Exclusive | Tom Homan reveals to Pod Force One that ICE crackdown on Mexican, Colombian drug cartels preceded LA riots

Border czar Tom Homan revealed in an exclusive sit-down with Post columnist Miranda Devine that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were originally sent to Los Angeles as part of a crackdown on sources of drug cartel funding — before the city descended into riots and looting.In a new episode of “Pod Force One,” Homan disclosed that this month’s Los Angeles clashes over ICE enforcement came after officers had served criminal arrest warrants for “money laundering, tax evasion” and other cartel-linked crimes — and rounded up “child sexual predators, rapists, [and] murderers.”Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington.Subscribe here!“There is [a] strong suspicion that some of that funding is sent to Mexico and Colombia to fund cartel activity,” Homan told Devine of the underlying criminal probe.“It was a criminal operation, a criminal investigation and criminal search warrant,” the border czar said, referencing “millions of dollars” in potential cartel revenue.

“But right away, the left went nuts.”California Gov.Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, denounced the ICE raids that resulted in the apprehension of more than 100 illegal migrants – including five gang members and others with past criminal charges of assault, cruelty to children and robbery.“Everybody talked about the racist ICE, even members of Congress and yeah, Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass,” Homan recalled on the podcast.

“The truth was, look at who we arrested.Look at the warrants we served.”Newsom, in a primetime address posted to his X account June 11, denounced what he called “large-scale workplace raids” by the Trump administration, which he said were “targeting hardworking immigrant families.”“In response, everyday Angelinos came out to exercise their Constitutional right to free speech and assembly, to prot...