Former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thomas Homan on Saturday accused Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Kevin McAleenan of working against ICE’s objectives.
Homan, whom President Donald Trump recently appointed as his administration’s “border czar,” made the comments during a weekend appearance on Fox & Friends; he discussed the administration’s recently leaked plans to launch mass raids targeting undocumented families on Sunday.
“You’ve got the acting Secretary of Homeland Security resisting what ICE is trying to do,” Homan said. “In the Washington Post story, and numerous media outlets, [McAleenan] does not support this operation. And I tell you what, if that’s his position then he’s on the wrong side of this issue. You don’t tell the men and women of ICE a day before they go out there to do this operation.”
Homan also strongly implied that McAleenan was the source of the information leaked to media outlets regarding Sunday’s planned raids and accused him of putting ICE officers in danger.
When this story was leaked, they gave the location of the cities, the day this was supposed to start, how many targets. This leak, which I know where the leak came from, I think we all know where the leak came from. That story only benefits one person. Put these officers at greater risk of harm. I know the president said we’re going to do an operation, one million people in a week. He didn’t give the location. He didn’t give the number of targets.
President Trump tweeted on Saturday morning in defense of the planned ICE raids.
“The people that Ice will apprehend have already been ordered to be deported. This means that they have run from the law and run from the courts. These are people that are supposed to go back to their home country. They broke the law by coming into the country, & now by staying,” Trump wrote.
Trump announced Homan’s appointment as “border czar” during a June 14 segment of Fox & Friends.
“He’ll be a border czar,” Trump said during the phone interview. “He’ll be very much involved in the border. He’ll be reporting directly to me. He’ll be probably working out of the White House but spending a lot of time at the border. And he’s a good man. He’s a good man.”
Trump also said of Homan: “He’s fantastic, tough as you get and smart and he’s doing much of the legal work and we are putting in some great, strong but fair and good people.”
McAleenan previously served as deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection from 2014 to 2017.
[image via Youtube screengrab]
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