Immigration chief: Trump has done more for public safety than last 5 presidents

President Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday said that Trump has done more for public safety than any of the previous five presidents.

Thomas Homan said on “Fox & Friends” that the president has strengthened border security by letting ICE officials “do their job.”

“This president has done more for border security and public safety than any of the six presidents I’ve worked for,” he said. “Just since his leadership in January, border crossings are at a 45-year low. Now that’s not a coincidence. That’s because this president has let the men and women of Border Patrol and ICE do their job.”

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Trump tapped Homan, who has served ICE for more than 30 years, as acting director of the agency soon after he took office. Trump nominated Homan as the permanent director in November.

Immigration arrests surged in the first months of Trump’s presidency, with the biggest increase being arrests of immigrants without criminal records.

Trump campaigned on a hard-line immigration stance, including strengthening border security through a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and cracking down on illegal immigration and “sanctuary” cities. In September, ICE arrested hundreds of immigrants in a series of crackdowns on sanctuary cities.

The president renewed his calls for a border wall last week after an immigrant who was living in the U.S. illegally was acquitted in the 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle.

ICE under Trump has faced backlash over its crackdowns, particularly for the arrest of a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, who was detained after border patrol agents waited at the hospital where she was having emergency surgery.