Border Czar Declares 'Physical Appearance' Is Enough for ICE to Detain and Question: 'They Don't Need Probable Cause'

The Trump administration border czar has denied that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents need probable cause to detain individuals, stating that physical appearance provides enough impetus for officials to make arrests.

Border czar Tom Homan appeared on Fox News on Friday, stating that ICE agents had the right to detain individuals based off of their physical appearances.

"I've got to get your reaction to this Biden-appointed federal judge out in Los Angeles apparently expected today to issue a temporary restraining order halting your lawful operations. She says, 'I think it's important for the court not to burden otherwise lawful law enforcement activities.' Your reaction there?" asked the host.

"People need to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol, they don't need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them," Homan said. "They just need to tally the circumstances. They just go through the observations, get articulable facts, based on their location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions."

Homan's remarks come amid ongoing ICE raids in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, including in parks, farms and Home Depot stores.

"If they have all these facts plus the person walks away or runs away. Agents are trained. What they need to detain somebody temporarily and question them is not probably cause, it's reasonable suspicion. We're trained on that. Every agent every six months gets Fourth Amendment training over and over, again, these officers are really good at what they do," he continued.

Social media users reacted in shock and horror to Homan's statements, calling it "the definition of racial profiling."

"If regular cops did that it would be called 'profiling' and is illegal. Why is ICE different?" said another.

"yeah, ya do. otherwise, it is just racial profiling. can't believe he said that out loud...." concurred a third.

"What?? So how many Russians will be racially profiled? Or is it just brown folks? And what happened to The 4th Amendment?" a fourth added.

Meanwhile, Homan continues to push the Trump-backed statistic that border crossings have significantly declined under the new administration. He tweeted earlier this month, "Total Border Patrol encounters for the entire month of June 2025 was 6,070. That is less than a single day under Biden. As a matter of fact, the total number of encounters is less than half of a single day under Biden."

Originally published on Latin Times

Tags

Donald Trump, ICE, Trump administration