Tom Homan Isn't the Solution
Homan is a bully with little regard for rights or the rule of law. And the problems with Trump's immigration tactics point back to the White House itself.
President Donald Trump has tapped border czar Tom Homan to clean up the mess in Minneapolis.
Unfortunately, for both the administration and Americans in general, Homan is not the solution.
That's due, in part, to the fact that Homan has already revealed himself to be a bully who disregards rights and the rule of law when they are inconvenient, favors inhumane policies and aggressive tactics, and (allegedly) takes bribes. If he's an improvement over now-demoted Border Patrol chief Greg Bovino, who has been overseeing the Minneapolis immigration enforcement operation before being reassigned on Monday, then this is a very limited step in the right direction.
Let's review some of Homan's greatest hits. Individuals and groups trying to inform immigrant communities about their rights under U.S. law are helping those immigrants "escape arrest," he told CNN last year. When federal judges told the Trump administration that it was necessary to provide due process to suspected undocumented immigrants before deporting them, Homan said the administration was "not stopping," and added: "I don't care what the judges think." That's the bullying.
Homan has promised to "flood the zone"—by which he means "U.S. cities"—with immigration enforcement agents targeting communities and worksites. He's adopted a "zero tolerance" policy and believes that "families can be deported together" if one member is an undocumented immigrant. That's the inhumanity.
And, of course, we can't forget that Homan has also been accused of participating in a cartoonish bit of corruption. The FBI reportedly recorded Homan accepting a $50,000 bribe from undercover agents posing as potential government contractors. Homan has denied taking the money or doing anything wrong, and the White House has dismissed the case as politically motivated, but lots of questions remain unanswered—like what happened to the money? That's the (alleged) corruption.
All of that, however, only covers about half the reason why Homan is unlikely to be the solution. The other half has to do with the rest of the Trump administration, which should not get away with pinning the blame on Bovino for the political, moral, and constitutional mess it has created in Minnesota.
Some of that blame must also be pinned on Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who smeared Alex Pretti, a protester who was killed this weekend, as having engaged in "domestic terrorism" within moments of his death, eliminating any possibility that the administration could be trusted to investigate this incident fairly. It was also Noem who reportedly pushed for the more sweeping tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol in Minneapolis (and elsewhere), while Homan preferred focusing on undocumented immigrants with criminal records, according to reporting published in December by the New York Post.
Noem's leadership is now being questioned by Trump-friendly media, as well as by employees of the DHS and members of Congress. She has lost the trust necessary to do her job and should be removed by Trump or impeached by Congress—and some Democrats have already started that process.
But the rot goes higher than that. On Saturday, White House deputy chief of staff (and ringleader of the Trump administration's anti-immigrant circus) Stephen Miller called Pretti a "would-be assassin" who tried to "murder federal law enforcement."
That statement, made just hours after Pretti was killed, has been contradicted by every piece of evidence that's come to light. It also suggests a shocking level of disregard for the Second Amendment, which should have protected Pretti's decision to carry a gun.
Even Bovino, who is the only person to take a fall for this so far, declined to defend that description of events during an interview on Sunday.
Miller, meanwhile, has not deleted his tweet or issued an apology for lying to the public about the circumstances surrounding Pretti's killing. Vice President J.D. Vance reposted Miller's indefensible and inaccurate statement, and he also has not offered any apology or retraction.
We probably shouldn't expect one, because right-wing politics views apologies as unacceptably woke. Sometimes, however, that is simply the decent thing to do. This is one of those times.
Finally, the buck stops with Trump himself, who accused Pretti of being a "gunman" on Saturday afternoon before pivoting away from that description. Demoting Bovino is a small step toward de-escalation in Minneapolis, but the fact remains that Trump chose the course of action that led to the deaths of Pretti and Renee Good.
He chose it in the broad sense by building a political movement based on hostility to immigration and by giving people like Miller and Noem positions of power, of course. But he also chose this specific approach in Minneapolis. Recall the Post's report from December, when Noem and Homan were pitching Trump on different approaches to an immigration crackdown. Trump backed Noem's approach, even though he is now apparently trying to backpedal away from the bloody consequences.
The ugliness that has transpired in Minnesota all points directly back to the White House—and putting Homan in charge of immigration enforcement won't change that.
