Is ICE Following Campaign Promises?
Or Is Homan on a Deportation Bender?
Tom Homan, President Trump’s newly appointed border czar, has been busy since Jan. 20, rounding up and deporting illegal immigrants.
In repeated public statements, he’s said that ICE’s priority at the outset will be going after immigrants that were let into the country with criminal records or have committed crimes since entering or otherwise present a safety threat to US citizens or to the security of the country.
None of the mainstream media is objecting to that strategy, per se. But since Trump’s election, they have been suggesting that it is a ruse – that the true aim is to deport immigrants indiscriminately, including peaceful, law-abiding people that have been here for many years, some of whom are raising families and even paying taxes.
I believe that there should be a path to citizenship for such people. And it should be a safe and speedy one.
Keep in mind that our economy is currently running on a large population of “undocumented” workers. Maybe in 10 years, all such work with be done with AI and robotics, but until that is a reality, we need to keep these people working. But legally.
Anyway…
Let’s take a deep breath, put aside our feelings of anger or virtue, and look at the facts…
* As of 2022, 77% of the immigrants in this country were here legally, with 49% becoming naturalized citizens.
* In 2023, the US recorded a record-breaking foreign-born population of 47.3 million, meaning immigrants accounted for 14.3% of the population.
* Between Jan. 21 and Jan. 23 of this year, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested many individuals on charges or convictions including sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and drug offenses. They included nationals from a slew of countries, including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal, and Venezuela.
* ICE also issued nearly 400 detainers, which are requests to notify ICE when undocumented individuals are released from custody. The requests targeted individuals charged with severe crimes such as homicide, sexual assault, and robbery.
* A Honduran national, Franklin Osorto-Cruz, was convicted of driving while intoxicated. He was arrested in New York.
* A Jamaican national, Kamaro Denver Haye, was arrested for “promoting a sexual performance by a child less than 17 years of age and possessing sexual performance by child less than 16 years of age.”
* On Jan. 22, ICE-ERO New York City arrested Jose Roberto Rodriguez-Urbina, a 22-year-old citizen of El Salvador and alleged MS-13 gang member.
* In Boston, Bill Melugin, a Fox News reporter, said he witnessed ICE Boston make eight arrests, including murder and rape suspects and a volatile Haitian gang member with 18 convictions who told cameras that he “ain’t going back to Haiti” and “f— Trump, Biden forever!”
* An inadmissible Mexican national, Adan Pablo-Ramirez, was arrested in Illinois with convictions for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol.
* A Mexican national, Jesus Perez, was arrested in Salt Lake City and charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child.
* Colombian national Andres Orjuela Parra was arrested in San Francisco. He has a conviction for sexual penetration with a foreign object on an unaware victim.
* A Mexican national, Jesus Baltazar Mendoza, was convicted of 2nd degree assault of a child. He was arrested in St. Paul.
* Six unauthorized immigrants from Guatemala were arrested in Miami, with criminal histories including battery, child abuse, fraud, resisting arrest, DWI, trespassing, and vandalism.
Is all of that an indication that ICE does not intend to arrest and deport unauthorized aliens that are not public threats? Here is what Homan has publicly stated on that issue:
“Right out of the gate it’s public safety threats, those who are in the country illegally that have been convicted, arrested for serious crime. But let me be clear. There’s not only public safety threats that will be arrested, because in sanctuary cities, we’re not allowed to get that public safety threat in the jail, which means we got to go to the neighborhood and find him. They will be arrested too.”
And this:
“I’m being realistic. We can do what we can with the money we have. We’re going to try to be efficient, but with more money we have, the more we can accomplish.”
