White House Border Czar Tom Homan is threatening to detain more immigrants than Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has beds for.
“We’re almost at capacity,” Homan told reporters at the White House on Tuesday after announcing raids in Boston and Chicago earlier this week. “[But] we got beds coming online every day.”
Part of this ratcheting up of immigration raids is due to ICE still not reaching their lofty goal of 3,000 arrests a day, a goal that Trump adviser Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem set for them back in May.
That goal is, of course, easier said than done.
As of September 7, there are 58,766 people in ICE detention. The government has just under 65,000 beds, making Homan’s push for ICE blitzes on Boston and Chicago a logistical issue. “It’s interesting timing because we don’t have the bed space to support all the arrests,”an anonymous official told Politico.
The Trump administration is rushing to expand its detention space, hastily setting up centers like Florida’s now infamous “Alligator Alcatraz” and another center called “Louisiana Lockup.”
“The One Big Beautiful Bill provided historic funding to help us carry out this mandate, including $45 billion to support the expansion of detention space to maintain an average daily population of 100,000 illegal aliens and 80,000 new ICE beds,” McLaughlin said.
Others in the administration aren’t so sure they’ll be able to meet Trump’s goal.
“Do they have enough transportation? Can they move people fast enough? There are all sorts of pieces to this pipeline, and if any one of them gets clogged, it slows everything down,” the anonymous official later said. “From teeing up your deportable targets to your detention and transportation plan for them, to keep running it all at scale smoothly — that’s a big management and logistics challenge.”
Homan remains bullish, levying threats at both Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Boston’s Mayor, Michelle Wu.
“Shame on [Massachusetts] Gov. Healey and Mayor Wu,” he said Tuesday. “Shame on both of them. They should be calling the White House thanking Trump, thanking ICE for making the community safer.”
“Shame on Governor Healey and Mayor Wu.”White House Border Czar Tom Homan called out the two leaders, saying they should be thanking the White House for ICE’s efforts.Gov. Healey says ICE agents are showing up outside Boston churches.https://t.co/lOiXroXgm3 pic.twitter.com/NtPs2iXmFK
— WCVB-TV Boston (@WCVB) September 9, 2025
Homan’s “blitz” is very much underway. On Friday ICE shot and killed a man as he ran his car into an officer while trying to flee the scene.
The post ICE Is Detaining So Many People They’re Running Out of Beds appeared first on New Republic.
