Maddow Blog-White House border czar suggests ICE can detain people based on 'physical appearance'

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Tom Homan’s comments about ICE agents being able to detain people based on “their physical appearance” will likely make racial profiling concerns worse.

White House border czar suggests ICE can detain people based on ‘physical appearance’
#CorruptTrump
#RacistInChief
www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Thomas Keepout (@thomasworking.bsky.social) 2025-07-11T16:32:39.771Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-border-czar-suggests-ice-can-detain-people-based-physical-rcna218285

Nearly six months into his tenure as the White House’s “border czar,” Tom Homan has made a great many controversial public comments, about everything from due process to prosecuting news organizations to his curious focus on Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

But we’re often reminded that his rhetorical record is still growing.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3ltoyyfr5vt2m

Link to tweet

In his latest Fox News appearance, Homan said: “Look, 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. They just need totality of the circumstances, right? They just go through the observation, get our typical facts — based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions.”

NBC News reported earlier this year about concerns related to racial profiling as part of the Trump’s administration immigration raids, and hearing the White House border czar talk about ICE agents being able to detain people based on “their physical appearance” will likely make those concerns worse.

What's more, Homan's on-air comments sparked quick pushback from Capitol Hill. Rep. Daniel Goldman said via Bluesky that the border czar's assessment was "patently false."

The New York Democrat added, "DHS has authority to question and search people coming into the country at points of entry. But ICE may not detain and question anyone without reasonable suspicion — and certainly not based on their physical appearance alone. This lawlessness must stop."

[Lovie777]

1. They are doing that already.................

[sop]

2. Dan Goldman: "DHS has authority to question and search people coming into the country at points of entry."

Despite this, packs of unidentified, masked ICE (?) goons are routinely profiling "hispanic-looking" Americans, grabbing and roughly throwing them to the ground, restraining them like violent criminals, then hauling them away to detention centers and holding them for days without due process, all without any reasonable suspicion they have violated any immigration laws. And no one does a damn thing to stop these thugs. It's an outrage.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Immigration officials can't stop people based on race, their spoken language in Los Angeles, judge rules

The order bars the detention of people unless the officer or agent "has reasonable suspicion" that the person to be stopped is violating U.S. immigration law.

Link to tweet

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/immigration-officials-cant-detain-people-based-race-speaking-spanish-l-rcna218400

LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Friday ruled that immigration officers in Southern California can't rely solely on someone's race or speaking Spanish to stop and detain them.

District Judge Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a temporary restraining order after a lawsuit was filed by three men who were arrested as they waited to be picked up at a Pasadena bus stop for jobs on June 18, and after two others were stopped and questioned despite saying they are U.S. citizens.

Frimpong's order bars the detention of people unless the officer or agent "has reasonable suspicion that the person to be stopped is within the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law."

It says they may not base that suspicion solely on apparent race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent; presence at a particular location like a bus stop or day laborer pick-up site; or the type of work one does.

Frimpong wrote in the ruling that most of the questions before her were “simple and non-controversial.”

“Do all individuals — regardless of immigration status — share in the rights guaranteed by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution? Yes, they do,” she wrote......

The judge's temporary restraining order also requires the government to provide training for agents operating in the Central District of California, which covers the Los Angeles and other areas, among other requirements.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Holman thinks that it is okay to racially profile people

Link to tweet