Thomas Homan, the former acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), eviscerated Democratic lawmakers who oppose the president’s border efforts.
“Look, I’ve been saying for months: Congress doesn’t care,” Homan said Friday on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “Look, I think their resistance to Trump … they want to see the president fail on the number one campaign promise. I said it many times. They’re putting their hatred of this president above their responsibilities to secure this border.”
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“They can’t be ignorant to what’s happening,” Homan, a longtime veteran of immigration enforcement, continued. “All you got to do is watch the videos, watch the borders. The borders … I’ve done this 34 years. It is unprecedented. I’ve never seen it this bad on the border. They’re sitting there watching the parade go by. Nothing is happening and they’re watching.”
The former ICE chief, who said that 9 out of 10 migrant families do not show up to their court hearing, claimed that the situation is “out of control” and the “worse I’ve ever seen it.”
Homan’s comments come as the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border continues to escalate. A total of 109,144 illegal migrants were either apprehended or turned back at the border in April. The numbers marked the second consecutive month where migrant encounters topped 100,000. Apprehensions at the border have risen steadily every month since January.
President Donald Trump, who has made immigration a cornerstone of his agenda, has begun to implement a number of directives to tamp down the crisis, such as border wall construction and changes to asylum procedures. However, many of his efforts have been challenged by congressional Democrats.
Maria Meza, a 40-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, runs away from tear gas with her five-year-old twin daughters Saira Mejia Meza (L) and Cheili Mejia Meza (R) in front of the border wall between the U.S and Mexico, in Tijuana, Mexico November 25, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-hoon
“The Democrats: They want to attack the Border Patrol, they want to attack ICE,” Homan said on Friday, calling on ICE to reform immigration laws instead of attacking immigration officials. “Congress would much rather abolish the agency or tear the agency apart than do their job and legislate common sense immigration reform.”(RELATED: 13,000 People Are Waiting At Mexican Border To Claim Asylum)
“It was an attack on men and women of law enforcement trying to move the burden from themselves over to the fine men and women of ICE and the Border Patrol who put their lives on the line everyday for this country,” he continued.
This was far from the first time Homan has attacked congressional Democrats for a lack of progress on border enforcement. The former ICE leader said earlier in May that Trump should simply “forget” about Congress if he wants to solve the border crisis.
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