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Obama-Era ICE Official Says 'Cages' for Illegal Immigrant Children Were Obama's Idea

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One of the Obama-era leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement says Democrats upset at what they call “cages” housing children who crossed the border illegally should focus their anger where it belongs — on former President Barack Obama.

Thomas Homan spoke Thursday at a conference sponsored by the Center for Immigration Studies.

During the Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night, meanwhile, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas resurrected the long-running issue of youth detention.

As reported by the Texas Tribune, O’Rourke said that if he were to be elected president, “We will not put kids in cages.”

According to Homan, President Donald Trump did not build the facilities where the migrant children are being housed.

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In fact, they were never intended to house children, he said, but have been pressed into service because of an unprecedented rise in children crossing the border.

“I’ve been to that facility, where they talk about cages. That facility was built under President Obama under [Homeland Security] Secretary Jeh Johnson,” Homan, who was executive associate director of ICE under Obama before serving as acting director of ICE under Trump for about 17 months, said. “I was there when it was built.”

Homan said that he was recently asked a question about putting children in cages.

“I would answer the question, ‘The kids are being housed in the same facility built under the Obama administration.’ If you want to call them cages, call them cages,” he said.

Does the left ever get its facts straight?

“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,” he added, according to the Washington Examiner.

Border Patrol facilities that are the first stop for illegal immigrants “were not built to take care of children,” Homan said.

Homan further explained that no one is literally put in a cage.

“It’s chain link dividers that keeps children separate from unrelated adults. It’s about protecting children,” he said.

The issue of cages has been used before by Democrats attacking Trump, and has often backfired.

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In 2018, former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau tweeted an image of children behind the chain link Homan mentioned.

The tweet was later deleted after it was revealed that the photo he was tweeting dated from 2014 during the Obama administration, Fox News reported.

However, the debate still rages on Twitter.

Homan vented more steam during an appearance Thursday on “Fox & Friends” as he criticized the comments on immigration from O’Rourke and others during the Democratic debate.

“They want to normalize crossing our border illegally. They want to normalize, it’s OK to attack our sovereignty. It’s not OK to normalize that,” he said.

“I’m sick and tired of them talking about cages. We had 100 total family detention beds when President Obama came into office. I built 3,000 more beds under President Obama,” he said.

Homan attacked Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey for what he termed an “insulting” comment that ICE agents are “ripping away parents from their American children.”

“If you enter this country illegally and violate the law, you shouldn’t feel comfortable, you’re supposed to be concerned,” he said, noting that New Jersey often refuses to cooperate with immigration officials.

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Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.
Jack can be reached at jackwritings1@gmail.com.
Location
New York City
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Foreign Policy, Military & Defense Issues




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