Share
Commentary

Obama's ICE Official Throws His Old Boss Under the Bus

Share

There’s nothing as exciting as political drama, especially when it’s been simmering for years.

Thomas Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Trump administration and an ICE executive under former President Barack Obama, threw his Democratic boss under the bus on Wednesday at a conference hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies. Homan addressed the “cages” controversy, shattering the myth that they were the creation of the Trump administration.

Are the Democrats wrong to accuse Trump of putting children in "cages"?

“I’ve been to that facility, where they talk about cages. That facility was built under President Obama under (Homeland Security) Secretary Jeh Johnson. I was there because I was there when it was built,” Thomas Homan said, according to the Washington Examiner.

Responding to the rhetorical question “You still keeping kids in cages?”, Homan responded that the practice was inherited from the Obama administration.

Trending:
KJP Panics, Hangs Up in Middle of Interview When Reporter Shows He Isn't a Democratic Party Propagandist

“I would answer the question, ‘The kids are being house in the same facility built under the Obama administration.’ If you want to call them cages, call them cages. But if the left wants to call them cages and the Democrats want to call them cages then they have to accept the fact that they were built and funded in FY 2015,” Homan said.

But Homan also took issue with the description of the facilities as “cages” at all, saying that “It’s chain link dividers that keeps children separate from unrelated adults. It’s about protecting children.”

The housing facilities, according to Homan, “were not built to take care of children.”

Regardless of the intention, the facilities are being used for that purpose. So who’s responsible?

The “cages” were built under the Obama administration, not under Trump’s. Where was the outrage?

More tear gas was used on the border under the Obama administration than under Trump’s. Where was the outrage?

During the Obama administration, the Criminal Alien Removal Initiative was put into place — in which, according to Reason, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in plainclothes and unmarked vans would park themselves outside Latino grocery stores, apartment buildings, parks, neighborhoods, and — on one occasion at least — a Bible Study group, and confront whomever they wished, demanding to know their immigration status.”

The outrage? If it existed, it was silent. Now, we pretend as if the commander in chief is “putting children in cages.”

That’s hardly an accurate description. It’s time to get real about the border crisis and how we characterize it. If that takes throwing Barack Obama under the bus, then so be it.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , , ,
Share
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




Conversation