Border czar Tom Homan on Sunday said he supports President Donald Trump’s attempts to target Somali immigrants in Minnesota despite the president calling the community “garbage.”
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Homan said he was “not aware what the president was thinking” when he said he wants Somalis out of the country but added: “I agree with 100 percent what he’s doing.”
Trump “has said we’re concentrating on public safety threats and national security threats,” Homan told host Dana Bash. “He was put in the Oval Office to run the biggest deportation operation this country has ever seen. That’s exactly what we’re doing. That’s what American people voted for.”
Trump last week said Somali immigrants in Minnesota are “garbage” and he wants them sent “back to where they came from.”
Many swiftly condemned the president’s remarks as “racist,” including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). But Trump later doubled down on his comments, saying Somalia “is considered by many to be the worst country on earth” and that Somali immigrants have “destroyed the country.” He also personally attacked Omar, who was born in Somalia, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Still, Homan on Sunday denied that the president’s personal beliefs are why immigration officials have set their sights on the Twin Cities.
“There’s a large illegal alien community there,” Homan said, adding moments later: “Even we don’t know how many illegal Somalis there are because, remember, under the last four years of Joe Biden, there’s over 2 million known gotaways people caught on video.”
Homan also denied that ICE agents are using aggressive tactics to detain potential subjects, including U.S. citizens, despite videos of such encounters in various locations.
“I’m not in every arrest. I’m not in every operation. I trust the men and women of ICE and border patrol do the right thing,” Homan said.
Still, some Republicans have pushed back on the tactics.
In an interview following Homan, Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said there has been a loss of compassion from both immigration officials and protesters during the ongoing ICE raids.
“If I were mayor, the very first thing I would do is I’d sit down with ICE and I’d say, I want the bad guys out of my city, and I want my citizens to feel safe,” Curtis said. “Too much of that isn’t happening. It’s like us against them.”
Politico.