PHOENIX — The Trump administration threatened to flood New York with federal agents performing deportation roundups if the state passes a law that cuts off immigration enforcement cooperation, border czar Tom Homan said at a business conference Tuesday.

Speaking to government contractors at the Border Security Expo 2026 in Phoenix, Homan vowed to continue the aggressive tactics used recently by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol teams in Los Angeles, Memphis and Minneapolis. But he singled out New York, where Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a bill that would bar police departments from partnering with federal agents on immigration enforcement with legal arrangements called 287(g) agreements.

“You want to do that to us?” Homan asked from the stage. “Rather than one agent arresting a public safety threat in the safety and security of a jail ... now we’re going to send a whole team to find this person ... six or seven guys.

“We’re gonna flood the zone. You’re gonna see more ICE agents than you’ve ever seen before,” he declared.

Homan made clear that federal agents would be given instructions to also arrest any undocumented immigrants they encountered along the way — referring to this strategy as “collateral” damage, employing military jargon that means undesired injury to civilians.

“We’ll find the bad guy. And when we find the bad guy, he’s with others — others that may not be a priority target ... guess what? They’re coming too. You’re going to see collateral arrests of aliens in your neighborhood,” he promised.

“No one is off the table,” he said.

In January, New York’s governor announced a proposed bill named “Local Cops, Local Crimes,” which would prohibit counties and cities from striking independent deals with the federal government that essentially deputize local officers as ICE agents.

In March, Hochul met privately with Homan in Albany to express her concerns about the Trump administration’s heavy-handed operations against immigrant communities — making clear that the state opposes building detention centers like those that have appeared in Texas, Florida and elsewhere. Homan was a no-show at the press conference that followed the meeting.

And while President Donald Trump himself has developed a seemingly warm relationship with Democratic New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the mayor has remained adamant that the New York City Police Department will not assist with ICE operations. That promise has come under scrutiny this week, given NYPD’s deployment against demonstrators who showed up to protest those deportation arrests outside a hospital over the weekend.

Upon hearing about Homan’s remarks Tuesday, Hochul said, “All I have to say to Tom Homan is, Donald Trump himself said he would not send a surge of ICE agents to the state of New York unless I ask …. I’m not asking.”

During his speech in Phoenix, Homan claimed the Trump administration has “shattered” the record set by the Obama administration by performing 800,000 removals — nearly double what he called the previous annual record of 409,000 deportations. Accurate numbers are hard to pin down, given the lack of government transparency on immigration enforcement and a lag time in making data public. However, some policy experts have estimated more than half a million deportations last year, while the chief academic group tracking this subject estimated much lower than that.

Homan said he spoke to “the secretary” this morning — presumably Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin — about rapidly hiring more ICE agents by tapping the massive budget increase approved by Congress last year.

“If you think last year’s numbers are good, wait till we hire 10,000 more deportation officers. You ain’t seen shit yet,” he said. “We’re gonna continue this mission. We’re not giving an inch.”