Border Czar Tom Homan told reporters Thursday that “justice is coming” for people he says are funding and organizing efforts to disrupt immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis.
Real America’s Voice reporter Ben Berquam asked Homan what authorities are doing about “leadership” on Signal and WhatsApp chats that he said are organizing attacks and obstruction, and whether those individuals could face arrests.
Homan replied that he would not share details about the organization or funding behind the alleged targeting of ICE, saying he did not want to “show our hand,” but insisted those involved “will be held accountable.”
“We’ve got to all remember … what started this,” Homan continued, pointing to what he described as four years of an open border and “millions of people” entering the country “unvetted.”
He also criticized politicians who have condemned immigration enforcement operations, asking where they were, he said, “the last four years” when sex trafficking of women and children hit an all-time high and when “a quarter of a million Americans died from fentanyl coming across the border.”
“Now, we’re just trying to respond to what happened the last four years, and keep this country safe,” Homan said. “And we’re arresting a lot of public safety threats and taking them off the streets.”
Homan declines to comment on video or shooting death
A reporter then asked Homan about a video posted Wednesday on social media that appears to show Alex Pretti in a violent confrontation with federal agents more than a week before he was shot by Border Patrol officers during a skirmish on Saturday.
The Jan. 13 footage shows Pretti, who appears to be armed, yelling profanities at federal agents and repeatedly kicking an SUV’s taillight until it breaks off. Agents then got out, grabbed him, and pushed him to the ground, but ultimately released him.
Homan declined to comment on the Jan. 13 video or on Pretti’s death, saying he wanted to let the investigation play out.
“The president, one of the words he said to me when I came up here, he said he doesn’t want to see anybody die,” Homan said. “I don’t want to see anybody die, even the people we’re looking for. I don’t want to see anybody die.”
Claims of coordinated “spotters” and chat networks
Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams, who reported from Minneapolis, wrote on social media Sunday that the protests were unusually coordinated.
“I’ve covered a lot of protests. Never seen anything quite like this. Organized is an understatement,” she wrote.
McAdams also told Fox News host Sean Hannity earlier this month that demonstrators had “spotters … all over the city,” tracking who enters and leaves the federal building and, she said, sharing information through Signal chats.
“They see who pulls in and out of the federal building, whether they’re ICE agents or not,” she said. “They want to track you down, they want to put you in a database, and then it’s shared, according to DHS sources, through Signal chats.”
A former Special Forces soldier who served in Afghanistan posted on social media Sunday that what was happening in Minneapolis resembled something more structured than a typical protest, describing it as “low-level insurgency infrastructure.”
He claimed the networks were organized into zones with large Signal groups and defined roles, including vehicle tracking, license-plate logging into shared databases, and around-the-clock “dispatch” functions. He also described “SALUTE-style reporting” — “Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment” — focused on suspected federal vehicles.
