Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan blasted congressional lawmakers when asked if they would support the White House’s request for more border emergency funds.
“Look, I don’t have any faith in Congress. Congress has failed this president from day one,” Homan said Thursday during an appearance on “Fox and Friends.” “They talk about the president obstructing justice — who’s obstructing more than Congress? They obstructed this president from day one.”
“Forget about Congress. There are certain things we can do operationally if Congress is going to fail legislatively. There’s three things they could do right now that they’re not doing,” the former acting ICE director continued.
Homan suggested that ICE needs to conduct a “national operation” to deal with family units currently arriving at the U.S. southern border– 90 percent of whom, he said, lose their asylum cases.
“Seek them out, detain them, and remove them,” Homan explained. He claimed it would be effective to send all of the U.S. immigration judges to the border to deal with migrant families arriving right now and immediately “send home” the families that lose their case. The results, he argued, would deter other Central Americans from leaving their country once they see their neighbors quickly being turned back.
Homan’s criticism of Congress comes after the White House on Tuesday asked Congress for $4.5 billion in additional border emergency spending.
“The situation becomes more dire each day. The migration flow and the resulting humanitarian crisis is rapidly overwhelming the ability of the Federal Government to respond,” acting White House budget Director Russ Vought wrote in the request to lawmakers.
The Trump administration is asking for $3.3 billion for humanitarian assistance, $1.1 billion for border operations, and another $377 million for the National Guard and Pentagon to operate on the border.
However, the request is likely to face tough opposition from the Democratic-controlled House. Democratic lawmakers have long opposed the president’s immigration agenda, and resistance to funding border wall construction led to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
“[Illegal aliens will] keep coming until we make these changes. We’ve got to stop relying on Congress,” Homan said.
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