White House border czar Tom Homan delivered a blunt message Tuesday to migrants being held at a New Jersey immigration detention facility: hunger strikes will not pressure the Trump administration into changing course on immigration enforcement.
Speaking with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Homan addressed the ongoing hunger strike involving detainees at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, where migrants have reportedly been protesting conditions inside the facility.
“Look, I have done this since 1984,” Homan said during the interview. “Hunger strikes never work. We are not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike.”
Homan went further, warning that federal authorities would seek court approval to intervene medically if detainees endangered themselves.
“And matter of fact, if it gets bad enough and the prisoners feel like they’re putting themselves in extreme danger, medical danger, then we’ll force-feed them,” Homan said. “We will get a court order and force-feed them.”
The remarks underscore the Trump administration’s hardline approach toward immigration enforcement at a time when tensions surrounding detention facilities continue escalating across the country. Homan insisted that hunger strikes would not result in detainees being released and pledged that ICE operations would continue uninterrupted.
“We’ll continue to arrest people. We’ll continue to detain people,” he said.
The border czar also defended immigration detention centers, arguing that federal facilities maintain higher standards than many other correctional institutions in the United States.
Homan described ICE detention facilities as “better than any state prison, county jail or federal lockup,” calling them the highest standards “in the industry.”
Outside Delaney Hall, demonstrations have intensified since Friday as activists and protesters gathered in solidarity with the detained migrants. Homan sharply criticized those demonstrations, particularly because they occurred during Memorial Day observances.
“The day we’re supposed to honor those who gave all, and [protesters are] there disrespecting and attacking those men and women of ICE who strap a gun to their hip every day [and] go out and protect people they don’t even know or never will meet,” Homan said. “It’s a disgrace to this nation.”
The protests have also drawn prominent New Jersey Democrats to the facility. Gov. Mikie Sherrill reportedly attempted to enter Delaney Hall over the weekend but was denied access. However, Sen. Andy Kim was allowed inside after personally contacting Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Clashes outside the facility escalated when ICE officers fired pepper pellets at demonstrators. Kim was later seen being treated after exposure to the chemical irritants, with water poured into his eyes. Protesters were eventually dispersed, and some demonstrators were tackled and arrested Monday by immigration enforcement officials.
Following the confrontation, Kim condemned the administration’s handling of the facility.
“What I witnessed and experienced today was shameful,” the senator wrote on X. “Delaney Hall is a failure; it’s this administration’s failure. The only way to make this right for our communities is to shut it down and make sure the failures we’ve seen never happen again.”
Meanwhile, Mullin fired back at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after Schumer posted images comparing Kim’s exposure to pepper spray with a previous confrontation involving Sen. Alex Padilla.
“When even U.S. Senators are targeted, every American should understand: no one is safe from ICE’s abuses,” Schumer wrote.
Mullin responded forcefully on X, accusing Democrats of demonizing law enforcement while DHS focuses on border enforcement and deporting violent illegal immigrants.
The increasingly heated rhetoric surrounding immigration detention reflects a nation still deeply divided over border security, federal enforcement powers, and how far government authorities should go in carrying out those policies.
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