Homan: We’re not asking DC police to be immigration officers

President Trump's border czar Tom Homan said Friday that the administration is not asking D.C. police to directly enforce immigration laws, adding that they must cooperate with federal authorities.

Homan’s comments come after Attorney General Pam Bondi sought to roll back the district’s sanctuary policies around undocumented migrants, including lifting the block on local police cooperating with immigration enforcement.

“Law enforcement needs to work with law enforcement,” Homan told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network. “We’re not asking Metro PD to be immigration officers, but when you’re enforcing criminal law and when you find an illegal alien not only in violation of immigration law here illegally but involved with criminal activity, they absolutely should call us.”

He added that he hopes the administration's crackdown on crime in the nation's capital could be an example for the rest of the country.

FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday that authorities have made more than 120 arrests since Trump announced the federal takeover, writing on social platform X, "the good cops are getting the job done."

Democrats have warned that Trump’s move to take over the district's police department and deploy hundreds of federal police and National Guard troops to the streets could be a test case for crackdowns on blue cities in the future — especially given the president’s insistence that the level of crime in D.C. is far higher than recorded statistics.

Homan told NewsNation he believed the increased police and military presence in the nation’s capital has deterred crime in the city.

“It’s not just the people that are arresting that are making D.C. safer, it’s the message we’re sending that we’re out here in force,” he said. “I think there are a lot of criminals staying off the street because they know the city is overwhelmed with law enforcement.”

The Trump administration's federalization of the city's law enforcement has already triggered at least one legal battle and many protests. D.C.’s attorney general sued the federal government Friday morning over its move to install Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Administrator Terry Cole as the city’s "emergency police commissioner."

Local officials have also said that it’s not clear that Bondi has the authority to revoke the district’s sanctuary city policies.

The president has also signaled plans to work with Republicans in Congress to extend the federal takeover past the 30-days allowed under the city's Home Rule Act.