Trump border czar Tom Homan asserted on Fox News Friday morning that federal immigration agents did not need probable cause to detain people for a short period of time.
“People need to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them,” he said. “They just go through the observations, get articulable facts, based on their location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions.”
Homan was speaking in response to a question about an anticipated ruling from a federal judge in Los Angeles that could order the Trump administration to pause immigration raids.
The American Civil Liberties Union argued in court that Immigration and Customs enforcement agents were apprehending or questioning Los Angeles residents simply because they looked Latino. The group claimed that the stops were not necessarily targeted to immigration because many of the people who were questioned were U.S. citizens.
On Fox, Homan insisted that his agents did not need probable cause to briefly detain someone.
“It’s not probable cause. It’s reasonable suspicion,” he said, citing the standard used for stop-and-frisk cases.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a former federal prosecutor, said on X that Homan’s claim was “patently false.”
“DHS has authority to question and search people coming into the country at points of entry,” he wrote. “But ICE may not detain and question anyone without reasonable suspicion — and certainly not based on their physical appearance alone. This lawlessness must stop.”
Los Angeles, and California more broadly, have been a flash point for Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign. Hundreds of people came out to protest a federal raid at a cannabis farm in Southern California earlier this week.
