The Boston City Council member who recently mocked Border Czar Tom Homan’s employment history walked back her comments in a follow-up post about the Trump administration official.
Councilwoman Sharon Durkan, who accused Homan of spending his career “policing a town smaller than a Fenway Park crowd,” posted a clarification shortly after a Fox News Digital request for comment on Sunday evening.
“Yes, I understand that Tom Homan spent his career as a federal agent within Border Patrol & ICE, but that’s a world away from the realities of policing a major city,” Durkan explained. “His background is in immigration enforcement, not community policing – where trust and accountability are key.”
The Smith College graduate raised eyebrows after mocking Homan’s brief stint as a police officer in West Carthage, New York, implying that he was unqualified to enforce President Donald Trump’s border policy in Boston because of that experience. But Homan’s time in the small-town department only lasted from 1983 to 1984, before he became a Border Patrol agent and eventually worked his way through the ranks of the Obama and Trump administrations.
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Councilwoman Sharon Durkan, a member of the Boston City Council, recently clarified her remarks about Border Czar Tom Homan. (Getty Images)
“Laughable that someone who spent their career policing a town smaller than a Fenway Park crowd thinks they can lecture Boston on public safety,” the councilwoman’s original Feb. 23 post read. “Commissioner Michael Cox serves with distinction and earns trust with integrity.”
“Tom Homan should know, we don’t scare easy,” Durkan added.
Durkan’s remarks came after Homan called out Beantown during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday, specifically calling out Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox for enforcing the city’s sanctuary policies.
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District 8 City Councilwoman Sharon Durkan, left, prepares to canvas in Beacon Hill in 2023. (Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“I’m coming to Boston, and I’m bringing hell with me,” Homan said during his speech. “I looked at the numbers this morning… I stopped counting at nine. Nine child rapists that were in jail in Massachusetts, but rather than honoring an ICE detainer, you released them back into the street.”
“You’re not a police commissioner,” the Trump administration official added. “Take that badge off your chest. Put it in the desk drawer. Because you became a politician. You forgot what it’s like to be a cop.”
Massachusetts and the greater Boston area have seen several arrests of criminal migrants in recent weeks, including an illegal immigrant connected to a violent Brazilian gang who was recently arrested in Bellingham. Cox has previously said that his department “doesn’t enforce detainers” that are filed by ICE, and that Boston cops “abide by Boston law and Massachusetts law.”
“The Boston Police Department has pretty defined rules and we abide by the law here in the state,” the police chief said on a segment of WCVB’s “On the Record” show. “We don’t enforce civil detainers regarding federal immigration law. It’s defined here in the state, and that’s just how it works.”
Tom Homan, White House border czar, speaks to members of the media outside the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital reached out to Durkan for additional comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.