Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), responded to Florida Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon's assertion that ICE agents racially profile Black Americans. Homan called the accusation 'ridiculous' and stated that ICE does not target individuals based on their skin color. He emphasized that deportations are based on legal status, not race, and noted that he deported individuals from 180 countries in the past year.
Nixon, who recently won Florida’s Democratic primary, has made ending detention centers and abolishing ICE key components of her campaign, arguing that the agency's practices represent moral failures. She described ICE as a 'weaponized paramilitary force' that terrorizes communities, particularly in the Black community.
Homan defended ICE's operations, stating that agents operate under the law, requiring reasonable suspicion and probable cause for arrests. He attributed incidents of violence during enforcement operations to sanctuary policies, which he claims hinder ICE's ability to detain illegal immigrants safely.
The Department of Homeland Security also rejected Nixon's claims, stating that enforcement actions are based on immigration status rather than race or ethnicity.