Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan defended his agency’s work to secure the border, including the filing of criminal charges against adults accompanied by minors who knowingly violate the nation’s immigration laws. “Those who choose to come between ports of entry are committing a crime,” he said. His comments were made at a recent National Press Club forum hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies.
Homan explained that while it’s sad to separate children from their parents, Americans who are caught breaking laws and jailed as a result are separated from their children all the time. “Children and parents get separated every day across this country when a parent is charged with a criminal offense. It’s sad to see children cry when you take a parent out of a home, but because it’s sad, doesn’t mean that we ignore the law.”
Homan also defended his agency and its mission, noting that some have portrayed his agents to being the equivalent of Nazis for simply doing the job they swore to do and enforcing the laws that are on the books. “If you think ICE is racist, is Congress racist because they enact these laws?” he noted.
Homan, who is retiring this month, also warned the nation that continued talk of a DACA amnesty without first having the right enforcement tools in place would only be laying the groundwork for another amnesty one or two decades down the road. “It certainly increases illegal crossings, that’s been proven for the last three decades I’ve been around,” Homan said. “Those coming in now will be your next DACA in ten years,” he said.