donald trump’s The top candidates for the immigration job have spent the past four years targeting this moment.
Stephen Miller and Thomas Homan played key roles in the first Trump administration, denouncing the administration’s policies, including separating thousands of parents from their children at the border to deter illegal immigration. I defend it without hesitation. As President Trump promises to take drastic steps to combat illegal immigration in his second term, two White House advisers share their basic knowledge, lessons from past setbacks, and personal perspectives. They will likely bring it in to help realize President Trump’s wishes.
After President Trump left office in 2021, Miller became president of America First Legal, a group that joined with Republican state attorneys general to derail President Joe Biden’s border policies and plans. Homan, who spent decades working in immigration enforcement, founded the Border 911 Foundation, an organization that fights border violations, and held a ceremony in April at President Trump’s Florida mansion.
Homan “knows how the machine works,” said Ronald Vitiello, a former Border Patrol chief who served as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in President Trump’s administration. “He’s done it on the front lines, he’s done it as a supervisor, he’s done it as a lead executive. He has nothing to learn on that side of the equation.”
He said Miller is knowledgeable, has strong ideas about how the system should work and is trusted by Trump.
President Trump has promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. There are an estimated 11 million people in this country illegally. Questions remain about how targets of mass attacks will be identified and where they will be detained.
Miller and Homan paint illegal immigration as a black-and-white issue and praise Trump’s policy of targeting all domestic residents who are ineligible for deportation.
During his campaign, Trump frequently and sharply attacked illegal immigration, linking the record surge to problems ranging from drug trafficking to soaring housing prices. The arrival of asylum seekers and other immigrants in cities and communities across the country has strained some budgets and pushed the political debate around immigration sharply to the right, with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris struggling during the campaign. In the meantime, he has reversed some of his previous positions that had questioned immigration law enforcement.
Miller, 39, is a former Capitol Hill official who made a name for himself as President Trump’s fiery speechwriter and chief architect of immigration policy from 2017 to 2021. He has long espoused doomsday scenarios about how immigrants threaten America and has trained people at home in that rhetoric. A country that is illegal but also protects legal immigration restrictions.
Miller said at the former president’s rally at Madison Square Garden last month that Trump “wanted to build a country where criminal organizations can’t easily cross our borders and where they can’t commit rape and murder with impunity. He said he was fighting for his “right to live.”
“America belongs to Americans and Americans only,” he added.
Homan, 63, was inspired to pursue a career in law enforcement as a boy in West Carthage, New York, after watching his father work as a justice of the peace in a small farming town. When he joined the Border Patrol in San Diego after a year as a police officer in his hometown, he remembers thinking, “What have I gotten myself into?”
Homan, then a little-known top ICE official, said in a 2018 interview with The Associated Press that he was “at the table” to discuss policy changes under President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. He said he got a seat. Mr. Homan told the others that he feared he had been disrespectful, and when the report went back to the Commissioner, Mr. Johnson told him, “I agree with you.” “You may not be able to do it, but you need to know what the consequences are if you don’t agree.” Don’t listen to them. ”
Johnson said Monday that he doesn’t remember the exchange but doesn’t dispute it, saying it resembles him.
Homan was promoted to acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Trump administration. Leaving children from their parents after they cross the border illegally and the parents face criminal charges, said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt, who successfully sued to stop the practice. He said he was “significantly involved” in this.
Due to a court settlement, family is inseparable Until December 2031 as part of a policy to stop illegal crossings. playing cards defended the practiceclaimed without evidence last year that it had “blocked hundreds of thousands of people from visiting.”
Speaking at the National Conservatives Conference in Washington earlier this year, Homan said he believes the government should prioritize national security threats, but that “no one is off the table.” If you’re in the country illegally, you better watch over your shoulder. ”
Homan said in a 2018 interview that he had no qualms about deporting a man who had been in the U.S. illegally for 12 years and had two children who are U.S. citizens. He compared it to a speeding ticket or a tax fraud audit.
“People think I’m enjoying this. I’m a father. People don’t think I care about it. I feel sorry for the plight of these people. Don’t get me wrong, I have a job to do,” he said.
At a Congressional hearing, he defended his “zero tolerance” policies, which have led to family separation, against Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He likened it to arresting someone for drunk driving with a young child in the passenger seat.
“When I was a police officer in New York, I separated from my father when I arrested him for domestic violence,” he said, prompting criticism that it wasn’t an apt analogy. The children were not immediately reunited with their parents at the border because government computers did not track their family identity. Many parents were deported and children were placed in evacuation centers across the country.
Critics of zero tolerance argue that separations that occur during criminal cases involving American citizens are often referred to as “zero tolerance,” where parents are deported without their children, who are sent to government-run facilities. It is argued that this is different from separation between the parties.
Mr. Miller and Mr. Homan do not require Senate confirmation, unlike the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of ICE, and the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees border security. These appointees will be tasked with carrying out orders from the White House.
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