"Um, the President of the United States called me Monday morning and asked me to deploy here. I got here Monday evening, and I'm staying until the problem's gone."

Said Tom Homan, in Minneapolis, just now. I'm quoting from the transcript at YouTube, here, along with video.

What follows is my edit of the high points from the 35-minute performance:

President Trump promised the American people, including the residents of Minnesota, that he would work to ensure our communities are safe. And with that, this administration has absolutely focused on identifying removable aliens that pose a public safety threat and national security threats. The numbers prove it. The data proves it. In the past few days, I have met with Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, Mayor Frey, numerous police chiefs and sheriffs, and I have more to meet. I'll also be continuing the dialogue with business and religious leaders in partnership in Minnesota—your communities. I'll be meeting with them too, because I want to hear what they have to say. 

In my meetings with folks so far—and most importantly the governor and the AG to Mayor Fry—we didn't agree on everything. I didn't expect to agree on anything. I've heard many people want to know why we're talking to people who they don't consider friends of the administration. Bottom line is you can't fix problems if you don't have discussions. I didn't come to Minnesota for photo ops or headlines. I came here to seek solutions, and that's what we're going to do. We've come a long way, and we've got some good wins for the people of Minnesota, I think, and for the administration and for the safety [and] security of this city. 

One thing we did agree on, though—everybody I talked to agreed on—was that community safety is paramount. One thing we all agreed on was [that] U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a legitimate law enforcement agency that has a duty to enforce the laws enacted by Congress and keep this community safe. 

Like I've said many times for the last several years, even before this administration, jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities are sanctuaries for criminals. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and endanger the residents of the community. 

To be clear, we did not agree with Minnesota state and local officials that they would be involved in immigration enforcement. I didn't ask them to be immigration officers. I'm asking them to be cops working with the cops to help us take criminal aliens off the street. 

What we did agree upon is not to release public safety threats back into the community and [that] they could be lawfully transferred to ICE. I'll speak more about that. I will highlight that the Minnesota State Prison System under the Department of Corrections has been honoring ICE detainers, and we appreciate the important collaboration. We're going to expand upon that. That decision has made Minnesota safer—not only for residents of Minnesota, but for the men and women of law enforcement, not just ICE, all law enforcement. Rather than arresting the same significant public safety threat over and over again, they agreed to work with us to identify those people and remove them. 

I'm also pleased to announce I had a very good meeting with Attorney General Ellison, and he has clarified for me that county jails may notify ICE of the release dates of criminal public safety risks so ICE can take custody of them upon release from the jail. And let me tell you why that's important. I know people are a little concerned about law enforcement manpower. Look, I've said this many times before—I've said it for the last several years: Give us access to the illegal alien public safety threat in the safety and security of a jail. It's common sense. It's safer for the community. It's safer for the agent. And it's safer for the alien, because anything can happen on a street arrest. It just makes common sense. 

And for the people that argue, "Well, we're a welcoming community because we want victims and witnesses of crime that are here illegally to feel safe to come to police without fear of working with ICE"—we're not going to talk to the victim [or] witness of the crime. There's no problem there. They should feel safe to come to the police and ask for help. All we want is to talk to the person that local and state law enforcement authorities locked in a jail cell. They chose to lock this person up. That's who we want to talk to: the public safety threat. So the argument that it protects victims [and] witnesses of crime—it's a bunch of crap. Victims and witnesses of crime don't want the bad guy back in their neighborhood either. So great progress. 

We're there with the attorney general and local sheriffs. And one thing [is that] when we have these agreements, it takes less law enforcement agents to do the job. One agent can arrest one bad guy in the safety and security of a jail where he's behind the wire. We know he doesn't have weapons. But when you normally release that public safety threat—illegal alien—back into the community, we have a job to do. We're going to arrest him. So we're going to find him. And what happens is now we've got to arrest somebody on his turf. He has access to who knows what weapons. Now we've got to send the whole team out—cover the back door, cover the front door—for officer safety reasons. Then, because of the hateful rhetoric and the attacks on ICE officers, now we've got to send a security team behind the arrest team. So what could have been done with one person in the safety and security of a jail, now we've got 15, 16 people out there doing it. 

I know that causes stress in the community. So if we get these agreements in place, that means less agents on the street. More agents in the jail means less agents in the street. This is common sense cooperation that allows us to draw down on the number of people we have here. Yes, I said it: draw down the number of people here because we have the efficiency and safety of the jails and the prison. Matter of fact, I have staff from CBP and ICE working on a draw-down plan. What does that look like based on the cooperation? What does that look like based on how many targets we have left to find? In my meetings with Governor Walz, AG Ellison, and Mayor Fry, as well as state and local law enforcement, again, I appreciate [that] they all acknowledge that we do have federal immigration laws in this country that have been passed by Congress and that ICE is in fact a legitimate law enforcement agency charged with enforcing those laws. We're not making this up, folks. ICE is enforcing laws enacted by Congress. They're in federal statute. 

