President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan says the administration is preparing a major expansion of immigration enforcement operations in New York City, warning that residents will soon see more ICE agents than ever before following the passage of new sanctuary-state restrictions signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Homan renewed his pledge Monday to dramatically increase the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in the city, arguing that recent legislation enacted by Hochul and Democratic lawmakers has made it more difficult for federal authorities to cooperate with local agencies.

“I made her a promise, you’re going to see more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen in New York City, and it’s coming,” Homan said during an interview with “Fox and Friends.”

“I just reviewed an operational plan. I’m not going to tell you exactly when it’s going to happen, but it’s coming,” he said on Fox News.

Homan said the administration intends to follow through on its warning, contending that the state’s new policies have eliminated what he views as safer and more efficient ways of carrying out immigration arrests.

“I’m keeping my promise, we’re going to send more ICE agents to New York because you took away the efficiencies of safer arrests at county jails.”

According to Homan, he previously advised Hochul that if federal immigration officers lose access to local jail facilities, they will be forced to locate suspects elsewhere.

He argued that such operations become more disruptive when they take place in neighborhoods rather than within secure detention facilities.

“If we can work with the sheriff’s and arrest the bad guy in the safety and security of the jail, that means less teams into the neighborhoods, which causes a lot of panic, a lot of problems,” Homan said.

“Now we gotta send a whole team to find this person who doesn’t want to be found.”

Continuing his criticism of the governor, Homan said, “I told her it’s safer for the community, it’s safer for the officers, it’s safer for the aliens to have these cooperations with the jails. She signed the legislation anyway.”

The legislation signed by Hochul in late May significantly limits cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration officials. Among other provisions, it bars most forms of police collaboration with immigration authorities, restricts ICE activity in many public locations, including hospitals and parks, and limits the use of face coverings by federal agents during enforcement operations.

Hochul pushed back against Homan’s remarks Monday, arguing that the administration’s approach differs from what President Trump personally told her regarding immigration enforcement in New York.

The governor said Trump previously assured her during a private meeting that additional federal agents would not be deployed to the city without her request.

“I’m not asking now – that’ll never happen,” Hochul stressed during an unrelated press conference in Manhattan.

“I want to make sure that we keep this city safe. As someone who used to live in this city, who has properties here, has friends here, I would think that the president, a former New Yorker, would understand we want to all keep this city safe.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also criticized the prospect of increased immigration enforcement, condemning ICE operations and reiterating his long-standing opposition to the agency.

“We have heard time and again threats of increases in immigration enforcement across our city. I want to be very clear about the fact that I believe that ICE raids are cruel; they are inhumane; [and] they do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety,” he told reporters.

“I’ve shared that directly with the president [and] I’ve shared that in public,” Mamdani noted. “It is a feeling that many New Yorkers share and I also do believe that ICE as an entity is one that should be abolished and that we should return to an immigration system that has more humanity at the heart of it.”

Hochul had pledged earlier this year to further limit ICE activity in New York following incidents in which immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.

In January, the governor proposed ending agreements that allow local correctional facilities to hold detainees on behalf of federal immigration authorities. One of the most significant remaining partnerships currently exists in Nassau County under County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican ally of President Trump who is seeking to challenge Hochul in November.

The newly enacted law also prohibits what supporters describe as information-sharing with immigration authorities, including situations in which local officers alert ICE that an undocumented immigrant may be in custody.

Republican lawmakers strongly opposed the legislation, arguing that it goes too far in limiting cooperation with federal authorities. Despite those objections, the measure passed both houses of the state legislature.

Although Homan has repeatedly threatened to increase immigration enforcement throughout New York if sanctuary-state legislation became law, no large-scale deployment has yet occurred.

For her part, Hochul has continued to oppose any expansion of ICE operations within the state.

“All I’ll say to Mr. Homan is Donald Trump himself said he would not send a surge of ICE agents to the state of New York, unless I asked,” Hochul said in May.

“I’m not asking.”

The governor also rejected claims that New York has become a sanctuary for criminals, arguing that the legislation is intended to keep local law enforcement focused on public safety issues within their communities.

“I have a right to protect every single New Yorker,” she said, telling ICE: “do your job somewhere else.”

“In New York, our local police need to be focused on local crimes not filling up our jails with people who ICE had taken off streets, out of our schools, out of our pizzerias, out of our homes, and I’m not going to be part of that,” Hochul continued.

“So we’ll help you with the criminals – always have, always will – but we’re not going to be helping with civil immigration enforcement. I think that’s a common sense approach.”