perez remained in “a lot of pain,” still needed medical treatment and still had the bullet in his body.
“We will continue fighting to protect his rights,” she wrote.
Authorities have said Garces Perez had a final order of removal, but Lincoln-Goldfinch said his immigration hearing notice went to an old address despite him updating his address with the court.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza asked Mullin and ICE Director David Venturella in a Tuesday letter to keep Garces Perez in the U.S. during the shooting investigation.
“Mr. Garces Perez is a key witness to this shooting, and given ICE’s history of obscuring the facts in similar investigations, he must not be removed,” the letter said.
The letter also sought preservation of shooting evidence by state authorities and law enforcement.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) widened the criticism Tuesday by arguing that the Trump administration is increasingly targeting immigrants without criminal convictions or pending charges rather than those with criminal records.
“For the first time this summer, the majority of people that DHS arrested were people who pose absolutely no threat to public safety, and the number of people with criminal convictions who are arrested by ICE actually decreased — decreased, not increased,” Jayapal stated.
She argued communities become “less safe” when Homeland Security Investigations agents are redirected from serious crimes and human trafficking into street sweeps and traffic stops.
Jayapal’s office made a similar claim in a Sept. 1 press release, saying ICE data showed “the majority of people they arrest have zero criminal charges or convictions” and that arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions or pending criminal charges had increased 770%.