That said, I'm not here because the federal government has carried this mission out perfectly. The first thing I said to senior staff when I walked in here—that's what I told you—I didn't come here looking for ops or headlines. I came here looking for solutions. I do not want to hear that everything that's been done here has been perfect. Nothing's ever perfect, and anything can be improved on. And what we've been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient, by the book. 

The mission is going to improve because of the changes we're making internally. No agency [or] organization is perfect. President Trump and I, along with others in the administration, have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made. That's exactly what I'm doing here. As such, in meetings I've had with federal law enforcement managers—including ICE and CBP and other federal partners—as well as state and local officials, I have conveyed the president's expectations with regard to federal immigration enforcement efforts.  We will conduct targeted enforcement operations. Targeted—what we've done for decades. When we hit the streets, we know exactly who we're looking for [and have a] good idea where we may find them. You have a criminal history. You have their immigration history. A lot of information about this person that we get from numerous databases out there. Targeted, strategic enforcement operations. That's traditionally been the case, and that's where we're going. That's what we're going to continue to do and improve upon with the prioritization on public safety threats. 

I want to be clear. I don't read a lot of social media. I don't read a lot of media. I can only believe half [of what] I see. We are not surrendering the president's mission in immigration enforcement. Let's make that clear. Prioritization of criminal aliens doesn't mean we forget about everybody else. That's just simply ridiculous. But when you have a criminal standing here and a noncriminal standing there, that criminal always should be targeted first because he's a significant concern to the safety and security of the community. 

By and large, for decades, ICE and CBP have carried out their duties with integrity, professionalism, and compassion. That remains the expectation under President Trump, and I will hold our agents and officers to that standard.... 

As far as the agitators, I want to reiterate and make very clear: ICE and CBP officers are performing their duties in a challenging environment under tremendous circumstances, but they're trying to do it with professionalism. If they don't, they'll be dealt with. Like any other federal agency, we have standards of conduct. They are sworn law enforcement officers working tirelessly to enforce our country's border security [and] immigration laws, protecting the interests of our country, and preventing dangerous people from walking the streets of this nation when they're not supposed to be here to begin with. 

Men and women of ICE: I was a Border Patrol agent. I was an ICE agent. I was the first ICE director [who] came up through the ranks. I spent over 40 years doing this. These men and women that carry that badge and gun are American patriots. They put themselves on the line for this nation every day. But I want you to remember: they don't hang their badge [or] their heart on the hook every day to come to work. They're mothers and fathers too. They're sons and daughters too. If they've seen a fraction of the tragedies I've seen in my career, they take a lot of that damage home every day. The things they've seen—especially on the border: people drowning in the river, women being raped by criminal cartels, giving CPR to a baby that was thrown in the river by the cartels because the Border Patrol came too close. So they throw the baby in the river—that way the Border Patrol is concentrated on that so [they] can get away. These men and women see some terrible things, but I want you to remember they're mothers and fathers too. Many of them are members of this community. God bless every one of them. 

The hostile rhetoric and dangerous threats and hate must stop. And we all agreed to that. Everybody here today will tell you we've got to stop the hateful rhetoric that has caused an increase in assaults—that has caused us to send security teams out with arrest teams, which surges this city with additional resources because of the threats [and] because of the assaults. 

Again, with the agreements we've achieved and [with] follow-through on the agreements, with the rhetoric dropping down, that allows us to pull more agents out once we feel the environment is safer. I begged for the last two months on TV for the rhetoric to stop. I said in March, if the rhetoric didn't stop, there's going to be bloodshed. And there has been. I wish I wasn't right. I don't want to see anybody die—not officers, not members of the community, and not the targets of our operations. For the people out there [who] don't like what ICE is doing: if you want certain laws reformed, take it up with Congress. Again, ICE is not making this up. They're enforcing laws enacted by Congress and signed by presidents. 

The same laws have been on the books for the last six presidents I worked for—I started with President Reagan and [am] ending with President Trump. Every administration, we enforce the same laws. If you don't like what ICE is doing, instead of protesting this building, go protest Congress. Tell them what changes [you want]. You have your First Amendment rights. I support that. You have the right to protest. I'm just asking to keep it peaceful. But threatening law enforcement officers, engaging in impeding and obstruction, and assault is never okay. And there will be zero tolerance. You interfere, impede [or] assault ICE officers, you will be arrested. 

Like I said a bit earlier, in my meetings with Governor Walz, Ellison, and Frey as well as state and local law enforcement, I appreciate [that] they acknowledge public safety should be paramount. The chiefs I've talked to committed to responding to 911 calls when protesters turn violent, [when] agents are in a dangerous situation and there's assaults. They have committed to upholding public safety and responding to the needs—not to enforce immigration law, but to keep the peace. With that, I call upon those officials to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us to tone down the dangerous rhetoric and condemn all unlawful actions against law enforcement in the community.... 

President Trump wants this fixed, and I'm gonna fix it with your help....