Tom Homan has delivered a message to Rama Duwaji, and he did not bother to wrap it in diplomatic language. The border czar, who has made a career out of saying exactly what he thinks, warned the wife of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to stop standing in the way of federal immigration agents. If she keeps it up, he said, he will handle it himself.
“I’ll go down to that mosque of hers and put the cuffs on her personally,” Homan told reporters.
The comment landed like a brick through a window. Duwaji, an illustrator and artist, has become one of the most visible critics of ICE in New York, using her platform to condemn raids and encourage neighbors to stand up for immigrant families. To her supporters, that is activism. To Homan, she keeps getting in the way of agents who are just doing their work.
“Tom has a simple view of this,” said Alexa Bruno, a former Department of Homeland Security staffer. “Say whatever you want about ICE. Paint whatever you want. But the moment it turns into blocking officers, he considers that his business. He was sending a signal.”
Homan has clashed with Mamdani’s administration almost from the day the mayor took office. City Hall has vowed to limit cooperation with federal enforcement, and Duwaji has amplified that stance online. Homan has repeatedly accused city leaders of putting officers in danger.
The reaction to his warning was fast and loud. Progressive groups called it an attempt to intimidate a private citizen for her speech. Muslim advocacy organizations criticized the reference to her mosque, saying it dragged a house of worship into a political fight. Some Democrats in Congress called for Homan to apologize.
He has not.
“I’ll put the cuffs on her,” he repeated when a reporter asked whether he regretted the remark. “If she interferes with my officers, I’ll do it myself. That’s not a threat, that’s a promise.”
Homan’s allies argue the uproar misses the point. He was not claiming she broke any law, they said. He was drawing a line for the future and making clear he will not treat her differently because of who her husband is.
“He talks like a cop from Watertown because he is one,” Bruno said. “That’s his style. He says the quiet part and lets everybody else panic about it.”
Mamdani responded briefly, saying his wife has every right to speak and that no federal official will scare his family. Duwaji has not addressed Homan directly, though she posted a new piece of artwork the same evening that many took as a reply.
Whether this turns into anything more than an angry exchange remains to be seen. Homan rarely backs down, and Duwaji shows no sign of going quiet. New York, meanwhile, has a new feud to follow, and nobody expects it to cool off soon. Homan’s office did not respond to a request for further comment.
