Thousands of ICE to be reassigned from desk jobs as Trump to ‘flood’ sanctuary cities with agents

 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who spent the last four years stuck behind a desk processing illegal migrants under the Biden-Harris administration are preparing to get back out into the field — as President-elect Donald Trump and his “border czar” Tom Homan vowed to “flood” sanctuary cities with agents.

The move would mean thousands of desk-bound ICE officers will soon be out making arrests of the millions of illegal immigrants who snuck across the besieged southern border and are now roaming American streets. 

The federal agency has a total workforce of about 21,000 employees, which includes non-law enforcement personnel who handle administration work, according to a Department of Homeland Security budget overview.

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President-elect Donald Trump will inherit an agency depleted of manpower and funding to carry out his mass deportations, making the task all the more difficult.Getty Images

It is unclear exactly how many of the total law enforcement personnel will be reassigned from pushing paperwork, however, sources from a West Coast field office and an East Coast field office told The Post that an estimated 60-70% of their officers are currently stuck behind desks.

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ICE sources said the rank-and-file are excited to be “catching criminals that Biden let roam freely in the country for the last four years without any consequences.”

One source said they “can’t wait” to get back onto the streets while another said that while he hasn’t had any experience yet making arrests for ICE, his years of previous experience with Border Patrol will make it an easy task.

It will be a heavy lift for the new administration, however, which will need to train those officers who haven’t had experience making arrests under the Biden-Harris administration, sources said.

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Trump tapped his former acting ICE director, Tom Homan, to take over as “border czar.”REUTERS

In a recent interview with The Post, Homan — an ex-cop and former border agent from West Carthage, New York — put sanctuary cities, including the Big Apple, on notice, warning them to cooperate with the feds.

“If they’re not willing to do it then get out of the way — we’re coming,” Homan said, adding that enforcing tougher immigration laws will require a lot of manpower, “so if I have to flood agents to the sanctuary cities to get the job done then that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Meanwhile, ICE insiders worry they don’t have the resources even with the reassignments.

“The personnel have to be there to carry out these ‘mass deportations.’ Right now, a lot of units have been depleted,” said one ICE source.

“If the fugitive operations street team isn’t making enough arrests, they’ll crack down on them first,” the source added, referring to the agency’s program that assists field offices in locating and arresting migrants who represent a threat to national security or public safety.

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Thousands of desk-bound officers could be seen on the streets, making arrests.Gabriella Bass

“And if that’s still not enough, then they’ll probably be mandated to add more officers to the arrest team to make more arrests.”

There are dozens of vacant positions in each ICE office that need the funding in order to fill them, according to sources.

“They’re not able to fill them because they don’t have the funding for them,” a source opined. “They really defunded us without really saying it,” they added, referring to the Biden-Harris administration. 

Homan, who served in the last Trump administration as acting ICE director, said that in his first week on the job, he plans to visit the southern and northern borders and meet with Border Patrol and ICE personnel to get a sense of their greatest needs.

He also indicated that he would prioritize making arrests of illegal migrants who pose threats to national security and public safety, and bring back worksite raids, which the Biden-Harris administration halted in October 2021.

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ICE will need more funding for additional personnel and detention beds to carry out Trump’s mass deportations, agency sources told The Post.ICE
Meanwhile, some migrants are choosing to cross the border now because they fear the hawkish policies of the Trump administration.

One migrant family from Venezuela that crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, Wednesday morning told The Post that they’re taking a “risk” to come now because they very well believe they could be deported when Trump comes to power.

“It’s a risk,” one of the women from Venezuela said after slipping into the country and into the waiting arms of Border Patrol agents.

Neither ICE nor a Trump spokesperson immediately responded to requests for comment.

https://nypost.com/2024/11/14/us-news/thousands-of-ice-officers-to-be-reassigned-from-desk-jobs-under-trump-admin/

Penny interrogation video shows him tell detectives ‘I’m not trying to kill the guy’ hours after chokehold death

Daniel Penny appeared unaware that his chokehold on Jordan Neely had killed the homeless man — and tried to downplay the maneuver hours later, insisting he wasn’t “trying to kill the guy,” it was revealed in court Thursday.

“I wasn’t trying to injure him. I’m just trying to keep him from hurting anybody else,” the Marine veteran, 26, told two detectives during a videotaped interrogation shown to jurors.

“That’s what we are taught in the Marine Corps,” Penny added, referring to protecting others, in the footage played during the third week of his lightning-rod manslaughter trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.

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Daniel Penny appeared unaware that his chokehold on Jordan Neely had killed him.Steven Hirsch

Detective Brian McCarthy testified that he did not tell Penny that Neely had died during the interrogation — though video of the subway car shows that Penny witnessed police officers trying to revive a lifeless Neely minutes after the chokehold ended.

Investigators with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office were also, unbeknownst to Penny, watching him through a one-sided mirror at Chinatown’s 5th Precinct, McCarthy said.

It was the first time jurors got to hear the voice of the man whose fate they’ll weigh when they consider whether Penny is criminally responsible for Neely’s death.

