Frmr. ICE Chief: Dems Say POTUS Isn't Above the Law but Apparently Illegal Aliens Are
After watching former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Thomas Homan on Fox News, I did a quick Google search on the phrase “the president isn’t above the law.”
It’s a popular sentiment at news conferences nowadays — indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says it with such persistence she seems to be under the impression it’s the first time we’ve heard it or that we’ve forgotten it in the four or so days she hasn’t uttered it — that you kind of wonder why it has to be repeated so often.
It’s probably since, when you’re the political wing that’s cried wolf too often, you really have to yell it loudly and with the persistence of a touchy car alarm to get people’s attention.
How often has the left cried wolf? Well, let’s look at the first page of the Google results I turned up. They spanned from April 12, 2017 (“Is the President Above the Law?” from liberal blog Common Cause, insinuating President Donald Trump should be impeached over Michael Flynn’s firing) to Nov. 4, 2019 (“A president above the law?” from Al Jazeera, an argument that Trump can be indicted by the Department of Justice that proved little except that the Qatar-based organization is still a propaganda operation first and a news organization second).
In other words, just the first page of results shows leftists have basically been calling for Trump’s impeachment since his inauguration since — say it with me — the president isn’t above the law.
But you know who is above the law to the same crowd? Illegal immigrants! Particularly illegal immigrants who have committed crimes not directly related to their immigration status!
This is something anyone with the power of deduction could have put together on their own, given recent liberal rhetoric, but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decided to make the tacit part explicit during a rally in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, AOC’s chosen presidential candidate, was stuck in Washington acting as a juror for that president who Democrats maintain definitely, totally, 100 percent believes he’s above the law. Thus, the New York Democrat was acting as Sanders’ surrogate in advance of the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3.
According to Fox News, Ocasio-Cortez called for not only the abolition of ICE but also Customs and Border Protection during her speech, saying that Sanders has “actually committed to breaking up ICE and CBP.”
That’s hardly news, given the makeup of the Sanders contingent. This being AOC, however, she went further, saying Sanders supporters needed to start “tipping off” illegal immigrants to ICE and CBP raids.
“Organizing is about tipping people off if you start to see that ICE and CBP are in communities to try and keep people safe,” she said.
“I’m to not here to reform some of these systems when we talk about immigration. I’m here because Senator Sanders has actually committed to breaking up ICE and CBP. That’s why I’m here.”
Now, just so we’re clear, ICE and CBP don’t go around targeting random illegal immigrants. They don’t draw numbers from a jar like the lottery: “Oh, sorry, guys — guess it was just your unlucky day! Back to your native country you go.”
Common sense would tell you that, with limited resources, ICE and CBP would target individuals who represent an especial danger to our society.
These are the individuals that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez believes should be above the law — as former ICE acting director Thomas Homan pointed out during an appearance Sunday on Fox News.
“I’m disgusted,” Homan said. “She says you want to tip off the community to keep the community safe, that’s what ICE is doing.
“ICE Is keeping the community safe,” Homan said. “She [Ocasio-Cortez] stands up on stage — first of all, it’s an incredibly stupid statement she made, which doesn’t surprise me, because she’s about as far from smart as anybody could possibly be, but what she said is dangerous.”
It’s especially dangerous to ICE agents, Homan added.
“These men and women put their lives on the line every day to arrest criminals off the streets, especially in New York,” he said.
“My last year as ICE director, we took 5,000 criminals off the streets of New York. These ICE agents [have done] more to protect the residents of New York than she ever has done or ever will do.”
The statistics bear this out. Most of the illegal aliens arrested by ICE in 2018 had criminal histories — a total of 138,117 individuals here illegally that either had convictions or pending criminal charges, according to CNS, about 87 percent of the total 158,581 arrested.
In 2019, the numbers weren’t much different. For that fiscal year, ICE reported arresting 143,000 individuals, 86 percent of whom had convictions or charges pending.
Most Democrats aren’t willing to come out and say that illegal immigrants should be protected from arrest, no matter what their criminal histories may be. However, it’s not difficult to perceive the barely concealed scowl — if not outright rage — Democrats demonstrate whenever the ICE is discussed, particularly when it comes to the removal of illegal aliens.
Homan found a certain irony in this.
“I mean, they’re trying to remove the president of the United States, a sitting president, at the same time [Ocasio-Cortez is] saying ICE shouldn’t remove criminal aliens,” Homan said.
“They are saying the president is obstructing them. There’s nobody been obstructing more than Congress. They’ve been obstructing this president from day one.
“Standing on stage and telling people to give a heads up that the good guys are going to be arresting the bad guys, ICE is in your neighborhood, go run and hide. That’s obstruction. That’s a crime and she’s standing on stage doing that. She’s disgusting. Something needs to be done about it.
“President Trump, who in my opinion is the greatest president I ever worked for, he believes law enforcement should enforce the law. He believes you don’t reward law breakers, you reward them with a set of handcuffs. That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Homan continued.
“So they’re vilifying the men and women of ICE for simply doing their jobs, to run toward danger when everybody else is running away from danger.”
“AOC wouldn’t have the backbone to do the job they do. She doesn’t like what they do? Then change the law, but stop vilifying the men and women of ICE.”
Just so we’re clear, ICE takes people with charges and convictions for homicide, rape and assault off of our streets and out of our country, all at considerable danger to themselves. This is looked upon with scorn by the left because, apparently, there’s nothing so sacrosanct as the right to be in the United States no matter what your legal status or criminal history is.
The very fact that immigration law is being ignored is proof these are men and women who are above the law, at least to the left. If you’re a criminal who gets to stay in this country thanks to sanctuary jurisdictions or politicians who think that it’s perfectly acceptable to tip you off to raids, you’re actually considered above those who are supposedly above the law. Congratulations, I guess.
Meanwhile, as early as April of 2017 — absent any criminal accusation that could feasibly lead to Trump’s removal from office — the first page of my Google results tells me that the left wanted to make sure I knew this president isn’t above the law, with the insinuation being that he’s broken the law.
When I have to do this little work to expose this kind of hypocrisy, it’s kind of amazing. But the left is right — Donald Trump isn’t above the law. When they actually prove he’s broken one, we can deal with it. The first 8,264 hours (or thereabouts) of impeachment arguments haven’t yielded anything yet, so I’m skeptical.
That being said, there are plenty of people in the United States who aren’t here legally and have actually been convicted of a crime. While we’re waiting, you know, we could always deal with them first — and not tip them off beforehand.
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