1/ Let’s talk about ICE. You probably know it’s carrying out Trump’s immigration crackdown. You may not know that it’s run by a former Obama bureaucrat. What’s going on? bit.ly/2HW6dsp
2/ Meet Thomas Homan, ICE’s acting director. Last January, Homan retired as the head of ICE’s enforcement and detention division—for about 3 hours. Then John Kelly called to ask if he’d run the whole agency.
Now he’s the face of Trump’s deportation agenda.
Now he’s the face of Trump’s deportation agenda.
3/ ICE arrests increased 41 percent last year, and arrests of people without criminal records nearly tripled, from 17,000 to 46,000.
4/ Homan has made headlines for saying politicians in sanctuary cities should be charged with crimes. He’s also warned: “If you’re in this country illegally…you should be uncomfortable. You should look over your shoulder.”
5/ During the Obama administration, colleagues saw him as a straight-shooter who was willing to compromise. A former White House official said she finds “the Tom Homan that I see on TV now unrecognizable compared to the one that I saw in the Situation Room.”
6/ In 2014, ICE overhauled its enforcement priorities and deportations fell to the lowest levels of Obama’s presidency. Homan helped create and enforce the new priorities, and in 2015 earned the highest award for civil servants.
7/ Homan also made the strongest argument against arresting people who came to the country as children.
8/ But there have been hints of the new Homan from the start. A former DHS official said, “Tom doesn’t do nuance. Tom is brute force.”
9/ Since taking over ICE, Homan has made clear that “no population is off the table.” That has meant deporting immigrants like Amer Othman Adi, who came to the US from Jordan in 1979 and has 4 US citizen daughters. Rep. Tim Ryan called Adi’s removal “absolute bullshit.”
10/ ICE agents have also arrested spouses when they go in for interviews to prove their marriages to US citizens are legitimate.
bit.ly/2Fdt8g1
bit.ly/2Fdt8g1
11/ Homan believes the arrests are needed to deter unauthorized immigration. He has “zero regrets” about saying undocumented immigrants should be uncomfortable. “When you’re speeding down the highway,” he said, “you worry that you might get a ticket.”
12/ The result is widespread fear. Former White House official Cecilia Muñoz didn’t hesitate when asked about the levels of fear among undocumented immigrants. “They’re unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” she said, “and I’ve been doing this for 30 years.”
13/13 Read @nlanard’s full profile of Homan here: bit.ly/2HW6dsp
