WASHINGTON — Border czar Tom Homan made clear there’s still no love lost between him and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in an interview Sunday.
Homan declined to defend Noem when CNN host Jake Tapper read a complaint a Minnesota politician claiming that she and former Border Patrol commander-at-large Greg Bovino “insane.”
“I talked to a local Minnesota official who told me the following: ‘Homan has been a straight shooter with us. He is easier for us to work with because he’s a career cop, and he knows how to talk with our law enforcement,” Tapper told Homan on the network’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
“Noem and Bovino were actually insane and not here to do anything other than put on a show,” Tapper added, asking the border czar why Noem and Bovino “struggled so much” to work with local officials in Minnesota.
Homan glossed over the broadside against Noem and Bovino, without defending them, and recounted how President Trump dispatched him to Minnesota, and he “just did things the way I’ve done for 40 years.”
“You can’t fix problems talking in an echo chamber. You got to talk to the people that you may disagree with. People have different opinions on how you’re doing it?” Homan said. “I think it’s safer in Minnesota, it’s safer in Minneapolis because now we have coordination from the jails.”
Homan also admitted to disagreeing with Noem, but declined to elaborate on specifics.
“I’m not going to let the media divide this administration,” Homan said when asked if DHS has a credibility problem. “It’s one team, one fight. Do me and Secretary Noem agree on everything? No.”
Behind the scenes, Homan and Noem have been at the center of a power struggle over how to approach Trump’s deportation agenda. Homan has preferred to prioritize targeting criminal illegal aliens, while Noem has wanted to go after everyone in the US illegally and conduct broad-based sweeps.
Last week, Homan announced the end of Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota, which began late last year in response to a massive fraud scandal that has roiled the state.
At the height of the operation, some 3,000 feds had deployed to Minneapolis, dwarfing the 600 local cops on the ground there. Following the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Trump tasked Homan with trekking over to the state and de-escalating the situation.
Noem has publicly defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol officers involved in the shootings. Homan has refrained from doing so and repeated that approach on Sunday.
“I’ve said from day one, from the very first shooting, that I would not comment on the shootings. We’ll let the investigations play out,” he said. “We’ll let the investigation continue and see what’s decided based on the evidence.”
The apparent cold shoulder from Homan on Sunday comes on the heels of a scathing Wall Street Journal report that Noem vented frustration at staff if he was on TV more than her. In one instance, she reportedly asked aides to ensure she’d have a larger crowd than him.
DHS has denied those details in that report.
In the public eye, Noem has praised Homan, including during a recent event in Arizona, where she touted border security and thanked him for his efforts. Homan wasn’t present for that event because of his duties in Minnesota at the time.
Homan also largely refrained from defending Noem when pressed about her recent suggestion that the DHS will ensure “we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders.”
“I don’t know. That’d be a question for the secretary,” he said. “If I had to guess, it’s probably only those legally eligible to vote will vote, but I don’t know. I have not talked to the secretary about those statements. That’s something she’d have to answer.”
