Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan said Friday that Democrats who protest his agency for separating illegal immigrant families are barking up the wrong tree, since his agency has nothing to do with it.
“They need to educate themselves,” Homan said on Fox News. “I mean, this protest yesterday to protest about family separations on the border, ICE doesn’t separate families on the border. That’s the Border Patrol. We’re a different agency.”
“So they need to get their facts straight and inform themselves what’s actually happening,” he said.
[Related: ICE chief Thomas Homan is retiring tomorrow, but he’s not going out quietly]
Some Democratic lawmakers joined protesters this week who said ICE should be abolished for enforcing U.S. border laws. Homan said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., was one of the lawmakers who are directing her anger at the wrong agency.
“As far as Gillibrand, she needs to study the issue too, because she went to a protest on family separation on the border, and she tries to blame ICE for it, ICE separated families,” he said. “First of all, she’s gotta get her facts straight.”
Homan stressed that he wasn’t blaming the Border Patrol for family separation either, and said Congress should be blamed for failing to tweak federal law in a way that would allow families to be detained together.
“If the American public wants to know who to blame for family separations, the first people they need to blame is Congress. We went up the Hill several months ago and told them what the loopholes were,” he said.
“We said you can fix this,” he said. “If we can fix the Flores settlement agreement, we can keep the families together in a family facility until they see a judge.”
“But they failed to fix it. They don’t want to fix it,” Homan added.
Homan, who is retiring this week, said he would continue to fight for border enforcement even after he leaves the federal government, and said Democrats need to stop attacking officials who enforce the law.
“I’m insulted at a lot of the Democratic senators and congressmen that want to vilify the men and women that put their lives on the line every day for this country,” he said.
