Border czar Tom Homan forced a CBS correspondent to admit he didn't know how many migrants died in ICE custody under Biden — after the reporter tried to pin a record death count on the Trump administration's enforcement push. The exchange laid bare the press playbook: frame enforcement as the crisis, bury the body count from open borders.
CBS News immigration correspondent Camilo Montoya-Galvez sat down with Homan on Friday armed with a stat: 57 people have died in ICE custody so far under this administration, and 2026 could set a "new record high." The framing was clear — more enforcement means more death, and the Trump team owns it.
Homan wasn't having it. "How many people died during the Biden administration?" he asked. A long pause followed. Montoya-Galvez offered "a significant number." Homan pressed: "Do you know?" The reporter deflected: "But this is going to be the highest year in 2026 — I'm just asking if the pace continues —" Homan pressed again. "I don't have the data here," Montoya-Galvez admitted. "Of course you don't," Homan said. "Again, it's another loaded question against the Trump administration."
And that's the whole game. CBS showed up with Trump-era data to frame a narrative but couldn't be bothered to bring the Biden numbers for context — because context would destroy the story. Under Biden, millions crossed unchecked. Fentanyl flooded in. Migrants died in the desert, in stash houses, in the back of trucks. But CBS wants to talk about ICE detention standards.
Homan gave them the facts anyway. ICE detention populations have doubled — roughly 74,000 in custody — so of course the raw number of in-custody deaths rises. The death rate, Homan argued, remains among the lowest of any state or federal detention system. He said ICE maintains "the highest detention standards in industry" and that many detainees from third-world nations receive medical care for conditions they didn't even know they had. When he ran ICE, the agency spent nearly a billion dollars on medical care.
"It's unfortunate, and it's sad when anybody dies," Homan said. "I don't want to see anybody die, but we do everything we can to give them the best medical care that we can provide."
Former Trump domestic policy official Theo Wold slammed Montoya-Galvez's questioning in comments to Fox News Digital, calling out the journalistic double standard — though both outlets truncated his full remarks.
The real question isn't why CBS asked about deaths in custody. It's why they didn't ask about the thousands who died because no one was in custody at all — the migrants abandoned by a Biden policy that waved them through and forgot them. The press wants you outraged about 57 deaths under enforcement. They're counting on you never asking about the rest.