“I’m not trying to kill the guy,” Penny told detectives in the video, insisting he let go of Neely, 30, “as soon” as two other men arrived to help restrain the homeless man — a statement that one of those men testified earlier this week is false.

“‘I am going to grab his hands, so you can let go,’” witness Eric Gonzalez said he told Penny after approaching him. He added he hoped Penny would remove his arm from Neely’s neck, but that Penny did not.

Penny’s lawyers tried to attack Gonzalez’s credibility by pointing out that he lied to investigators, claiming at first that Neely had hit him — a fib he explained by saying he’d been scared he’d get “pinned” on a murder charge.

In the interrogation video shown to jurors Thursday, Penny said he felt compelled to intervene after Neely was “acting crazy” and threatening passengers after bursting though the doors of the uptown F train.

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In a videotaped interrogation shown to jurors, Penny said, “I wasn’t trying to injure him. I’m just trying to keep him from hurting anybody else.”Manhattan District Attorney's Office

“He’s like, ‘I’m going to kill everybody,'” Penny, wearing a tan jacket, black hooded sweatshirt and black cap, told the detectives.

He can also be heard muttering under his breath that “all these people are pushing people in front of the train and stuff,” in an apparent reference to Neely, who was mentally ill.

The footage begins with Penny having a friendly chat with 5th Precinct Det. Michael Medina, also a former Marine, with the two men trading stories about their time in service. Penny also demonstrates the chokehold on Medina, the footage shows.

But the detectives also read Penny his Miranda rights, indicating that the statement could be used against him at a later time.

Detectives Medina and McCarthy asked Penny increasingly probing questions about whether he saw Neely threaten any specific straphanger, and whether he kept applying “pressure” to Neely’s neck after the two men arrived to help him restrain him.

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This was the first time jurors heard Penny talk about the incident on video, as they’ll weigh that along with other pieces of evidence as to whether he will be held criminally responsible for Neely’s death.Juan Vazquez

“You felt like someone’s life was in danger?” Medina asked at one point.

“100%,” Penny responded.

Jurors were given a transcript of the interrogation to read while they watched the footage.

But the jury did not see the end of the questioning, which stops abruptly after Penny, appearing to realize that he may be in trouble, asks if he is being detained, and then asks to speak to a lawyer.

It was not clear Thursday whether the decision to cut down the video, which was played in its entirety at a pre-trial hearing, was made by prosecutors, or the judge.

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Penny claims he felt the need to intervene after Neely was “acting crazy” and threatening passengers after bursting though the doors of the uptown F train.US Marine Corps

Penny’s lawyers pushed for the whole interrogation footage to be scrubbed from the trial, claiming Penny had been “unlawfully” detained, but Justice Maxwell Wiley denied the request.

Police ended up cutting Penny loose on the night of Neely’s death — but he was arrested 11 days later, after witness footage of the encounter surfaced online and drew outrage.

Jurors also heard Thursday morning from the martial arts trainer who taught Penny how to do what he called a “less than lethal” version of a chokehold during his time in the Marines.

Penny applied an “improper” version of the maneuver during last May’s subway takedown, the instructor, Joseph Caballer, testified.

Penny had been taught how to perform a “blood choke,” which is designed to knock someone out within 13 seconds after blocking the flow of blood to their brain, Caballer said.

Marines are taught to anchor their elbow in the middle of a target’s chest in such a move, Caballer said.

But after reviewing close-up footage of Penny’s chokehold of Neely on the floor of the train, Caballer testified that Penny had instead positioned his elbow closer to Neely’s left shoulder — with his forearm pressing into the homeless man’s windpipe.

Caballer added that Penny was taught that holding someone in a chokehold after they pass out could be deadly — and that Marines are taught to “release the pressure” on targets after they lose consciousness.

“Once the person is rendered unconscious, that’s when you’re supposed to let go,” Caballer, 30, testified.

Prosecutors say that Penny continued choking Neely for 51 seconds after his last “purposeful” movement, though Penny’s lawyers contest this point.

Caballer was also asked to describe to jurors what it feels like to be choked.

“It’s like you get a tingling sensation in your forehead, and then it’s almost like you’re trying to breathe through a crushed straw,” he testified. 

Cynthia Harris, the medical examiner who inspected Neely’s corpse, took the stand late Thursday and told jurors that the homeless man’s cause of death was found to be “compression of neck,” consistent with the use of a chokehold.

Penny is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the top charge.

He has pleaded not guilty, with his lawyers maintaining that he should be cleared of criminal charges because he was merely acting to protect terrified passengers from Neely.

They have also attempted to cast doubt on the city Medical Examiner’s ruling that Penny’s chokehold is what caused Neely’s death.

But prosecutors have countered that Penny choked Neely for far longer than he reasonably could have been considered a threat.

https://nypost.com/2024/11/14/us-news/daniel-penny-told-cops-im-not-trying-to-kill-the-guy-in-jordan-neely-death/