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Read & choose a couple of talking points on this excerpt from an interview with former Trump acting director of ICE
MS. VAUGHAN: So how many years have you been working for – on the immigration issue?
MR. HOMAN: I became a Border Patrol agent in 1984, so 34 years. I started in the Border Patrol, worked the front line. I spent 20 years with investigations, special agent investigating groups that smuggle aliens and traffic aliens into the country. Then I ran Enforcement and Removal Operations, another division of ICE, which deals with the detention and arrest of aliens inside of the United States and their removal. And now I’m the acting director. So one benefit I have is I’ve lived the entire illegal immigration lifecycle from the beginning to the end, so I know illegal immigration pretty well.
MS. VAUGHAN: Oh, I think so. I think you’re highly qualified. (Laughs.) What was your favorite job or place to be?
MR. HOMAN: You know, there is no one favorite. I was – I was most proud to wear the green uniform. The United States Border Patrol, there’s 40,000 American patriots that put their life on the line every day. I was most proud of that. But I most proud of being a special agent. I can’t pick one. And when the president asked me to come back to be the ICE director, I’m proud of that moment because, you know, I was able to get back to enforcing the law, which we hadn’t been able to do in the prior administration – enforce the laws the way they’re written. So I’m equally proud of that.
So I can’t pick one. I think everything I’ve done within ICE is a positive experience for me. I think there’s no one favorite. I got to say that they’re all equally important. The border is important. Interior enforcement is important. Policy and legislation is important. I had my fingers in all of it.
Look, I got a front-row seat to the biggest issue facing this country. And I think ICE has made a dramatic impact in the past year, a 45-year low in illegal immigration last year. That’s not a coincidence. That’s because we have a president, President Trump, who’s allowing us to do our job. And it shows. When you enforce the law in a meaningful way, it’s going to deter further illegal entry. We’ve proven that. Forty-five-year low, that’s not a coincidence. That’s because this president is letting us enforce the law.
MS. VAUGHAN: And you were, of course, legacy INS. What’s different about ICE and enforcement today from the INS, which was a much-maligned agency, as you –
MR. HOMAN: Well, look, and INS – people want to complain about what ICE does. I can tell you, back in the INS days, you know, area control. You know, back in those days you would drive around the streets and you would go to airport and you look for people and get reasonable suspicion of alien, you know?
One thing that’s changed, which is the most important change that’s occurred, in the INS days we’d be arresting whoever we found here in the country illegally, and meanwhile there are sexual predators and criminal aliens walking out of county jails all across the country that we had no idea they were there. So Secure Communities was the biggest thing that happened for immigration enforcement. It gave us a virtual presence in every jail across the country. If I get arrested and I get fingerprinted, I’ll be screened by Secure Communities. You know, it’s colorblind to those things.
So what it’s done is make us focus on the worst of the worst. So Secure Communities gives us a picture in every county jail across the country letting you know you have a criminal sitting in this jail. That’s something we didn’t have in the INS days. So it helps us in our prioritization. It helped us with finding those that are most public safety threats. So that’s the biggest difference I’ve seen in the 34 years that I’ve been here.
