Tom Homan Unleashes on Anti-ICE Activist in Heated Showdown

Tom Homan slammed a heck­ler dur­ing his TPUSA speech, vow­ing a his­toric depor­ta­tion push as protests erupt nation­wide (X/TPUSA.com

TAMPA, FLORIDA: Don­ald Trump admin­is­tra­tion bor­der czar Tom Homan deliv­ered a fiery and defi­ant speech Sat­ur­day night, July 12, at Turn­ing Point USA’s Stu­dent Action Sum­mit, promis­ing what he called the “biggest depor­ta­tion oper­a­tion this coun­try has ever seen.

His remarks, made in response to a heck­ler and set against the back­drop of grow­ing anti-ICE protestsnation­wide, drew loud chants of “U‑S-A” from the crowd and have since gone viral.

Heck­ler dis­rupts Tom Homan’s speech, trig­ger­ing fierce defense of ICE and vows of mass depor­ta­tions

About five min­utes into his address, Tom Homan was inter­rupt­ed by a heck­ler who shout­ed, “Are you an MS-13 mem­ber?”, a ref­er­ence to the vio­lent crim­i­nal gang tar­get­ed by Trump-era depor­ta­tion poli­cies.

Heck­ler inter­rupts Tom Homan mid-speech with MS-13 jab, trig­ger­ing fiery come­back and crowd erup­tion at TPUSA sum­mit (screenshot/TPUSA.com)

Secu­ri­ty quick­ly escort­ed the pro­test­er out of the venue, prompt­ing Homan to inten­si­fy his tone.

“This guy wouldn’t know what it’s like to serve this nation. This guy ain’t got the balls to be an ICE offi­cer. He hasn’t got the balls to be a bor­der patrol agent,” Homan said to cheers. “This guy lives in his mother’s base­ment. The only thing that sur­prised me is [he] doesn’t have pur­ple hair and a nose ring. Get out of here, you los­er.”

White House bor­der czar Tom Homan has been appoint­ed by Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump to over­see what the White House calls the largest ‘mass depor­ta­tions’ of undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants in Amer­i­can his­to­ry (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

He closed his remarks with a dra­mat­ic pledge: “Tom Homan is going to run the biggest depor­ta­tion oper­a­tion this coun­try has ever seen. Take it to the bank.”

Tom Homan fires back at anti-ICE protesters during fiery TPUSA speech in Tampa

Tom Homan used his plat­form to launch a broad­er rebuke of anti-ICE demon­stra­tors, many of whom had gath­ered out­side the Tam­pa sum­mit with signs denounc­ing fed­er­al immi­gra­tion enforce­men

You want some? Come get some,” Homan declared. “I’m tired of it. For the men and women of ICE, I deserve your respect. They’re the finest 1% this coun­try has. And Tom Homan isn’t going any­where. Tom Homan isn’t shut­ting up.”

Although Homan said he hadn’t per­son­al­ly seen pro­test­ers upon arriv­ing at the venue, demon­stra­tions did take place out­side the event on July 12

Pro­test­ers car­ried signs such as “ICE kills farm­ers” and waved ban­ners reject­ing the Trump administration’s immi­gra­tion poli­cies

Nationwide protests after Donald Trump signs immigration reform bill

The Tam­pa protests were the lat­est in a series of esca­lat­ing demon­stra­tions fol­low­ing Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s sign­ing of what he called a “big, beau­ti­ful bill” last week, a sweep­ing immi­gra­tion reform pack­age.

In recent days, fed­er­al offi­cers have been ambushed in Texas, and clash­es have erupt­ed between pro­test­ers and law enforce­ment at ICE facil­i­ties in Port­land, Ore­gon.

In Oxnard and Camar­il­lo, Cal­i­for­nia, pro­test­ers squared off against Nation­al Guard troops dur­ing immi­gra­tion raids at local farms. Mean­while, ral­lies con­tin­ued in Man­hat­tan and Los Ange­les, where recent demon­stra­tions have turned vio­lent

Atten­dees at Turn­ing Point USA’s Stu­dent Action Sum­mit chant ‘ICE! ICE! ICE!’ to drown out anti-ICE pro­test­ers in Tam­pa ( X/Paul A Szy­pu­la )

One pro­test­er out­side 26 Fed­er­al Plaza in New York held a sign con­demn­ing ICE’s role in depor­ta­tions, part of a grow­ing move­ment accus­ing the agency of human rights abus­es and racial tar­get­ing

Tom Homan defends ICE, praises Donald Trump’s border policy 

Unapolo­getic in both tone and mes­sage, Tom Homan expressed pride in the role ICE and Bor­der Patrol agents have played in enforc­ing immi­gra­tion law under Don­ald Trump. He crit­i­cized what he described as grow­ing pub­lic hos­til­i­ty toward law enforce­ment and praised the for­mer president’s immi­gra­tion record.

I have nev­er seen such hate against the men and women of ICE and in the Bor­der Patrol,” Homan said. 

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump shakes hands with his bor­der czar Tom Homan dur­ing a ‘One, Big, Beau­ti­ful’ event in the East Room of the White House on June 26, 2025, in Wash­ing­ton, DC. Trump held an event to urge the pas­sage of the ‘One, Big, Beau­ti­ful Bill,’ Trump’s sig­na­ture tax-and-spend­ing agen­da (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Under his lead­er­ship, we got the most secure bor­der in the his­to­ry of the nation, and we did that in sev­en weeks. Pres­i­dent Trump did in sev­en weeks what Joe Biden couldn’t or wouldn’t do in four years.”